Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
So lovely I cried, and I'll definitely be reading this over and over again. I don't always love a dual timeline, but the pacing of this book was perfection, everything revealed at just the right moment.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm terrible at leaving book reviews, but this one deserves so much recognition. I'm a long time fan of V.E. Schwab's work and this is no less than brilliant! Her prose is so beautiful and the characters are nuanced and interesting. My heart was pounding throughout.
11/10 would recommend for anyone wanting to feel wistful and nostalgic and that much more appreciative of life and everything it has to offer.
11/10 would recommend for anyone wanting to feel wistful and nostalgic and that much more appreciative of life and everything it has to offer.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
well this probably would have been 4 or 5 stars had it not been for the fact that I did not care about Henry in the slightest. anyway pls can I have a spin-off for Luc... bc like... yeah
Edit: Okay here’s my full review because I am ✨scared✨ to review this on my bookstagram given this is an unpopular opinion. Also this is definitely NOT a coherent or well-written review but I just have to get all of my thoughts out
Me at 30%: 5 stars, gonna be my all time fave, love it
Me at 50%: still good but maybe 4 stars
Me at 70%: holy shit this is so boring i would be surprised if I give this more than 2 stars
Me at 85%: HELL YEAH THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT. LUC AND ADDIE, GIVE IT TO ME, HENRY IN THE BIN
Me at the end: lol okay well that was a Bad Ending
Basically as you can see my thoughts and opinions on this book are all over the place. Overall it was a huge disappointment for me given the extreme hype, and also my own expectations (I ate up the Villians series by VE Schwab and I know how much this book means to her so I literally hate that I don’t like it more).
I thought it started off really strong - the premise is so interesting and I loved feeling the desperation that Addie had to try and escape her situation. It made me feel super attached to her and excited to see her character development after having to live with her decision for so long. But I think a few other reviewers have pointed out nicely that Addie actually doesn’t seem to develop as a character at all from when she still lived in the village in France. I get that she doesn’t physically age but surely that doesn’t mean she also doesn’t mentally age? I feel like the only difference between the Addie we were reading in the 1700s vs the Addie in the 2010s was that she was more ‘tired’ in recent years. Also I have to say I think the flashbacks got so boring after a while - it would have been so much more interesting if we actually got more exploration of all her travels, her experience of massive historical events - rather than just hearing accounts of her sleeping with random people, or her returning back to Villon for the millionth time (like once or twice sure but does it need to happen every other chapter... idk I feel like it added absolutely nothing after a while).
Speaking of boredom, the latter half of the book was so. Incredibly. Dull. I think this was not helped by the fact that I did not care for Henry at all as a character nor was I convinced by Addie and Henry’s relationship. I appreciated Henry’s backstory and I did find it very tragic, so I’m not entirely sure what wasn’t letting me connect to him as a character, but I just didn’t really care for his chapters too much. I did really love the implication that things that we may wish for, things that we think could make us eternally happy, will never be what we think it is, and that there is always a catch (Henry may be able to be loved by everyone and be ‘enough’ for everyone as he has always wanted, but with the consequence that nobody will ever know him for his true self). I thought that was beautiful and definitely resonated with me a lot. But I think the idea/message was a lot stronger than the actual character Schwab created if that makes sense.
I also did not feel any chemistry whatsoever between Addie and Henry - it literally felt like they only liked each other because they cancelled each other’s curses out and nothing else? You can’t tell me they were in love just because of that, it made no sense? There was more chemistry between some of the random guys and girls Addie slept with than with her and Henry.
Addie and Luc though?! I ate that UP oh my god. If the book was literally just about Addie and Luc it would have been amazing and wonderful and probably one of my favourites. It would have also allowed for more character development of Luc, which was definitely another disappointment for me - why was he so infatuated with Addie? Where did he come from?? ARE there other gods? Honestly if Schwab wants to write a spin-off purely focusing on him and how he came to find Addie and ultimately fall in love with her then I would be all for it. He was definitely the most interesting part of the book, and the last 15% of the book definitely picked up purely because of their relationship. I still didn’t really like the ending though, it felt so cringy to me and just... again didn’t really make sense to me given how little I was convinced by Henry and Addie’s love for each other.
So yeah this wasn’t a bad book and I can definitely see why people adore it, but it just left me a little disappointed in places and is definitely not a stand-out to me. I really don’t think this book needed to be as long as it was, but again that’s probably more of a consequence of just not liking the characters/story as much as I hoped.
