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hobbit_at_heart's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I really enjoyed this story! However, I will say I do not see any correlation between this story and comparing it to "dracula and beauty and the beast" aside from a girl falling for a "devil" in a castle.
The whole time I thought Vad Deverel was going to end up being a vampire or something and that never happened. So that was a touch disappointing. The smut could have been a touch better, but I won't complain.
I suck at reviews, but all-in-all, a good story. Definitely New Adult vibes. At first I was under the impression that this was set in an older timeline, however it was fairly modern with random things like the use of phones and internet was stuck in. Some of the writing was kind of cringy and I sped read through a LOT of fluffy bits that simply weren't all that necessary to have even been put into writing. Overall, good book. If Goodreads would do a 1/2 star system, this would be a solid 3.5 for me but I rounded up for the sake of having enjoyed the plot twist at the end bc I never would have seen it coming. Wild ride at the end!
HEA was corny as SHIT.
The whole time I thought Vad Deverel was going to end up being a vampire or something and that never happened. So that was a touch disappointing. The smut could have been a touch better, but I won't complain.
I suck at reviews, but all-in-all, a good story. Definitely New Adult vibes. At first I was under the impression that this was set in an older timeline, however it was fairly modern with random things like the use of phones and internet was stuck in. Some of the writing was kind of cringy and I sped read through a LOT of fluffy bits that simply weren't all that necessary to have even been put into writing. Overall, good book. If Goodreads would do a 1/2 star system, this would be a solid 3.5 for me but I rounded up for the sake of having enjoyed the plot twist at the end bc I never would have seen it coming. Wild ride at the end!
HEA was corny as SHIT.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Suicide, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, and Stalking
Minor: Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Incest
vreyna20_2004's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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? No
4.5
This is my first book from RuNyx and seeing some Youtubers talking about how much they did not like this book I had thought I would share their opinion despite hearing more positive reviews about this book. And as you can tell from the rating I did enjoy the book for the mystery and mystery alone. The romance in this book felt second to the story (sex) since Vad and Corvina spent most of their time bonking each other instead of getting to know each other and grow into a passionate romantic relationship. It was instalust is what I’m saying which I despise MORE than instalove. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t blushing and throwing my phone across the room whenever Vad would say something. I have read stories where the girl knows NOTHING and goes in blind to a sexual relationship and almost acts aloof or innocent to whatever is going on (shudders) but Corvina was not like that. She was not annoying like I originally thought before going into the book blind.
Then it’s the night of the Black Ball. Vad and Corvina escape to have some alone time but stop when they hear shouting which is when they find out that Jade and another girl went missing. Ajax–Troy’s older brother who went to school with Vad–follows Corvina to the small cottage in the woods when they discover the body of Jade Prescott but it’s not Corvina’s friend as this Jade has been dead for five years. Jade knocks out Corvina and tells her everything and why she killed Troy, Alissa, and now Corvina. Disgusted with Jade wanted Vad (romantically) a crowd forms before Vad pushes her off, killing her. They then leave and live together with the plans of having a family.
The reasons why I didn’t like the plot was because of Jade wanting to bonk her relative so they can become a strong couple. Barf. But it was also the fact that Corvina read her journals and wrote a book titled Gothikana. It’s a book ick for me reading/watching/listening to anything and the character writes a book and names it the title of the book/series it may not bother you but it always manages to piss me the fuck off. Final opinions are the book wasn’t that bad but it’s more of a guilty pleasure thing I went with the vibes and the vibes of this book were excellent. I enjoyed reading it (sometimes I stopped listening to the audiobook so I can finish faster) I did find it weird going to Vad’s pov since it follows only Corvina’s. Also this book is in third person but don’t be afraid to try it I personally am indifferent to what pov people use (except second) so it didn’t bother me at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Blood, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Suicide and Dementia
Minor: Incest
stageandpage's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A bok so good I had to stop reading because I didn't want it to finish!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Suicide
Moderate: Grief, Murder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Sexual content, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest, Blood, and Death
mabellene's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, and Blood
Minor: Rape and Incest
viselik's review against another edition
- 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
Please DO NOT read this book if any of the following topics trigger or upset you as the book does not handle these topics with care.
SCHIZOPHRENIA, SUICIDE, SELF-HARM, ABUSE, IFFY SEXUAL SITUATIONS OR INCEST
I would have done lower stars if I could. This book honestly handles the topics inside of it really poorly. If I wasn't so stubborn about my rule about finishing a book, I would have put this down after chapter 10.
I won't really go in-depth here as I'm not even comfortable remembering the book fully, would highly recommend The Book Leo's video here on this book as she states a lot of what I feel about this book but I'll give a quick rundown of my final thoughts on it.
Spoiler
The main cast of characters all feel quite childlike at times, I'm not quite sure about it. Even the teacher character Vad Deverell feels like this a lot of the time. Even more so on how jealous he gets over Troy or Jax who are both around 19 years old. Corvina (whose name is literally a fish) I can't even get started at how childlike she seemed, or just how unaware of the danger she could be in.
Also, why did it take until around chapter 16 to find out Vad's age? Why is the author hiding it? Not to mention it's only said once, compared to the several times the student's ages are given out or even the amount of times we are told Corvina is in her early 20s.
