Scan barcode
thebookaddict's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
🇳🇱: Dit boek was niet helemaal wat ik ervan verwacht had, maar het was leuk om te lezen. De focus ligt veel bij de queer romance en veel minder bij het verhaal eromheen, ik had het juist andersom verwacht. Ik las in de reviews dat het boek homofobisch was en soms zelfs een beetje racistisch. Ik keek hier anders naar. Ik vond het juist wel passen bij het boek, omdat we het hebben over 100 jaar oude (witte) vampiers die nog moeten "wennen" aan het idee dat het meer wordt uitgesproken als je queer bent en dat mensen met een andere huidskleur nu ook naar school gaan. Deze dingen kwamen sterk naar voren in het boek en dit kan dus ook kwetsend overkomen (lees zeker even de trigger warnings als je hier niet tegen kan). Ik vond het boek goed geschreven en je leest er vlot doorheen. Ik had alleen iets meer verhaallijn willen zien met betrekking tot de ziekte en het "medicijn" dit voelde nu juist meer als een zijlijn in het verhaal. Ook had ik meer willen lezen over de reünisten. Het concept van vampieren en een ziekte waar ze door sterven vond ik heel origineel bedacht.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Cursing, Abandonment, Vomit, Death, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death
decklededgess's review
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
trigger warnings: alcohol, sexual assault, blood and gore, death, bullying, homophobia and lesbophobia, death, death of parent, classism, racism , sexism, misogyny, kidnapping, infertility, murder, terminal illness, toxic relationships, vomit, violence, colonization
I am choosing to look at this book from the lens of a teacher. This is a moment to learn and grow and hopefully never make a mess like this again. This, despite all the internet hating, is a redeemable piece of work. I am choosing to not write off the author as a terrible person. There's ample evidence in the book that the intentions to do the right thing were there, the execution was just piss poor and likely no one on their review team was equipped to catch the big errors. So I'm going to dig in as much as I can (based on what I remember since it has been like a month) and discuss what is fixable and what isn't.
To start with the positives, the sapphic romance in this book was actually amazing. That is what carried me through my entire reading experience. I badly wanted to know how these estranged best friends got around to dating each other. Kat and Taylor were compelling main characters.
Kat is trying to access education at a vampire institution that her mom hates with no explanation for why. She's naive because her mom has kept her in the human world, away from other vampires to learn their social norms and so on. Kat WANTS a life with history, with vampiric culture and so on. She is without a doubt interesting. Foolish and a bit too idealistic, but that makes the potential for her growth actually captivating. Will she lose that rose coloured perspective of the vampire world? Will she learn that not all adults are out to protect her? She's annoying but she holds your attention in that same way that the Bachelor franchise does. I liked screaming at the page when she did something stupid.
Taylor is the opposite side of the same coin. Annoying and foolish but she KNOWS things. Despite the fact that she's angry and jaded, she's probably making the exact same mistakes that Kat is, just with different motivation. She's dealt with homophobia, is ostracized because she's the only out lesbian at the school and refusing to adhere to rules of femininity, she has been used by people wanting to experiment, is the favourite punching bag for administration, and more. She's angry. But she's all bluster and absolutely no punch. Beneath all that snarl is a sad girl wanting love. She can talk big talk, but when it comes to actually fighting back, pushing against the structural problems she loves to complain about, there is literally nothing. She's a chicken. Honestly...relatable. I hate to say it but that's what I'm like.
So while they look like polar opposites, they're actually just two different manifestations of nurture. And honestly this is what I think makes them idiots to lovers. Like they're not just idiots about each other they're just idiots in general. A chaotic choice for main characters but when they end up working through conflict together, they're surprisingly functional. Their combination of braincells can finally create a spark.
If you shovel out all the other distracting stuff in the story, these two girls are actually really fascinating to follow through the book. I really enjoyed them despite the mess of it all.
Now the main issue with the plot of the book is that the author tried to take on too many topics. I realise that writing a book in the era of COVID and BLM that social consciousness is necessary but that doesn't mean overstepping bounds when the topic isn't ABOUT YOU. She tried to include discussion on racism, classism, homophobia in old established institutions, big pharma, capitalism and monopolies, the AIDS epidemic, and more. THAT IS ENOUGH SLICESSSSS.
