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mirificmoxie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child death, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Abandonment
dkgreads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was . . . disappointing. Which is frustrating because it had SO much potential. The concept is mysterious and magical, but the world building could have used more depth. The characters were flat and lacked a tangible connection. And, in the end, I felt like we were left with more questions (plot holes) than answers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual content
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Child death, Torture, and Kidnapping
Minor: Vomit
cassimiranda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I received an eARC of this book for review from Redhook Books via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
This isn't for me. Summers writes an interesting and complex world using beautiful prose. Unfortunately, that world ends up feeling like a sparsely populated open world video game - pretty at the surface level but no real depth or life. The real disappointment for me was the distanced writing style which offered no chance to connect with really understand the characters. There was also the repeated tendency to summarize large chunks of time in breezy paragraphs that give the reader no real sense of character development. I saw it compared to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Practical Magic, and I agree. If you like either those two books, give this one a chance.
This isn't for me. Summers writes an interesting and complex world using beautiful prose. Unfortunately, that world ends up feeling like a sparsely populated open world video game - pretty at the surface level but no real depth or life. The real disappointment for me was the distanced writing style which offered no chance to connect with really understand the characters. There was also the repeated tendency to summarize large chunks of time in breezy paragraphs that give the reader no real sense of character development. I saw it compared to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Practical Magic, and I agree. If you like either those two books, give this one a chance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting
jenellereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I just kept waiting for something to happen. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Then it did. And it was anticlimactic.
Somehow I was both gripped and bored. And I have so many questions. Why do we get no closure about Marianne? What is the point of the scholars? What do they do?
My big thought for this book was “everything could’ve been avoided if…” because there was no fantastic, powerful, dynamic ending that left me satisfied. It just…ended.
And then I realized why.
The characters.
They are so flat and impossible to connect with. I’m not sure where or why I thought this had a romance aspect but don’t be misled, it does not. And romance aside (or lack there of), the characters had no personalities. Violet had the basic tenets of a fantasy FMC: brave, stubborn, curious. But so does my toddler’s Llama Llama red pajama book. And Aleksander, gosh. COWARD. Spineless, useless MMC. Kick him to the curb.
I did enjoy the CONCEPT, not plot, but concept. I felt like the idea was there and just poorly executed. The whole book left me curious and wanting more which is why I gave it 2 stars (it was going to be 3) but just ultimately unsatisfied at the end.
Also. GOSH READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS PLEASE. My mom heart almost DNFd. That was ROUGH! Like DARK fantasy I wasn’t expecting.
Somehow I was both gripped and bored. And I have so many questions. Why do we get no closure about Marianne? What is the point of the scholars? What do they do?
My big thought for this book was “everything could’ve been avoided if…” because there was no fantastic, powerful, dynamic ending that left me satisfied. It just…ended.
And then I realized why.
The characters.
They are so flat and impossible to connect with. I’m not sure where or why I thought this had a romance aspect but don’t be misled, it does not. And romance aside (or lack there of), the characters had no personalities. Violet had the basic tenets of a fantasy FMC: brave, stubborn, curious. But so does my toddler’s Llama Llama red pajama book. And Aleksander, gosh. COWARD. Spineless, useless MMC. Kick him to the curb.
I did enjoy the CONCEPT, not plot, but concept. I felt like the idea was there and just poorly executed. The whole book left me curious and wanting more which is why I gave it 2 stars (it was going to be 3) but just ultimately unsatisfied at the end.
Also. GOSH READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS PLEASE. My mom heart almost DNFd. That was ROUGH! Like DARK fantasy I wasn’t expecting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping
sarahweyand's review against another edition
Thanks to Redhook Books and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feedback are my own.
This might be my biggest case of "it's not you, it's me" to date. I requested this ARC because I genuinely loved the premise of the blurb. When I started reading, I was intrigued by the inciting conflict and was interested in our main characters. I also appreciated the prose I was reading; the novel seemed well-crafted and the writing was nice and intricate without being purple.
As I read, the worldbuilding felt lacking and the pacing seemed to drag. I didn't love Violet and the decisions she was making; she seemed too naive and hesitant that I was reluctant to root for her. She seemed to lack any urgency for a climax with a definitive timeline, and because of that I found myself only able to read a couple pages at a time.
Perhaps at some point I'll pick this book back up again and give it another go. But for now, I'm going to move on.
This might be my biggest case of "it's not you, it's me" to date. I requested this ARC because I genuinely loved the premise of the blurb. When I started reading, I was intrigued by the inciting conflict and was interested in our main characters. I also appreciated the prose I was reading; the novel seemed well-crafted and the writing was nice and intricate without being purple.
