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directorpurry's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Gun violence, Fatphobia, and Stalking
Moderate: Bullying and Blood
nineinchnails's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
this is so 2000s ya in the best and worst ways but i'm shocked at how much i genuinely enjoyed it. it does read like a twilight ripoff but it had me more nostalgic than annoyed. the worldbuilding got a little confusing but overall this was really fun and i can't wait to read the rest!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Stalking
Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Chronic illness, and Death
Minor: Gun violence and Death of parent
talesofold's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming, Death of parent, Stalking, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
skillyillian's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
jesus h christ this book had me shaking my head the entire time I read it. Spoilers ahead 🤦🏻♀️
WHY are we letting minors into an "arcade" with poker tables, cigar smoking, and a full BAR???? Who is going in there to bet fancy jeeps and condos?!? That's the least of the logic problems here. It's like grown-ups just don't exist in this story hardly at all. A bartender lets Nora actually sit at the bar and talk to her after calling her out for being underage. Why? That's how you lose your licensing and your job, bud. There's a bunch more instances where it makes ZERO sense for a teenager to be where she is or doing what she's doing but it just happens anyway bc why not 🤷🏻♀️
This entire story could've been moved ahead by six or seven years with Nora in college and it would've solved half the logic problems here and made Patch a thousand times LESS creepy. I don't mind a fantasy genre age gap, I read Sarah j Maas ffs but patch has hypothetically been around since ADAM AND EVE, but falls in love with a 16/17 year old?????? WHY????? put her in college. They can still be lab partners and she can still be friends with vee and whatever else but for fucks sake she didn't need to be an actual CHILD with someone who's been around SINCE THE CREATION OF MANKIND. half the lore here didn't make sense. The author talked about stuff from the bible that she treated as fact but was very easily disproved with literally a single Google search. I broke her lore in less than three minutes.
The internalized misogyny runs rampant here. Nora's arch nemesis of sorts is, naturally, the cheerleader who "wears half a bottle of foundation" and when she's first introduced it's bc she's mockingly offering for Nora's best friend Vee to model bikinis at her mom's JCP bc she can't find enough plus size lingerie models. WHY ARE YOU HIRING MINORS TO MODEL LINGERIE AND BIKINIS, MA'AM?????? USE A FUCKING MANNEQUIN. gross gross gross. Anyway Marcie (the nemesis) uses Vee's size to bully her, and they go back and forth being catty about weight and size and Nora or Vee tells Marcie she has chocolate ex-lax stuck in her teeth. I cringed viscerally. holy shit oh my god what the hell????? jfc dude can we please move past this trope already??? It's giving "pick me", it's giving "I'm not like the other girls", it's giving "i'm the real victim here" and it's so tired. Stop acting like this shit is normal and okay, no one needs to think talking to each other like this is how it's meant to be.
Absolutely NOTHING of note happens for the first probably 85-90% of this book. You could cut out almost everything from the first probably 26 chapters and still be more or less caught up when the climax of the book hits. I finished this to see if it would get any better and it did not. The final fight made zero sense, stuff that was revealed made me even MORE grossed out with Patch than I was before, and all of the rules on angel powers and shit that had been set up were immediately chucked out the window. Like, at the speed of light, gone. Fallen angels can't possess anyone except for the one time they can, and it's not that time, but Patch manages to do it anyway, just in time to stop Jules from shooting her. How convenient ✨
Anyway this just wasn't it. Patch grooms a minor and disrespects any actual boundaries she tries to set and it was all extremely romanticized in the name of "you said not to but I'm doing it anyway because I know you want it and just won't say it" and that's gross. Vee is an EXTREMELY bad friend and ignored Nora every time she needed help, including when Nora said Elliot attacked her on her front porch and then Vee was at a party with him 12 hours later and trying to get Nora to join them. Yikes. And the first time Nora goes out for the night Vee looks her over and says something like "boys like girls who actually look like girls" like.... What the fuck??? Hello??? Show me where Nora asked. Show me.
