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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
bree_h_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This was a little bit of a disappointing read. I had really high hopes for a sapphic vampire story, but just felt it fell short in a lot of aspects.
To start, there were some aspects I enjoyed. The world building felt solid and pretty realistic, which can be hard to do in urban fantasy settings with trying to balance the supernatural world in a way that feels realistic to the real world. I also thought some of the less touched ideas that were handled subtly were really well done. Specifically Kat and dealing with people’s sense of entitlement to hot people. There was also a really solid exploration of comp het in Kat’s development and discovery of her sexuality. Kat’s journey in sorting out her sexuality also felt ready well done and relatable.
Outside of that though, the book kept falling short. I think the book’s themes could have been handled well, but we were constantly being whacked over the head with them. It felt like someone who didn’t really get the topics the book was exploring was trying to explain them. It’s being shoved down your throat that discovering your sexuality is a journey and you aren’t entitled to know things about people, but then punishes/shames characters for being on that journey and/or not having the support systems to safely explore that.
On top of that I found every character pretty unlikable. I want characters to have flaws and blind spots, however there’s also only so much I can deal with before I decide the character’s just not a good person. Which is what I felt like every character fell into. Entitlement to know someone’s sexuality who you haven’t seen in three years, putting down more fem girls for being fem and not masc, ignoring boundaries setup by other characters (especially in the romance), and thinking someone is faking a panic attack for attention who has never displayed that kind of behaviour are just a few examples.
The final biggest issue is a really weak plot and ending. The book spent its entire run meandering about, occasionally dropping crumbs of plot, and then speed ran the entire plot in the last 25% or so. It just felt poorly done. Pair that with a poorly thought out ending (they took down the Big Bad Evil Conservative Capitalist and suddenly everyone everywhere was super accepting and no more bigotry happened) just mixed so well together to make the plot feel as flimsy as a piece of single-ply.
Overall it had a lot of potential and could have handled its complex themes in a nuanced, subtle way. However, it just ends up feeling like the author bit off more than she could chew.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Classism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Death, Murder, and Sexism
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual assault
cryptofauna's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
okay i was really not into this book at the beginning, it felt like it was trying way too hard to be liberal which always kind of turns me off of books but as i powered through i got so caught up in it. generally had some problems with miscommunication tropes which i absolutely hate but for the most part it added to the tension
i was so invested in their relationship and while i feel like the mystery/plot sort of took a back seat to the romance it definitely wasn’t bad. maybe a little predictable but if you’re coming to this book for the sweeping mystery what are you even doing. the world is really interesting and auagah i love them
i was so invested in their relationship and while i feel like the mystery/plot sort of took a back seat to the romance it definitely wasn’t bad. maybe a little predictable but if you’re coming to this book for the sweeping mystery what are you even doing. the world is really interesting and auagah i love them
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Blood, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
lunep's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Classism, Colonisation, Infertility, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence
bookishvicky's review
4.5
I LOVEDDDD the world and lore and characters of this book. One thing I will say is that it felt very #woke at times for the sake of being progressive, and while I agree a lot of the problematic shit was a bit much, I think it adds a layer to the idea that Vampirdom is a metaphor for the upper class and ignorant, and having Kat go from public school to Harcote is Meant to be jarring, we’re Meant to hate Harcote and the vampires from the bat.
While I wasn’t a fan of Taylor and Kat constantly feuding and just seeming to be straight up conflict drama til the end, I loved Taylor with all my bi heart (and that cover art!!!). I was surprised that this was such a politically charged pandemic story (that did feel a bit rushed at the end, but the twist was easy to figure out as you read) with not as much lesbian vamps as I would have liked given the premise, but everything about it was just so good, I literally couldn’t stop reading. I don’t usually cross my fingers for a sequel, but I’d LOVE to explore more of this world and unique vampire lore.
