Reviews with content warning for Blood - Lakesedge

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone

36 reviews

haley49's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

I loved the atmosphere and characters. They all felt sympathetic and realistic, especially when making frustrating decisions! I really liked the main couple and enjoyed their journey together. They had a beauty and the beast feel that was well-done. That said, this book had parts where I felt like I was missing something and there were a few moments where J was confused. I also wish the secondary characters, particularly Violeta’s brother got more time to shine. Overall, a great read with some surprisingly heart-tugging moments that left me emotional on these characters (Leta and Rowan’s) behalfs.

I hated Leta’s sacrifice though! I found myself wishing she died rather than give up her memories! That hurt😭😭

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laceyc1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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laura_2209's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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caidyn's review against another edition

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Just... not for me. I was excited about this book. I agree that the world is lush and interesting, but the writing and dialogue pushed me away.

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anxiousnachos's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

3.75

Maybe closer to a 3.5? I really enjoyed this! I read most of it in one sitting. Monster love interest really is one of my absolute favourite tropes and it is done so fabulously here, Rowan was one of my favourite parts of this book. He wears so many EARRINGS and is BISEXUAL. There’s also creepy lake magic and dark death gods who whisper in your ear yes please sir I will take that.

I do think it lacked a little substance though. At first I thought maybe it’s because I’ve read a lot of gothic adult books recently and so obviously a YA book is going to feel less dark/gory/horrific/intense compared to those. But the more I read, the more I felt there was something more genuinely missing, unrelated to the adult/YA divide. Despite that, I did thoroughly enjoy this book, bisexual monster boyfriends for the win, but it was quite an easy read and lacked a little depth for me.

Content warnings: self harm, child abuse, blood, sex, violence, some really gross vomit scenes, death of parent

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crystalisreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The description, cover, and title combination for Lakesedge caught my attention right away, and I was glad to be granted an advanced copy. The story itself pulled me in right away, with intriguing world building and a strong older sister fighting to keep her younger brother safe in an abusive environment. The magic/ religious system in the story is interesting and cohesive, and the world as described seemed welcoming and pleasant. Well, mostly. At first. Then the magic really started. And the romance. And the drama. And the impulsive and often self-destructive decisions.

Violetta is extremely self-sacrificing when it comes to protecting her loved ones, and not good at caring for herself at all. The more you get to understand the trauma she has been through, the more her behavior makes sense, but it still gets a little tiresome after awhile. I felt like this was very YA, with maximum angst, both familial and romantic. There’s also some sort of love triangle, and the story ends on a cliffhanger. I keep forgetting that “lush” as a book descriptor means all the purple prose describing everything, and while this book wasn’t terrible, I got a little tired of hearing about how everything tastes like ash or burned sugar or poison or whatever, and how there were strings tied from / tightening her heart, etc. And this is very much my own preference, but some of the things these characters, especially Leta, went through, and the losses they endured, just felt like too much. I could see how the writing is gothic fantasy bordering on horror.

I did love the LGBTQ+ rep, as multiple supporting characters had same sex preferences or were bi/pan, and Leta appeared to be demisexual. And while this is wholly a fantasy setting, and Violetta and her brother are fair skinned and red headed, there’s also a fair amount of supporting characters who are described as having darker skin, curly hair, etc. Also, women have a lot of agency in this story, and while most of the people with leadership roles in the story (lords, village leaders, etc) were male, several of the female characters filled important professional roles and all the women were treated with respect. (The characters definitely existed on a gender binary, and there was no non-binary representation that I can remember.

Overall this was an enjoyable, if sometimes slightly redundant and slow read. I finished it in a few days around the autumn holidays. While I’m not sure I’ll bother reading the sequel, I nevertheless appreciate #NetGalley and Macmillan granting me a free electronic advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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taylorjayne's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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andi's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

i definitely should’ve given up on this book, but i kept hoping it will get better. spoiler alert, it didn’t.

lakesedge promised a gothic fantasy, with monsters and magic – but it was lukewarm at best. the plot was repetitive, falling into the same, annoying romance tropes. i was in a constant state of frustration while reading the book – which, by the way, almost put me in a slump as i had no motivation to continue.

the feeble attempt at creating a monstrous love interest was a failure. we’re constantly told both by leta – the main character and by the cast of side characters that the love interest is a monster, and yet we’re shown no proof to back up that claim. rowan doesn’t act like a monster or as a villain at all and yet everyone will continue to view him like one. which got on my nerves after the first 5 times we’re reminded that he’s a monster.

the magic part was so underwhelming – the novel keeps going back and forth between attempting at fixing the thing with magic and failing. and that goes on for a good part of the story, without it really explaining the magic system to us or any motivation for why they’re doing the same thing over and over again and expecting it to work. i also didn’t really grasp why arien’s shadows did anything for the corruption.

another choice i didn’t quite understand is how the big reveal is approached. this huge, important aspect is just casually thrown in as if leta just remembered it – but i don’t think this is something you could ever forget. like she conveniently forgot this detail until it was useful and then magically remembered it. because that makes an awfully lot of sense.

the story could’ve done with the relationship between leta and rowan – it felt forced. they barely knew each other and yet they’re ready to die so the other person lives after a month or so of living in the same house. they had a couple interactions, but i don’t feel like those backed up their relationship that much- since they hated each other for the first week of them living together. i honestly think leta had more chemistry with lord under than with rowan. rowan’s character is very flat, in my opinion. he’s nothing but the misunderstood love interest and i hoped the book would commit to him being morally gray, but nope – he turns soft very fast because love magically heals all that trauma.

leta, the main character, is probably a character i’ll never forget because she annoyed the living hell out of me. we’re told that she’s brave and strong and yet she never rises up to that description. she’s so immature and she constantly acts on impulse, without actually thinking about what she’s about to do or about consequences. arien, her 13yo brother, had a better personality than she did – he was more mature, more contained in his actions. leta constantly tries to sacrifice herself for the sake of saving everyone else, but this saviour complex of hers got really tiring, really fast. she’s exhausting to read about.

the side characters had almost no point in this novel, they were severely underused. they show up a couple of times and i honestly forgot who’s who at some point because they are in so little scenes – both clover, the alchemist, and florence – the maid (i think??) added nothing to the overall story. arien had a bigger presence, but i think he’s there as a reason for leta to sacrifice herself. other than his shadows, we know nothing about him. the book also features some LGBTQ rep but it’s just glossed over so truly not memorable at all – there’s a line about rowan kissing a boy when he was little and a scene with clover’s girlfriend. and that’s it.

the book also doesn’t focus on worldbuilding at all – it’s all vague and underdeveloped. which is a shame, because the setting would’ve been really cool if the author paid more attention to crafting it. it’s been pitched as a gothic novel, but it barely dips its toes in the genre. the gothic aspect is surface-level. i also wish we would get more information about lord under and the corruption – but both show up when it’s convenient.

also, i’m really mad at how leta went on and on about how badly of an idea trusting lord under was and then she does exactly that and gets mad when it doesn’t end well. miss girl, what??? what did you expect?? why are you surprised the literal incarnation of death tricked you?

alas, lakesedge tried to do too many things at the same time. it had a lot of potential, but it ended up being such a disappointing read.

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persephone_19's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Repetitive. Clunky dialogue, very awkward at times. Over-explained a lot, but under-explained important plot elements. It got to the point where I was reading only dialogue and skipping whole pages. Love the idea, especially the idea of the magic system. It just needs work. I think it'll be better for younger people who don't care about that stuff and people that like somewhat cheesy romance. Also, I just found the main character's need for martyrdom really really annoying

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motherofheleus's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

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