TL;DR: There are gaping flaws in the logic throughout the whole book. Problematic behavior is romanticized throughout. This book is meant for younger audiences and a lot of icky shit is justified that impressionable people just don't need to be reading about. It's fine to let men disrespect you and groom you because they're hot and moody, and if your best friend is a dickhead it's just tough love, right? Right?
As my bestie said, "it's giving 2008 self insert fanfic" and they were RIGHT.
Good hell idk how there are three more books after this. I can't even voice all of my frustration without just explaining the whole book. This review is so long and that's after I chopped a bunch of it out. Thank god I didn't read these in high school bc it would've wrecked me almost as bad as twilight did. Never again
WHY are we letting minors into an "arcade" with poker tables, cigar smoking, and a full BAR???? Who is going in there to bet fancy jeeps and condos?!? That's the least of the logic problems here. It's like grown-ups just don't exist in this story hardly at all. A bartender lets Nora actually sit at the bar and talk to her after calling her out for being underage. Why? That's how you lose your licensing and your job, bud. There's a bunch more instances where it makes ZERO sense for a teenager to be where she is or doing what she's doing but it just happens anyway bc why not 🤷🏻♀️
This entire story could've been moved ahead by six or seven years with Nora in college and it would've solved half the logic problems here and made Patch a thousand times LESS creepy. I don't mind a fantasy genre age gap, I read Sarah j Maas ffs but patch has hypothetically been around since ADAM AND EVE, but falls in love with a 16/17 year old?????? WHY????? put her in college. They can still be lab partners and she can still be friends with vee and whatever else but for fucks sake she didn't need to be an actual CHILD with someone who's been around SINCE THE CREATION OF MANKIND. half the lore here didn't make sense. The author talked about stuff from the bible that she treated as fact but was very easily disproved with literally a single Google search. I broke her lore in less than three minutes.
The internalized misogyny runs rampant here. Nora's arch nemesis of sorts is, naturally, the cheerleader who "wears half a bottle of foundation" and when she's first introduced it's bc she's mockingly offering for Nora's best friend Vee to model bikinis at her mom's JCP bc she can't find enough plus size lingerie models. WHY ARE YOU HIRING MINORS TO MODEL LINGERIE AND BIKINIS, MA'AM?????? USE A FUCKING MANNEQUIN. gross gross gross. Anyway Marcie (the nemesis) uses Vee's size to bully her, and they go back and forth being catty about weight and size and Nora or Vee tells Marcie she has chocolate ex-lax stuck in her teeth. I cringed viscerally. holy shit oh my god what the hell????? jfc dude can we please move past this trope already??? It's giving "pick me", it's giving "I'm not like the other girls", it's giving "i'm the real victim here" and it's so tired. Stop acting like this shit is normal and okay, no one needs to think talking to each other like this is how it's meant to be.
Absolutely NOTHING of note happens for the first probably 85-90% of this book. You could cut out almost everything from the first probably 26 chapters and still be more or less caught up when the climax of the book hits. I finished this to see if it would get any better and it did not. The final fight made zero sense, stuff that was revealed made me even MORE grossed out with Patch than I was before, and all of the rules on angel powers and shit that had been set up were immediately chucked out the window. Like, at the speed of light, gone. Fallen angels can't possess anyone except for the one time they can, and it's not that time, but Patch manages to do it anyway, just in time to stop Jules from shooting her. How convenient ✨
Anyway this just wasn't it. Patch grooms a minor and disrespects any actual boundaries she tries to set and it was all extremely romanticized in the name of "you said not to but I'm doing it anyway because I know you want it and just won't say it" and that's gross. Vee is an EXTREMELY bad friend and ignored Nora every time she needed help, including when Nora said Elliot attacked her on her front porch and then Vee was at a party with him 12 hours later and trying to get Nora to join them. Yikes. And the first time Nora goes out for the night Vee looks her over and says something like "boys like girls who actually look like girls" like.... What the fuck??? Hello??? Show me where Nora asked. Show me.