While I wasn’t a fan of Taylor and Kat constantly feuding and just seeming to be straight up conflict drama til the end, I loved Taylor with all my bi heart (and that cover art!!!). I was surprised that this was such a politically charged pandemic story (that did feel a bit rushed at the end, but the twist was easy to figure out as you read) with not as much lesbian vamps as I would have liked given the premise, but everything about it was just so good, I literally couldn’t stop reading. I don’t usually cross my fingers for a sequel, but I’d LOVE to explore more of this world and unique vampire lore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Lesbophobia and Medical content
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
bubbly_lara's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
What a fun read! After having watched Netflix's "First Kill", I was in the mood for more vampire stories and had seen this on Bookstagram.
And it did not disappoint! Was the plot predictable? A little - but that did not take away one single bit of the enjoyment :) plus I'm not the original target audience. I immensely enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone who'd interested in a vampire story set at an elite boarding school, with a murder mystery to solve and a childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline.
And it did not disappoint! Was the plot predictable? A little - but that did not take away one single bit of the enjoyment :) plus I'm not the original target audience. I immensely enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone who'd interested in a vampire story set at an elite boarding school, with a murder mystery to solve and a childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Classism, Blood, Bullying, and Alcohol
Minor: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, War, and Child death
the_crooked_neighbor's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I really enjoyed reading this book and finished it over two days. It was a toss-up of whether it was a 5 star read but in the end I feel like I needed a bit more from the ending. I really enjoyed the world-building. The relationships between all the characters were interesting. The romance was cute. I appreciated that it is a fade to black. I am glad that the ending had a couple of twists because some of them were a bit predictable. I am so glad Victor wasn't secretly her actual dad. I really wanted a bit more of how Galen ended up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia
Moderate: Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Homophobia, Violence, Slavery, Grief, and Gore
Minor: Racism, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
None of the content warnings are too graphic but it is a book about vampires which inherently means people with old fashioned beliefs and blood.bookstagramrepresent's review
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
I don’t even know what I just read but it was not good.
Kat, the Poor woke white girl MC - constantly mentions or shows off how much better she is than everyone else in the Vampire school, a lot of the racism and homophobia scenes are used just to show how much better she is than the other characters which is a huge problem. When she asks about why there aren’t more students of color one character doesn't know why and can list all of them for her because there are so few POC student and another asks her if she really thinks they would want to be at Harcote given the elitist racist vampire offspring - it is NEVER discussed that even if these other students of color wanted to go to Harcote they are not even granted an opportunity because of the racist school headmaster (a lot like what we see in real life with higher education institutions and academia circles). The racism in this book is so insidious.
There is a part where she's struggling to figure out her sexuality/queer identity while still dating a boy from school and those scenes are odd. She remembers her two queer human friends from home and their isn't anything really mentioned other than " just knowing" you're queer. I was hoping for more acceptance with this struggle but she magically figures herself out after berating herself for even questioning and this too comes across harmful. It's OKAY to not know who you are or where you might be in the queer spectrum. For someone who is supposed to be a 2022 teen coming from such an open and woke community in California this doesn't match with how she is in the other parts of the book. She's also not inclusive at all with the language she uses for someone who is supposed to be so woke.
Taylor is the other mc with a POV in the book and she faces a lot of lesbophobia which is not handled well or just used to make Kat look better or Taylor look like even more of a loaner. It's weird because while she is the only out queer person at the school she never once considers there could be other queer students until the absolute end of the book. She also comes across absolutely obsessed with Kat while engaging in a very toxic and secret relationship with another character. She's honestly so selfish in her POV scenes.
Kat, the Poor woke white girl MC - constantly mentions or shows off how much better she is than everyone else in the Vampire school, a lot of the racism and homophobia scenes are used just to show how much better she is than the other characters which is a huge problem. When she asks about why there aren’t more students of color one character doesn't know why and can list all of them for her because there are so few POC student and another asks her if she really thinks they would want to be at Harcote given the elitist racist vampire offspring - it is NEVER discussed that even if these other students of color wanted to go to Harcote they are not even granted an opportunity because of the racist school headmaster (a lot like what we see in real life with higher education institutions and academia circles). The racism in this book is so insidious.