Choosing to take on racism and classism where neither of your main characters is a person of colour is...a choice. But when only one of your secondary characters is biracial and all BIPOC characters are unnamed and mentioned to exist in single digits in this school...bestie maybe we should have thought that through. If you want to take on racism, give voice to someone who can speak on it. Had there been a main or even secondary character who had the authority to speak on racism in the vampire world it would have made sense.
A secondary character would have allowed the author to not speak on their behalf. A sensitivity reader could and would have helped ensure that the book didn't scream white saviour complex. Alas. This book was full of virtue signals. BUT. I'm adding those as a tally in favour of the author. It shows that she wanted to write something that spoke on racist academic institutions. She either didn't know how to do it or she didn't find someone to check her missteps. There was effort made it just wasn't done well and that led to devastating results when it got in the hands of readers.
There was a line said by the biracial Indian character in the book that stuck out to me and many others. This boy is wealthy, from a legacy, and has a lot of ease moving through the world despite the fact that he carries a lot of pressure. I'm withholding my "boohoo sad rich boy" comment but just know that I am thinking it. He said "it's not as messed up as it sounds" in response to the main character asking him "[your parents met through] the British East India Company that colonized India?" The intention here, I think, was to say that oh no his parents didn't meet in weird circumstances. His BEIC daddy met his rich Indian princess mommy and courted her and it was totally normal she was not stolen at all.
Now let's think historically. Back then how young did girls get married? Pretty fucking young. Back then, when a white colonizer came and asked for your hand in marriage while you witnessed people in your country get abused and cut down do you think your immediate response would have been to refuse?????? Yeah probably the fuck not. Did the author think through this nuance? I don't know but it doesn't look like it. It looked like she was trying to justify the existence of this happily married vampire couple and then move on.
This character honestly would have been a great opportunity to dig into the racism of the vampire community, to discuss the impact of white vampires through centuries of colonization, to talk about the ugly underbelly of vampiric history. Nope. Brushed over. There was opportunity and it wasn't done the justice it deserved. It comes of as performative and ignoring the history of the BEIC in India. Again, there was potential, it was not done well. It could have been fixed if someone caught it.
Now I don't know how many people had issue with the blood borne disease subplot of this book but I have words. The context here is that vampires are now consuming a synthetic blood because humans were infected with a blood disease that, if consumed by vampires, killed them almost instantaneously. This disease is in the book is still affecting humans since Kat's mom is working in a medical facility for the patients of this disease. Due to this disease feeding on humans has become a very bad idea. Vampires are the ones who got eradicated in hordes due to careless feeding practices and lack of knowledge and protection. You know what that sounded like to me? The AIDS epidemic. Interesting take on the author's part if it was intentional. That meant that vampires were the equivalent of queer folks who died due to government negligence. Dicey choice because vampires were an antisemitic and anti Romani stereotype during the Holocaust where queer people were also intentionally murdered.
But the flip side of this subplot is that the way humans were treated as dirty ALSO made them an allegory for queer people in the AIDS epidemic. The detail to this subplot makes me think it was intentional but the lack of clarity could also mean that it wasn't on purpose. All around a really messy choice. Could have been interesting. Could have actually been an appropriate topic considering the author is queer and therefore this topic is something they can talk about with ample care and nuance with the help of research. But again, we have a mess.
Closing out my compliment sandwhich, the subplots that were done relatively well were the discussions on homophobia and transphobia in institutions, and the combination of big pharma, capitalism, and classism. Taylor and Kat navigate two very different aspects of homophobia in this school that enforces conformity. Taylor gets ostracized for being out. Kat witnesses the homophobia and definitely doesn't stay quiet but it does affect her own journey coming to terms that she's lesbian. She wants approval and that forces her to ignore herself. I thought that was really well done.
The big pharma aspect of the book was also super cool. Without providing spoilers, the book talks about medical monopoly on access to important medicine (what I saw as a nod to insulin prices) and how the lack of a cure of certain diseases is financially beneficial for companies that hold monopolies. I really loved the dialogue and resolution around that.
