Scan barcode
starrydreamer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
gs_stars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
paige87's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Stars
I actually quite enjoyed this one. I heard so many varying opinions before going into this, so I was trepidatious. I can see the reasons people had issues with Alice and the things she said and did. But I suppose I just read that as a reflection of the character herself. The author is fully aware that these are flaws, and isn't endorsing it. She wrote a selfish, flawed character, not a nice one.
The pacing was off with this book. But it drew me in eventually, and I am surprisingly looking forward to the sequel. I tend to prefer standalones.
I really appreciated the dark tone and the melancholy ending. Not a new favourite, but this book worked for me.
I actually quite enjoyed this one. I heard so many varying opinions before going into this, so I was trepidatious. I can see the reasons people had issues with Alice and the things she said and did. But I suppose I just read that as a reflection of the character herself. The author is fully aware that these are flaws, and isn't endorsing it. She wrote a selfish, flawed character, not a nice one.
The pacing was off with this book. But it drew me in eventually, and I am surprisingly looking forward to the sequel. I tend to prefer standalones.
I really appreciated the dark tone and the melancholy ending. Not a new favourite, but this book worked for me.
smolcap23's review against another edition
4.0
Many of the complaints I see about this book is that the protagonist, Alice, is unlikeable. In my opinion, it served the story well. The fairy tales were really weird, which I enjoyed. I do think this book suffers a bit from having so much of it take place in the real world, to the point where the ending seemed rushed. Overall I was invested though. Pretty solid.
emersonjwright's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
nightwithbooks's review against another edition
Another strange read. Not my cup of tea I guess...
debchan's review against another edition
4.0
i see you books about books, i see you books about angry women, i see you books that unsettle you. i see you The Starless Sea. i know this was released before the starless sea but i read it after so i'm biased with my preconceived opinions.
to preface: i didn't want to read this book. i never imagined a future where i would have read this book. whimsy, dark fantasy, with what sounds like insufferable main characters? no thank you. but then i was at the library, perusing the shelves. i wanted an easy book to read, something short to get me back into the rhythm of it and i picked this. i never expected i would actually sit down and read it cover to cover in one sitting.
i've said i start book at 3 stars and go from there. i started at 4 stars for Long Live Evil and regretted it. i started at 2 stars for this book bc i was so cynical and boy was i wrong.
the prose was lyrical and a bit haunting. no it didn't take the time to wrap an atmosphere around you or bring you slowly into the narrative. it was just how it was supposed to be, grabbing you and dragging you in kicking and screaming. there were a lot of references to pop culture which only vaguely bothered me so that's a win for melissa albert. the pacing was probably my lowlight. the acts were broken into 3 stages: intro, road trip, falling into the rabbit hole. and yet the intro zoomed past me, the road trip lagged and i didn't quite care for it, and the rabbit hole felt aimless, wandering around (which is exactly what i assume albert wanted to do so perhaps this point is useless).
alice: on my knees to apologize to her. i definitely lumped her in with naive thoughtless characters who are too kind for their own good. girl was not kind! she was always angry, suspicious, and driven forward by her insane brain. i loved alice! i love main characters who hold their own survive over everything else, who are practical. idk if practical is the right word here since this is all fairytale but in a magical way then. capable is perhaps a great way to describe her. me when it was revealed alice was plucked from her own story as alice-three-times: oh yeah it's all coming together. truly flabbergasted bc everything just clicked together
finch: this man was so annoying to me at first. because ofc he goes by finch and not ellery. ofc it's finch and not his other last name which was djon - yeah like the mustard. it was truly my first time reading when the male love interest was the manic pixie dream trope. but to be fair to him, he was usually normal like he's talking to alice and is all like "how about you get over it." like it was so weird sometimes he was that superfan puppy and other times he was so normal (and suspicious). thank you melissa albert for subverting his trope though!when it was revealed he had "betrayed" alice this whole time. when he "died". when he stayed in the hinterlands and rejected the male love interest role. i was stunned. like omg go girl fr???
this book had such an unexpected ending and i'm a big fan of it. i see there's a book 2 so i'll have to see what other adventures alice goes on. i see finch is there too hmmm.perhaps not subverting the male li role after all? albert got it so right with the sister relationship alice had with audrey: the bickering, the tea spilling, the meetup years later where audrey subconsciously knew exactly what alice didn't want to hear. give us more accurate siblings in books! (ok, not the sis part but everything else).
