Reviews - Even Though I Knew the End

4.63k reviews for:

Even Though I Knew the End

C.L. Polk

3.91 AVERAGE

ar_reader's review against another edition

5.0

dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

sampleddreads's review against another edition

3.5

Once upon a time, I had walked into a secret queer bar, and the woman who would be the love of my life asked me to dance. She hadn’t known whether to lead or to follow, but she put her hand on my waist and did her best as she stepped all over my toes. Later that night, as we walked under a diamond-studded sky up the shore of Lake Michigan, she made up for not knowing how to dance by kissing me so sweet, the earth stood still to watch it.

a love letter to chicago, and ~~maybe~~ absolutely, a love letter to sapphic women who feel connected to their heavenly court and want to feel safety in that sacredness. "the revulsion for homosexual love is human prejudice. how you perform intercourse is irrelevant. [she] keeps love in her heart." this novella is about a woman living on borrowed time due to selling her soul a decade ago, and all she wants now is to grow old with the woman she loves. i adore any media that retells biblical stories in interesting ways, but especially media that reimagines angels on earth. good and bad, evil and good—there’s always a balance. while it’s important not to romanticize biblical narratives, this story strikes that balance beautifully. i absolutely adored the grounded romance between elena and edith (who i imagined as roxie hart every time she spoke). this was such a fun reading experience and i am on my knees pleading for the author to continue writing in this world and with these characters.

+ witty writing, elena & edith <3, swoon worthy quotes, chicago setting, first third of the book, angels & demons, romance (!!!)
- "smiling black man" (jarring and out of place), inconsistent pacing, underwhelming mystery elements, middle of the book

Content Warnings

meiocho's review against another edition

2.0

Diverse cast of characters: No

thespaceburrito's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jhamer01's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

trhocks's review against another edition

4.0

This reminds me a little of the Dresden Files series. Supernatural investigation with an outcast lead. It’s a delightful world that’s built in the first book and could easily be continued into a series of different cases and mysteries to solve. It answered all the necessary questions for this book while leaving plenty of loose strings that could be fleshed out into stories of their own.

amilliknives's review against another edition

4.0

Love a setting in Chicago. More of a period piece which I’m pretty meh about but love the lesbians and mystery! Pretty unexpected fantastical stuff goin on and it was a joy to read. Quite quick. Pretty confused by the once in a lifetime solution to the initial problem and how it was even possible in the first place. So not my perfect book but still enjoyable!