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frankiejo's review
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
4.75
This book scratched an itch I didn't even know I had. Deliciously atmospheric and haunting, and the whole book feels like an ode to the friendship between teenage girls taken to a vaguely supernatural level, and the first couple chapters about the girls in their earlier childhoods feel like an ode to the particular strangeness of little girls. If you enjoyed The Dead and the Dark, you will probably like this better. I thought TDATD was fine, and this one was superficially similar (sapphics. horror. small town. ghosthunters and ghosthunting shows are relevant to the plot) but better in every way
...except perhaps for the ending. the last fifty pages-ish felt rather rushed, which is extremely odd considering the superb pacing of the rest of the book. if i had to guess as to why, i suspect 400 pages was "too long" for a YA novel and Ames felt pressured to keep it closer to 300, which is a shame. Speaking of YA, if the premise intrigues you, but you usually aren't a fan of YA, give it a shot anyway! This didn't have the YA "feel" that I felt TDATD had, which is a bonus for me since while I'm fine reading YA, I don't like being reminded at every turn that I'm reading a YA novel, and I hate having the thought that "this would have been so much better if it had been allowed to be a little more adult." I had neither that feeling nor that thought while writing To Break a Covenant. Again, this book is pretty dark, especially for YA, so mind the trigger warnings!
rep: lesbian mc, bi love interest, main characters of colour
...except perhaps for the ending. the last fifty pages-ish felt rather rushed, which is extremely odd considering the superb pacing of the rest of the book. if i had to guess as to why, i suspect 400 pages was "too long" for a YA novel and Ames felt pressured to keep it closer to 300, which is a shame. Speaking of YA, if the premise intrigues you, but you usually aren't a fan of YA, give it a shot anyway! This didn't have the YA "feel" that I felt TDATD had, which is a bonus for me since while I'm fine reading YA, I don't like being reminded at every turn that I'm reading a YA novel, and I hate having the thought that "this would have been so much better if it had been allowed to be a little more adult." I had neither that feeling nor that thought while writing To Break a Covenant. Again, this book is pretty dark, especially for YA, so mind the trigger warnings!
rep: lesbian mc, bi love interest, main characters of colour
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Cursing, Animal death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, and Child death
Minor: Car accident and Vomit
Graphic claustrophobia
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