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hmatt's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Okay wow I just stumbled into this book as a rec on TSG and it blew me away. Perfect dark YA fairytale with real social commentary that doesn't feel forced.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Vomit
laurenwerlinger's review
adventurous
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is a beautiful story about trauma, magic, and love.
While the themes of the story are clear, they often come across as heavy-handed where author Katrina Leno had the opportunity for more subtlety. The middle of the book felt aimless and unfocused. Leno tries to incorporate different storylines and characters, but often they are disjointed. The romance that occurs between two characters is rushed and not very compelling.
However, the book is redeemed by the atmosphere it creates. Leno draws the reader in to the island of By-the-Sea with beautiful, grounded descriptions of the island and its people. I also loved the soft magic system and the way the magic tied into the theme of trauma.
While the themes of the story are clear, they often come across as heavy-handed where author Katrina Leno had the opportunity for more subtlety. The middle of the book felt aimless and unfocused. Leno tries to incorporate different storylines and characters, but often they are disjointed. The romance that occurs between two characters is rushed and not very compelling.
However, the book is redeemed by the atmosphere it creates. Leno draws the reader in to the island of By-the-Sea with beautiful, grounded descriptions of the island and its people. I also loved the soft magic system and the way the magic tied into the theme of trauma.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Rape, Vomit, and Gun violence
Slut shaming, victim blamingjbellomy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
purplebubblesinmytea's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
mayah's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I found this pretty underwhelming. I need to think about this more, but my rating is probably more of a 2.5
I liked the magic and magical realism but I felt the foreshadowing was really heavy handed, made the plot super obvious and therefore not that interesting. Also, a lot of reviews for this book contain trigger warnings, which is great, but in this book that trigger warning was the whole plot? Because I had the trigger warning, I honestly predicted every single thing that happened in the book. Because I could predict every. single. thing. that happened, I didn’t really feel much impact?
Normally I don’t read books just for the plot, but the main character in this book was not compelling or interesting. She didn’t really have a personality and didn’t experience any growth or development as a character. Also, there are a lot of side characters in this book and all the relationships with them felt very underdeveloped.
So yeah, the Oceanside magical setting was cool and atmospheric and I really enjoyed that, but the rest of the book was meh. I also didn’t like the ending? I get that this book is ~magical~ but the way that it wrapped up was so simplistic and idealistic and it left me frustrated at its simplicity rather than satisfied.
So yeah, this was really underwhelming for me.
I liked the magic and magical realism but I felt the foreshadowing was really heavy handed, made the plot super obvious and therefore not that interesting. Also, a lot of reviews for this book contain trigger warnings, which is great, but in this book that trigger warning was the whole plot? Because I had the trigger warning, I honestly predicted every single thing that happened in the book. Because I could predict every. single. thing. that happened, I didn’t really feel much impact?
Normally I don’t read books just for the plot, but the main character in this book was not compelling or interesting. She didn’t really have a personality and didn’t experience any growth or development as a character. Also, there are a lot of side characters in this book and all the relationships with them felt very underdeveloped.
So yeah, the Oceanside magical setting was cool and atmospheric and I really enjoyed that, but the rest of the book was meh. I also didn’t like the ending? I get that this book is ~magical~ but the way that it wrapped up was so simplistic and idealistic and it left me frustrated at its simplicity rather than satisfied.
So yeah, this was really underwhelming for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
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