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This was a very slow book at first, I knew little to nothing about it when I started reading so I wasn't expecting it to be twisty-turny, pleasantly surprised for sure! I had some parts of the ending figured out early on and thought I had it all figured puy. I was pretty smug about it ngl, but the unexpected hit and was so satisfying.
The one thing I don't love is I went into this book thinking it was a stand alone, probably my fault for not researching it first, so the cliff hanger was a doozy.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Death of parent
Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Addiction
Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder
Minor: Addiction, Vomit, Gaslighting
Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death
Holly Black continues to be fantastical fiction queen.
<Spoiler> Scary at points but I'm easily scared. Twists in unexpected ways.
Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual content
Minor: Addiction, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
The pace picked up pretty quickly for me, only took a couple chapters of explanations and backstory to get the plot going. I did find that some of the flashbacks got a little boring later on in the book, but I get that they were included to give us more context on people's decisions. There are things that definitely could have been explained by weaving them into the story instead of going back and forth between the past and the present though.
Some of the twists were predictable, but it was still a surprise to read about them.
I love the morally gray characters that Holly Black comes up with. Sometimes I want to read about a person who's not always doing the right thing, a person who does things for themselves and wouldn't be considered a hero most of their lives. Makes them feel more realistic.
With that being said, Charlie was not as interesting as a character as Vince was.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would! It's definitely different, and there are things that I wish would have been expanded on more/had more written about them, but all in all, it was a good read. I'm looking forward to the sequel!
Graphic: Death, Blood
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Stalking
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder
Minor: Addiction, Sexual content
Speaking of Charlie, at times I got kind of annoyed at her character for being bullheaded but that was also who she was and I couldn’t fault her for that at the end of the day because she needed to be that way to develop as a character and get to where she was at the end of the book.
I really felt while reading this book that I had never read anything like it before and that is saying something. Holly Black once again coming in with the unique and wonderful world building. I also really liked that the story wrapped up pretty succinctly at the end while also leaving me intrigued for the second book. For a bit there I wasn’t sure what was going to be left to keep me hooked into wanting to read book two, but then she did it! Last minute hook to keep me coming back for more, while also feeling like the book could stand pretty well on its own if it needed to. I really appreciated that.
Overall I really liked this book, I’m going with 4.5 stars because it took a bit to get going and at times I felt a bit confused and lost trying to keep track of all the pieces of information about the world that were coming my way that it felt a bit like an overload of information at times. But that comes with the elaborate world building at times. I would definitely recommend this book though to fans of Holly Black!
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content