Plus the combination of classism and family legacies was pretty great too. Kat comes from a single parent household with no vampiric legacy to carry her through the world. She and her mom had to struggle to access the blood substitute, she gets shunned for not having a notable name at the school. The classism is applicable to Kat. White people struggle financially too because systemic institutions that uphold the wealthy also work to keep the poor that way no matter race. Combining her perspective with a BIPOC character in the book would have patched up a lot of blind spots in that regard but even without a BIPOC character to fortify that story line it was well done. Not perfect but it was making several good points.
Overall, there were some really solid efforts made in the book soured by some really egregious oversights. In my opinion, not enough to cancel the author and certainly not enough to write off her future work. I think the book shows she had good intentions but did not have the tools to execute it well. If I were teaching higher grades or even a college course on fictional writing and literally devices, this would be an excellent book on analyzing what to do and what not to do. The opportunity to fix is there, it's just a tad to late for the book.
I genuinely hope Sasha Laurens continues to learn from the constructive feedback she's getting from this book and writes more queer novels for a YA audience. There's incredible potential for growth. I would genuinely love to help with sensitivity reading on her books but obviously lmao not gonna happen. I'm cautiously optimistic for her future books.
I am choosing to look at this book from the lens of a teacher. This is a moment to learn and grow and hopefully never make a mess like this again. This, despite all the internet hating, is a redeemable piece of work. I am choosing to not write off the author as a terrible person. There's ample evidence in the book that the intentions to do the right thing were there, the execution was just piss poor and likely no one on their review team was equipped to catch the big errors. So I'm going to dig in as much as I can (based on what I remember since it has been like a month) and discuss what is fixable and what isn't.
To start with the positives, the sapphic romance in this book was actually amazing. That is what carried me through my entire reading experience. I badly wanted to know how these estranged best friends got around to dating each other. Kat and Taylor were compelling main characters.
Kat is trying to access education at a vampire institution that her mom hates with no explanation for why. She's naive because her mom has kept her in the human world, away from other vampires to learn their social norms and so on. Kat WANTS a life with history, with vampiric culture and so on. She is without a doubt interesting. Foolish and a bit too idealistic, but that makes the potential for her growth actually captivating. Will she lose that rose coloured perspective of the vampire world? Will she learn that not all adults are out to protect her? She's annoying but she holds your attention in that same way that the Bachelor franchise does. I liked screaming at the page when she did something stupid.
Taylor is the opposite side of the same coin. Annoying and foolish but she KNOWS things. Despite the fact that she's angry and jaded, she's probably making the exact same mistakes that Kat is, just with different motivation. She's dealt with homophobia, is ostracized because she's the only out lesbian at the school and refusing to adhere to rules of femininity, she has been used by people wanting to experiment, is the favourite punching bag for administration, and more. She's angry. But she's all bluster and absolutely no punch. Beneath all that snarl is a sad girl wanting love. She can talk big talk, but when it comes to actually fighting back, pushing against the structural problems she loves to complain about, there is literally nothing. She's a chicken. Honestly...relatable. I hate to say it but that's what I'm like.
So while they look like polar opposites, they're actually just two different manifestations of nurture. And honestly this is what I think makes them idiots to lovers. Like they're not just idiots about each other they're just idiots in general. A chaotic choice for main characters but when they end up working through conflict together, they're surprisingly functional. Their combination of braincells can finally create a spark.
If you shovel out all the other distracting stuff in the story, these two girls are actually really fascinating to follow through the book. I really enjoyed them despite the mess of it all.
Now the main issue with the plot of the book is that the author tried to take on too many topics. I realise that writing a book in the era of COVID and BLM that social consciousness is necessary but that doesn't mean overstepping bounds when the topic isn't ABOUT YOU. She tried to include discussion on racism, classism, homophobia in old established institutions, big pharma, capitalism and monopolies, the AIDS epidemic, and more. THAT IS ENOUGH SLICESSSSS.
Choosing to take on racism and classism where neither of your main characters is a person of colour is...a choice. But when only one of your secondary characters is biracial and all BIPOC characters are unnamed and mentioned to exist in single digits in this school...bestie maybe we should have thought that through. If you want to take on racism, give voice to someone who can speak on it. Had there been a main or even secondary character who had the authority to speak on racism in the vampire world it would have made sense.