As I read, the worldbuilding felt lacking and the pacing seemed to drag. I didn't love Violet and the decisions she was making; she seemed too naive and hesitant that I was reluctant to root for her. She seemed to lack any urgency for a climax with a definitive timeline, and because of that I found myself only able to read a couple pages at a time.
Perhaps at some point I'll pick this book back up again and give it another go. But for now, I'm going to move on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Abandonment
lilifane's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
WTF did I just read?
I was really expecting something totally different but was pleasantly surprised by this book.
The writing is so beautiful, lush, sensual and the atmosphere it creates reminded me immensely of The Starless Sea (which might be my favorite book of all times, so I was pretty biased once I noticed the similarities). They have some plot points, themes and imagery in common, but it's mostly the vibes I'm talking about. Mainly, the no plot just vibes attitude.
I did enjoy the plot, it felt like a dark fairy tale, and it went darker places than I expected. There were pacing issues, though, and a lot of conveniences and weird character decisions. Speaking of the characters, since the focus is mostly on the vibes and the fairy tale story structure, the characters were not as flashed out as I usually like. Especially Violet, the protagonist, felt one dimensional. Secondary characters like Penelope and Aleksander were way more memorable than Violet, and their motivations were more nuanced and intriguing.
But again, the way the atmosphere and the vibes were making me feel... I was longing for this feeling since I've read The Starless Sea for the first time. And it's really hard to find, so I'm just happy to have experienced it again with this book. And despite it not being a perfect book, I loved it with all my heart.
I was really expecting something totally different but was pleasantly surprised by this book.
The writing is so beautiful, lush, sensual and the atmosphere it creates reminded me immensely of The Starless Sea (which might be my favorite book of all times, so I was pretty biased once I noticed the similarities). They have some plot points, themes and imagery in common, but it's mostly the vibes I'm talking about. Mainly, the no plot just vibes attitude.
I did enjoy the plot, it felt like a dark fairy tale, and it went darker places than I expected. There were pacing issues, though, and a lot of conveniences and weird character decisions. Speaking of the characters, since the focus is mostly on the vibes and the fairy tale story structure, the characters were not as flashed out as I usually like. Especially Violet, the protagonist, felt one dimensional. Secondary characters like Penelope and Aleksander were way more memorable than Violet, and their motivations were more nuanced and intriguing.
But again, the way the atmosphere and the vibes were making me feel... I was longing for this feeling since I've read The Starless Sea for the first time. And it's really hard to find, so I'm just happy to have experienced it again with this book. And despite it not being a perfect book, I loved it with all my heart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
marleens's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Kidnapping
gaby_readsbooks's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This book had so much potential and some beautiful writing at times but I just could not get into it. I think my main issues were the structure, lack of world building and the 3rd person narrative. This is a story about a woman who is trying to end a curse on her family and there’s a magical world. Sounds super cool, like it would have lots of adventure and an exciting pace to end the curse by a timeline. But I found myself bored a lot of times and the pacing would speed up and slow down a lot when it should have been ramping up. The characters didn’t really feel fleshed out and would sometimes do something that didn’t make any sense or we would hear about something they did off page. I couldn’t get invested in any of the characters at all, the world was interesting but not explained in an understandable way. I think if the structure of the book had been tweaked a bit it could have made a difference. While this has beautiful descriptive writing and an interesting concept and magical world it didn’t quite succeed in creating the magic of The Night Circus or Addie LaRue which it has comparisons to. I’m sad because it did have some cool concepts that I haven’t seen in other fantasy books but it just didn’t deliver for me,
Thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for granting me access to the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for granting me access to the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Blood
Moderate: Kidnapping and Abandonment
thisbrittreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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
5.0
Do you not hear the stars sing, little dreamer?
*Netgalley ARC review*
Wow. I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. What an absolute treasure of a debut for Georgia Summers.
This book had it all and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It’s got magic, mystery, adventure, love, betrayal, family, a curse, keys and doors to new worlds, and a really good (bad) villain. This book is dark. Definitely evokes a very Grimm’s fairytale vibe at its heart, very dark with myths and lore and stories passed down of gods and truly dark monsters. Violet Everly was such a compelling main character and I loved watching her finally get the adventure she’d always dreamed of, even if it was more dark and twisty than she’d imagined. The side characters that pop in and out of the story are perfect and add so much flavor. This is a gorgeously written and beautifully crafted story that weaves its own fairytale among the different threads within its pages. An excellent standalone novel that grabbed my attention from the very start and never let go.
Thank you so much to @netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Kidnapping