TL;DR: There are gaping flaws in the logic throughout the whole book. Problematic behavior is romanticized throughout. This book is meant for younger audiences and a lot of icky shit is justified that impressionable people just don't need to be reading about. It's fine to let men disrespect you and groom you because they're hot and moody, and if your best friend is a dickhead it's just tough love, right? Right?
As my bestie said, "it's giving 2008 self insert fanfic" and they were RIGHT.
Good hell idk how there are three more books after this. I can't even voice all of my frustration without just explaining the whole book. This review is so long and that's after I chopped a bunch of it out. Thank god I didn't read these in high school bc it would've wrecked me almost as bad as twilight did. Never again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Bullying, Stalking, and Violence
Minor: Eating disorder
teagstime's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
This was a reread for me, bc I originally read Hush, Hush in 2010 when I was 10 or 11… Back then I gave this book 4 stars, so ! Things are definitely different now to say the least.
Honestly the only things I liked about this book were Patch (he was an interesting lil asshole & had some good moments) and Jules (who was hardly even around and had minimal dialogue) 😅After the Chauncey reveal, he actually shot up in approval for me and my friends. He wasn’t even completely in the wrong here ! His life fr sounded like it sucked! Justice for Chauncey Q_Q
Meanwhile Nora and Vee were two of the worst characters ever,, they made me go through the 5 stages of grief just about every time they spoke or did anything at all.... I was this 👌 close to becoming a misogynist by the end OTLElliot also disappointed me, but mostly bc I wish he had gaslight gatekeep girlbossed a bit more instead of becoming a cartoon supervillain the MOMENT Nora started investigating him. Like. Cmon dude you’re supposed to be charming
The twist at the very end was actually pretty good (which is why I'm giving 1.5★ instead of 1)! But most of the book felt convoluted and unimportant, and Nora's thoughts / actions were sooooo stupid for a smart girl (allegedly). Idk ! The ‘romance’ was rushed and didn't feel natural either-- I still don't understand why Patch was in love with her, as she didn't do anything the whole book except be dumb and flip between thinking he's a psycho stalker killer / suddenly feeling like he's safe to be around w no explanation 😔 And for that matter, idk why Nora even likes Patch bc he spends > the first half of the book being a total creepy asshole to her? We get it girlie, you think he’s hot… now please go to your therapy sessions I’m begging you OTL
My friends and I legit had to rewrite the plot in our final book club discussion to cope with how much it frustrated us. There were a few good ideas scattered around here and there but ! Overall disappointing and bad :(
Honestly the only things I liked about this book were Patch (he was an interesting lil asshole & had some good moments) and Jules (who was hardly even around and had minimal dialogue) 😅
Meanwhile Nora and Vee were two of the worst characters ever,, they made me go through the 5 stages of grief just about every time they spoke or did anything at all.... I was this 👌 close to becoming a misogynist by the end OTL
The twist at the very end was actually pretty good (which is why I'm giving 1.5★ instead of 1)! But most of the book felt convoluted and unimportant, and Nora's thoughts / actions were sooooo stupid for a smart girl (allegedly). Idk ! The ‘romance’ was rushed and didn't feel natural either-- I still don't understand why Patch was in love with her, as she didn't do anything the whole book except be dumb and flip between thinking he's a psycho stalker killer / suddenly feeling like he's safe to be around w no explanation 😔 And for that matter, idk why Nora even likes Patch bc he spends > the first half of the book being a total creepy asshole to her? We get it girlie, you think he’s hot… now please go to your therapy sessions I’m begging you OTL
My friends and I legit had to rewrite the plot in our final book club discussion to cope with how much it frustrated us. There were a few good ideas scattered around here and there but ! Overall disappointing and bad :(
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual harassment
thetexasalp's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I remember liking this book when I was 14, however at 24 it hits a little different. Very toxic men, but good for nostalgia/if you are into the dark, mysterious, and controlling type
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Gun violence
The main love interest is very forward & creepy towards the main character.danilayne's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Bullying
skymunozz's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Car accident, Body shaming, and Blood
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