A secondary character would have allowed the author to not speak on their behalf. A sensitivity reader could and would have helped ensure that the book didn't scream white saviour complex. Alas. This book was full of virtue signals. BUT. I'm adding those as a tally in favour of the author. It shows that she wanted to write something that spoke on racist academic institutions. She either didn't know how to do it or she didn't find someone to check her missteps. There was effort made it just wasn't done well and that led to devastating results when it got in the hands of readers.
There was a line said by the biracial Indian character in the book that stuck out to me and many others. This boy is wealthy, from a legacy, and has a lot of ease moving through the world despite the fact that he carries a lot of pressure. I'm withholding my "boohoo sad rich boy" comment but just know that I am thinking it. He said "it's not as messed up as it sounds" in response to the main character asking him "[your parents met through] the British East India Company that colonized India?" The intention here, I think, was to say that oh no his parents didn't meet in weird circumstances. His BEIC daddy met his rich Indian princess mommy and courted her and it was totally normal she was not stolen at all.
Now let's think historically. Back then how young did girls get married? Pretty fucking young. Back then, when a white colonizer came and asked for your hand in marriage while you witnessed people in your country get abused and cut down do you think your immediate response would have been to refuse?????? Yeah probably the fuck not. Did the author think through this nuance? I don't know but it doesn't look like it. It looked like she was trying to justify the existence of this happily married vampire couple and then move on.
This character honestly would have been a great opportunity to dig into the racism of the vampire community, to discuss the impact of white vampires through centuries of colonization, to talk about the ugly underbelly of vampiric history. Nope. Brushed over. There was opportunity and it wasn't done the justice it deserved. It comes of as performative and ignoring the history of the BEIC in India. Again, there was potential, it was not done well. It could have been fixed if someone caught it.
Now I don't know how many people had issue with the blood borne disease subplot of this book but I have words. The context here is that vampires are now consuming a synthetic blood because humans were infected with a blood disease that, if consumed by vampires, killed them almost instantaneously. This disease is in the book is still affecting humans since Kat's mom is working in a medical facility for the patients of this disease. Due to this disease feeding on humans has become a very bad idea. Vampires are the ones who got eradicated in hordes due to careless feeding practices and lack of knowledge and protection. You know what that sounded like to me? The AIDS epidemic. Interesting take on the author's part if it was intentional. That meant that vampires were the equivalent of queer folks who died due to government negligence. Dicey choice because vampires were an antisemitic and anti Romani stereotype during the Holocaust where queer people were also intentionally murdered.
But the flip side of this subplot is that the way humans were treated as dirty ALSO made them an allegory for queer people in the AIDS epidemic. The detail to this subplot makes me think it was intentional but the lack of clarity could also mean that it wasn't on purpose. All around a really messy choice. Could have been interesting. Could have actually been an appropriate topic considering the author is queer and therefore this topic is something they can talk about with ample care and nuance with the help of research. But again, we have a mess.
Closing out my compliment sandwhich, the subplots that were done relatively well were the discussions on homophobia and transphobia in institutions, and the combination of big pharma, capitalism, and classism. Taylor and Kat navigate two very different aspects of homophobia in this school that enforces conformity. Taylor gets ostracized for being out. Kat witnesses the homophobia and definitely doesn't stay quiet but it does affect her own journey coming to terms that she's lesbian. She wants approval and that forces her to ignore herself. I thought that was really well done.
The big pharma aspect of the book was also super cool. Without providing spoilers, the book talks about medical monopoly on access to important medicine (what I saw as a nod to insulin prices) and how the lack of a cure of certain diseases is financially beneficial for companies that hold monopolies. I really loved the dialogue and resolution around that.
Plus the combination of classism and family legacies was pretty great too. Kat comes from a single parent household with no vampiric legacy to carry her through the world. She and her mom had to struggle to access the blood substitute, she gets shunned for not having a notable name at the school. The classism is applicable to Kat. White people struggle financially too because systemic institutions that uphold the wealthy also work to keep the poor that way no matter race. Combining her perspective with a BIPOC character in the book would have patched up a lot of blind spots in that regard but even without a BIPOC character to fortify that story line it was well done. Not perfect but it was making several good points.