Edit: Okay here’s my full review because I am ✨scared✨ to review this on my bookstagram given this is an unpopular opinion. Also this is definitely NOT a coherent or well-written review but I just have to get all of my thoughts out
Me at 30%: 5 stars, gonna be my all time fave, love it
Me at 50%: still good but maybe 4 stars
Me at 70%: holy shit this is so boring i would be surprised if I give this more than 2 stars
Me at 85%: HELL YEAH THIS IS THE GOOD SHIT. LUC AND ADDIE, GIVE IT TO ME, HENRY IN THE BIN
Me at the end: lol okay well that was a Bad Ending
Basically as you can see my thoughts and opinions on this book are all over the place. Overall it was a huge disappointment for me given the extreme hype, and also my own expectations (I ate up the Villians series by VE Schwab and I know how much this book means to her so I literally hate that I don’t like it more).
I thought it started off really strong - the premise is so interesting and I loved feeling the desperation that Addie had to try and escape her situation. It made me feel super attached to her and excited to see her character development after having to live with her decision for so long. But I think a few other reviewers have pointed out nicely that Addie actually doesn’t seem to develop as a character at all from when she still lived in the village in France. I get that she doesn’t physically age but surely that doesn’t mean she also doesn’t mentally age? I feel like the only difference between the Addie we were reading in the 1700s vs the Addie in the 2010s was that she was more ‘tired’ in recent years. Also I have to say I think the flashbacks got so boring after a while - it would have been so much more interesting if we actually got more exploration of all her travels, her experience of massive historical events - rather than just hearing accounts of her sleeping with random people, or her returning back to Villon for the millionth time (like once or twice sure but does it need to happen every other chapter... idk I feel like it added absolutely nothing after a while).
Speaking of boredom, the latter half of the book was so. Incredibly. Dull. I think this was not helped by the fact that I did not care for Henry at all as a character nor was I convinced by Addie and Henry’s relationship. I appreciated Henry’s backstory and I did find it very tragic, so I’m not entirely sure what wasn’t letting me connect to him as a character, but I just didn’t really care for his chapters too much. I did really love the implication that things that we may wish for, things that we think could make us eternally happy, will never be what we think it is, and that there is always a catch (Henry may be able to be loved by everyone and be ‘enough’ for everyone as he has always wanted, but with the consequence that nobody will ever know him for his true self). I thought that was beautiful and definitely resonated with me a lot. But I think the idea/message was a lot stronger than the actual character Schwab created if that makes sense.
I also did not feel any chemistry whatsoever between Addie and Henry - it literally felt like they only liked each other because they cancelled each other’s curses out and nothing else? You can’t tell me they were in love just because of that, it made no sense? There was more chemistry between some of the random guys and girls Addie slept with than with her and Henry.
Addie and Luc though?! I ate that UP oh my god. If the book was literally just about Addie and Luc it would have been amazing and wonderful and probably one of my favourites. It would have also allowed for more character development of Luc, which was definitely another disappointment for me - why was he so infatuated with Addie? Where did he come from?? ARE there other gods? Honestly if Schwab wants to write a spin-off purely focusing on him and how he came to find Addie and ultimately fall in love with her then I would be all for it. He was definitely the most interesting part of the book, and the last 15% of the book definitely picked up purely because of their relationship. I still didn’t really like the ending though, it felt so cringy to me and just... again didn’t really make sense to me given how little I was convinced by Henry and Addie’s love for each other.
So yeah this wasn’t a bad book and I can definitely see why people adore it, but it just left me a little disappointed in places and is definitely not a stand-out to me. I really don’t think this book needed to be as long as it was, but again that’s probably more of a consequence of just not liking the characters/story as much as I hoped.
Wat heb ik genoten van dit verhaal. Prachtige combinatie van historische fictie en magisch realisme.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I just felt like it could've been at least 100 pages shorter, cut some of that backstory out. It was interesting enough for me to not DNF it, but also I only genuinely started to feel interested into this story around page 350....
Wow, just finished sobbing my eyes out and my coworker asked me if I was ok and I wanted to scream noooooo I'm nooootttt. Gorgeous and poignant and just lovely.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Love this just wow
Everything I wanted out of this book
Everything I wanted out of this book