just some things i didn't quite enjoy. i really hate when a character sits down and spells out their tragic backstory to another character. this was my exact comlaint in Long Live Evil. because i just don't know how realistic that is. "i'm Tragic because a happened, then b happened, and then c happened." i still like finch, don't get me wrong, but alice's past was revealed in flashes and partially dragged out of her while this guy is just spilling everything about himself to someone he only really got to know the day prior. my other debatable point is the way all these businessmen are portrayed. not defending them bc harold seems like an awful person. but too often i see authors, especially fantastical ones, completely bash the corporates, like he only cares about the shareholders, the appearances, the business deals. like umm as a business major, they kind of are important if you want to keep your job and living! and why are they all just haters of reading? like yes the job is important, but we're also people too. let businesspeople love reading, it's not only for the artsy creative people! (see on the contrary: finch's dad and harold's dad weren't just businessmen they were ultra wealthy so maybe albert is making a point that attaining that type of wealth and wanting more kinda blinds you to the arts? like those type of people would only care about the shareholders? i mean ik we have a horrible image but not all business majors and people are dead inside. lots of us like reading!).
there's one plot pot i don't really understand? what was the point of taking a photo of alice and finch and then putting it inside the book at the booksellers?? like i'm assuming katherine and the other boy did that but why? to bring alice to the hazel wood bc she was already set on going there? i mean it was creepy af but idk why it happened.
liked this so much more than i thought i would. genuinely, kept flipping pages, so invested. the ending felt a little lacking of the tenseness but it was just a minor thing. the creepiness throughout the book was so palpable and alice was an extremely compelling character. definitely an unexpectedly pleasant read!
to preface: i didn't want to read this book. i never imagined a future where i would have read this book. whimsy, dark fantasy, with what sounds like insufferable main characters? no thank you. but then i was at the library, perusing the shelves. i wanted an easy book to read, something short to get me back into the rhythm of it and i picked this. i never expected i would actually sit down and read it cover to cover in one sitting.
i've said i start book at 3 stars and go from there. i started at 4 stars for Long Live Evil and regretted it. i started at 2 stars for this book bc i was so cynical and boy was i wrong.
the prose was lyrical and a bit haunting. no it didn't take the time to wrap an atmosphere around you or bring you slowly into the narrative. it was just how it was supposed to be, grabbing you and dragging you in kicking and screaming. there were a lot of references to pop culture which only vaguely bothered me so that's a win for melissa albert. the pacing was probably my lowlight. the acts were broken into 3 stages: intro, road trip, falling into the rabbit hole. and yet the intro zoomed past me, the road trip lagged and i didn't quite care for it, and the rabbit hole felt aimless, wandering around (which is exactly what i assume albert wanted to do so perhaps this point is useless).
alice: on my knees to apologize to her. i definitely lumped her in with naive thoughtless characters who are too kind for their own good. girl was not kind! she was always angry, suspicious, and driven forward by her insane brain. i loved alice! i love main characters who hold their own survive over everything else, who are practical. idk if practical is the right word here since this is all fairytale but in a magical way then. capable is perhaps a great way to describe her.
finch: this man was so annoying to me at first. because ofc he goes by finch and not ellery. ofc it's finch and not his other last name which was djon - yeah like the mustard. it was truly my first time reading when the male love interest was the manic pixie dream trope. but to be fair to him, he was usually normal like he's talking to alice and is all like "how about you get over it." like it was so weird sometimes he was that superfan puppy and other times he was so normal (and suspicious). thank you melissa albert for subverting his trope though!
this book had such an unexpected ending and i'm a big fan of it. i see there's a book 2 so i'll have to see what other adventures alice goes on. i see finch is there too hmmm.
just some things i didn't quite enjoy. i really hate when a character sits down and spells out their tragic backstory to another character. this was my exact comlaint in Long Live Evil. because i just don't know how realistic that is. "i'm Tragic because a happened, then b happened, and then c happened." i still like finch, don't get me wrong, but alice's past was revealed in flashes and partially dragged out of her while this guy is just spilling everything about himself to someone he only really got to know the day prior. my other debatable point is the way all these businessmen are portrayed. not defending them bc harold seems like an awful person. but too often i see authors, especially fantastical ones, completely bash the corporates, like he only cares about the shareholders, the appearances, the business deals. like umm as a business major, they kind of are important if you want to keep your job and living! and why are they all just haters of reading? like yes the job is important, but we're also people too. let businesspeople love reading, it's not only for the artsy creative people! (see on the contrary: finch's dad and harold's dad weren't just businessmen they were ultra wealthy so maybe albert is making a point that attaining that type of wealth and wanting more kinda blinds you to the arts? like those type of people would only care about the shareholders? i mean ik we have a horrible image but not all business majors and people are dead inside. lots of us like reading!).
there's one plot pot i don't really understand?
liked this so much more than i thought i would. genuinely, kept flipping pages, so invested. the ending felt a little lacking of the tenseness but it was just a minor thing. the creepiness throughout the book was so palpable and alice was an extremely compelling character. definitely an unexpectedly pleasant read!
drkeely's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Couldn't put it down but also spooked myself...
dizzydork's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
jozilynn's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think audiobook was the best format choice for me for this book. I was following along great and kept waiting and waiting to get to the hazel wood (which takes half the book). It was almost like a switch was flipped and as soon as the hazel wood was actually in the book I had no idea what was going on and couldn't grasp what was happening. Over all it was a good book I just got lost at the back third.