Overall, there were some really solid efforts made in the book soured by some really egregious oversights. In my opinion, not enough to cancel the author and certainly not enough to write off her future work. I think the book shows she had good intentions but did not have the tools to execute it well. If I were teaching higher grades or even a college course on fictional writing and literally devices, this would be an excellent book on analyzing what to do and what not to do. The opportunity to fix is there, it's just a tad to late for the book.
I genuinely hope Sasha Laurens continues to learn from the constructive feedback she's getting from this book and writes more queer novels for a YA audience. There's incredible potential for growth. I would genuinely love to help with sensitivity reading on her books but obviously lmao not gonna happen. I'm cautiously optimistic for her future books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Addiction, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Racism, and Sexism
dhwani's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
literally drafted all of this in my notes app so i wouldn't miss anything and made so many changes to add EVERYTHING that is wrong with this book. i still feel like i'm missing some of the stuff, though.
i absolutely HATED this book
like totally.
so our dear superwoke white MC Kat who is an ally because she asks pronouns okay,, her favourite hobby is to be an ally is all fine in her life except she's like really poor and has to do something to get out of that situation. she's also made to stay away from all the other vampires by her mom and now she longs to hang out with them so, she sends an application to this elitist vampire-only highschool and gets in with financial aid,, literally all her expenses paid
okay, it was fine till this point. her mom still doesn't want her to go and then Kat dearest is a rebel of course so she goes anyway.
there, she is coincidentally roommates with her ex?? bestfriend Taylor, then she tries to hard to fit in with the popular girls and catches the eye of the bad boy.
just like every other annoying “i'm not like other girls” girl.
then miss superwoke MC is also SO CONCERNED about the lack of “diversity” in the vampire school and then Taylor explains it by mentioning how no one would want to be at such a place where people are still crying about how they lost it all in the Civil War.
next, there's this one Chinese character, Lucy.
The author did such a terrible job with her character. she's shown as an evil person who is super rich and throws parties and then glamours humans to suck their blood when it is prohibited. like this one character had so much potential and it was ruined, just like that??
then comes our hot?? bad boy Galen.
who's half Indian.
as an Indian person, this part was so weird to read.
“My dad was involved with the British East India Company back in the day, so that's where they (his mom and dad) met.”
“You mean the British East India Company that colonised India?”
“He winced. “It's not as messed up as it sounds.” My mom doesn't talk about it much, but she's from a wealthy merchant family in Gujarat, and he spent years pursuing her until she agreed. He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village. Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
this is weird on literally so many levels. why is it “not as messed up??” the EIC colonised my country and looted it, made life hell for my ancestors, and it is not as messed up as it sounds?? they committed so many atrocities against Indian women. this is so wrong.
i also found a lot of parts that were anti-semitic but i would recommend reading Jewish own voices reviews for that.
i also hate it sm when the author makes discrimination an entire plot when they can display an inclusive community and still keep the plot going?? THE DISCRIMINATION WASN'T NEEDED IN THE WORST PLACE. harcote could be a queer-friendly school and the plot would've still held??
later, when MC is questioning her sexuality, she wonders how her friend told her “see? straight people always assume it's something you have to discover, but I was born this way”
EXCUSE ME??
there are SO MANY queer people in this world (including me) who spent YEARS questioning their sexuality to arrive at a conclusion and feel confident about who we are. sexuality is fluid and not everyone is "born that way" or whatever it is. this overtly discourages questioning people because it looks like why are they even questioning they should just know if they're gay
LITERALLY HATE IT.