There is a part where she's struggling to figure out her sexuality/queer identity while still dating a boy from school and those scenes are odd. She remembers her two queer human friends from home and their isn't anything really mentioned other than " just knowing" you're queer. I was hoping for more acceptance with this struggle but she magically figures herself out after berating herself for even questioning and this too comes across harmful. It's OKAY to not know who you are or where you might be in the queer spectrum. For someone who is supposed to be a 2022 teen coming from such an open and woke community in California this doesn't match with how she is in the other parts of the book. She's also not inclusive at all with the language she uses for someone who is supposed to be so woke.
Taylor is the other mc with a POV in the book and she faces a lot of lesbophobia which is not handled well or just used to make Kat look better or Taylor look like even more of a loaner. It's weird because while she is the only out queer person at the school she never once considers there could be other queer students until the absolute end of the book. She also comes across absolutely obsessed with Kat while engaging in a very toxic and secret relationship with another character. She's honestly so selfish in her POV scenes.
There are two Asian characters in this book. One is LucyK who is specifically mentioned as being Chinese when we first meet her (page 37 - I guess the white mc can just tell what kind of asian everyone is) and she is written as the mean girl's bff/sidekick. LucyK is a social media influencer and later holds an off campus vamp party in NYC SOHO and a really violent scene happens. Lucy tricked 4 winners of her social media contest to come party with her in the city and they are used as feeders for the vamp party. It's all completely nonconsenual and the other characters talk about how Lucy always throws these parties. Just Lucy. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is so harmful to link the ONLY visible Chinese character to violence against people who cannot defend themselves.
The other Asian character is the love interest king of the school type Galen. He is British and Indian. There is a whole scene (page 146) where he talks about how his white British father worked for the British East India company and that's how he met his mother in India, (who came from a wealthy merchant family so it's okay because "He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village" I cannot with this apologist colonizer bs. Racist apologist white colonizer passage shouldn’t have been in here PERIOD *screams* IDK why the woke mc didn’t call this out after she constantly comments on everything else. Kat asks him why he's not in the Students of Color Caucus and he basically replies that he's too busy and it's not for him which comes across as being beneath him and his status. I’m tired of white authors making their characters biracial for flavor and then disrespecting the nonwhite half! Galen is an odd character, his one dimensional even when his character goes from supporting the status quo to trying to make things better. He also constantly forces himself on Kat, she even has a panic attack and a few other terrible physical reactions to him that he completely doesn't notice and just does what he wants anyway. She doesn't even process this trauma but we see the effect it has on her throughout their time together.
The other Asian character is the love interest king of the school type Galen. He is British and Indian. There is a whole scene (page 146) where he talks about how his white British father worked for the British East India company and that's how he met his mother in India, (who came from a wealthy merchant family so it's okay because "He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village" I cannot with this apologist colonizer bs. Racist apologist white colonizer passage shouldn’t have been in here PERIOD *screams* IDK why the woke mc didn’t call this out after she constantly comments on everything else. Kat asks him why he's not in the Students of Color Caucus and he basically replies that he's too busy and it's not for him which comes across as being beneath him and his status. I’m tired of white authors making their characters biracial for flavor and then disrespecting the nonwhite half! Galen is an odd character, his one dimensional even when his character goes from supporting the status quo to trying to make things better. He also constantly forces himself on Kat, she even has a panic attack and a few other terrible physical reactions to him that he completely doesn't notice and just does what he wants anyway. She doesn't even process this trauma but we see the effect it has on her throughout their time together.
Unnecessary HP reference in the arc WHICH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Replaced with a Stars Wars reference which still comes off as ableist. Funny how that did not make it better.
There is a lot of ableist language (like the use of lame no one says this anymore please just stop) and the way things related with the disease in the book was just not handled well. The disease was created by one of the bad guys and put into BATS to spread into humanity. After everything we have endured with Asian Hate this pandemic that should NOT have been a plot point. The history of the disease in the book plays out almost like the HIV/AIDS epidemic and this does not sit right with me. The disease is also used to murder a character in the middle of the storyline and the way it's used as a threat is just wrong.
I've seen several other reviewers on bookstagram call out the Antisemitism in this book as well. There are a lot of Antisemitic vampire tropes in this book and it's worth reading up on that.
I've seen several other reviewers on bookstagram call out the Antisemitism in this book as well. There are a lot of Antisemitic vampire tropes in this book and it's worth reading up on that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Ableism, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cursing
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