ALSO, UNNECESSARY HP REFERENCE.
moreover, the writing is BAD because wtf is
“the realisation burst over me like shit from a flock of seagulls”
and the characters were SO ANNOYING like making HORRIFYING decisions literally having no common sense also Kat was making up for her lack of father figure by making this billionaire her godfather daddy and trying to make him proud AND THE PLOT WAS SO PREDICTABLE UGHH i felt like a mastermind knowing exactly how this book went
spoilers??
also Taylor lost someone so close to her and THIS GIRL KAT IS THINKING OF TAYLOR HOOKING UP WITH ANOTHER GIRL AND GETTING JEALOUS LIKE MANNN LET HER GRIEVE WTF
she's grieving and miss girl goes
“(not that i noticed what her lips were doing)”
LIKE GIRL SHE'S CRYING SHE JUST LOST SOMEONE TF IS WRONG WITH YOU????
in conclusion, a bad book which is extremely problematic with so much racism and homophobia.
i absolutely HATED this book
like totally.
so our dear superwoke white MC Kat who is an ally because she asks pronouns okay,, her favourite hobby is to be an ally is all fine in her life except she's like really poor and has to do something to get out of that situation. she's also made to stay away from all the other vampires by her mom and now she longs to hang out with them so, she sends an application to this elitist vampire-only highschool and gets in with financial aid,, literally all her expenses paid
okay, it was fine till this point. her mom still doesn't want her to go and then Kat dearest is a rebel of course so she goes anyway.
there, she is coincidentally roommates with her ex?? bestfriend Taylor, then she tries to hard to fit in with the popular girls and catches the eye of the bad boy.
just like every other annoying “i'm not like other girls” girl.
then miss superwoke MC is also SO CONCERNED about the lack of “diversity” in the vampire school and then Taylor explains it by mentioning how no one would want to be at such a place where people are still crying about how they lost it all in the Civil War.
next, there's this one Chinese character, Lucy.
The author did such a terrible job with her character. she's shown as an evil person who is super rich and throws parties and then glamours humans to suck their blood when it is prohibited. like this one character had so much potential and it was ruined, just like that??
then comes our hot?? bad boy Galen.
who's half Indian.
as an Indian person, this part was so weird to read.
“My dad was involved with the British East India Company back in the day, so that's where they (his mom and dad) met.”
“You mean the British East India Company that colonised India?”
“He winced. “It's not as messed up as it sounds.” My mom doesn't talk about it much, but she's from a wealthy merchant family in Gujarat, and he spent years pursuing her until she agreed. He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village. Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
this is weird on literally so many levels. why is it “not as messed up??” the EIC colonised my country and looted it, made life hell for my ancestors, and it is not as messed up as it sounds?? they committed so many atrocities against Indian women. this is so wrong.
i also found a lot of parts that were anti-semitic but i would recommend reading Jewish own voices reviews for that.
i also hate it sm when the author makes discrimination an entire plot when they can display an inclusive community and still keep the plot going?? THE DISCRIMINATION WASN'T NEEDED IN THE WORST PLACE. harcote could be a queer-friendly school and the plot would've still held??
later, when MC is questioning her sexuality, she wonders how her friend told her “see? straight people always assume it's something you have to discover, but I was born this way”
EXCUSE ME??
there are SO MANY queer people in this world (including me) who spent YEARS questioning their sexuality to arrive at a conclusion and feel confident about who we are. sexuality is fluid and not everyone is "born that way" or whatever it is. this overtly discourages questioning people because it looks like why are they even questioning they should just know if they're gay
LITERALLY HATE IT.
ALSO, UNNECESSARY HP REFERENCE.
moreover, the writing is BAD because wtf is
“the realisation burst over me like shit from a flock of seagulls”
and the characters were SO ANNOYING like making HORRIFYING decisions literally having no common sense also Kat was making up for her lack of father figure by making this billionaire her godfather daddy and trying to make him proud AND THE PLOT WAS SO PREDICTABLE UGHH i felt like a mastermind knowing exactly how this book went
spoilers??
also Taylor lost someone so close to her and THIS GIRL KAT IS THINKING OF TAYLOR HOOKING UP WITH ANOTHER GIRL AND GETTING JEALOUS LIKE MANNN LET HER GRIEVE WTF
she's grieving and miss girl goes
“(not that i noticed what her lips were doing)”
LIKE GIRL SHE'S CRYING SHE JUST LOST SOMEONE TF IS WRONG WITH YOU????
in conclusion, a bad book which is extremely problematic with so much racism and homophobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, and Lesbophobia
More...