The author does state that she made Vad's character vague but having that doesn't excuse how one-dimensional he felt most of the time. Even when we are finding out about his backstory it didn't feel like it was helping his character, at times I even preferred now knowing as I was constantly thinking by the end if he was going to kill someone like he did his grandfather.
The main mystery of the book, the Black Ball held every 5 years and each time it's on someone goes missing... well this is never answered. Instead, we get an incest scene about our love interest Vad's crazy family member who wants to have his kids so they would have good 'devil' genes and could run the school. This same family member has caused at least 2 people to jump off the roof and tried to get our MC to do it as well, she does this via a drug... Yeah. I would highly not recommend this book to anyone.
The several sex scenes in this feel rather poorly written, there are a few moments floating around the internet about some of the lines from this book but as I've read I've noticed a few more. Quite a
lot of them are all in the sex scenes and their incessant need to mention madness, but this madness is never really described.
Another thing I noticed about this book, we get a lot of being told but not having it described at all. Like the music from chapter 2 I believe, it's said to be "Haunting. Eerie. Ethereal." though nothing else is really described about it. We don't even know it's a piano till we see the guy who is playing it.
If you are looking for sex scenes, please just go look at the porn without plot tag on AO3 you could probably find even better sex scenes without having to pay for them.
SCHIZOPHRENIA, SUICIDE, SELF-HARM, ABUSE, IFFY SEXUAL SITUATIONS OR INCEST
I would have done lower stars if I could. This book honestly handles the topics inside of it really poorly. If I wasn't so stubborn about my rule about finishing a book, I would have put this down after chapter 10.
I won't really go in-depth here as I'm not even comfortable remembering the book fully, would highly recommend The Book Leo's video here on this book as she states a lot of what I feel about this book but I'll give a quick rundown of my final thoughts on it.
Spoiler
The main cast of characters all feel quite childlike at times, I'm not quite sure about it. Even the teacher character Vad Deverell feels like this a lot of the time. Even more so on how jealous he gets over Troy or Jax who are both around 19 years old. Corvina (whose name is literally a fish) I can't even get started at how childlike she seemed, or just how unaware of the danger she could be in.
Also, why did it take until around chapter 16 to find out Vad's age? Why is the author hiding it? Not to mention it's only said once, compared to the several times the student's ages are given out or even the amount of times we are told Corvina is in her early 20s.
The author does state that she made Vad's character vague but having that doesn't excuse how one-dimensional he felt most of the time. Even when we are finding out about his backstory it didn't feel like it was helping his character, at times I even preferred now knowing as I was constantly thinking by the end if he was going to kill someone like he did his grandfather.
The main mystery of the book, the Black Ball held every 5 years and each time it's on someone goes missing... well this is never answered. Instead, we get an incest scene about our love interest Vad's crazy family member who wants to have his kids so they would have good 'devil' genes and could run the school. This same family member has caused at least 2 people to jump off the roof and tried to get our MC to do it as well, she does this via a drug... Yeah. I would highly not recommend this book to anyone.
The several sex scenes in this feel rather poorly written, there are a few moments floating around the internet about some of the lines from this book but as I've read I've noticed a few more. Quite a
lot of them are all in the sex scenes and their incessant need to mention madness, but this madness is never really described.
Another thing I noticed about this book, we get a lot of being told but not having it described at all. Like the music from chapter 2 I believe, it's said to be "Haunting. Eerie. Ethereal." though nothing else is really described about it. We don't even know it's a piano till we see the guy who is playing it.
If you are looking for sex scenes, please just go look at the porn without plot tag on AO3 you could probably find even better sex scenes without having to pay for them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault
Moderate: Abandonment, Dementia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia
- Consent is never given in one of the sex scenes. -abbiexhope's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Death, and Dementia
Minor: Incest
chaotic_hyperactive's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Murder and Dementia
Minor: Incest, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape
dosxhime's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking
Minor: Rape
kimis's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-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
1.0
Gothikana is told from the perspective of Corvina, a girl raised by her single mother in a remote home separated from her village, who receives an invitation to attend an exclusive school. The story follows Corvina and her relationship with her English lecturer, Vad, and her attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding her new school.
I couldn't get myself to like, understand, support or root for any of the characters. Particularly Corvina and Vad (very unfortunate for the leads), one of whom suffered a fair lot from the dark academia equivalent of 'not like other girls' syndrome and the other was just a strange, strange man.
RuNyx struggled to find the right balance between the desire to explore Vad and Corvina's romance and the mystery that was being set up alongside it. This leads to sloppy execution in the climax of the book where, with incredibly little sense, both characters defeat the Big Bad for the simple reason they have to in order to get their happy ending. Although there is meant to be a sense of betrayal in this turn of events, there's too much alarm raised by the incestuous curve the story takes to actually care.
There are also the sort of references to literature, particularly to Dracula, that feel 1. offensive to the source material and 2. definitely came from someone who might have thought Little Women (2019) was an original story created for the movie.
As a treat, there is ableism that became hard to overlook. Throughout the book, Corvina explains she hears voices. She knows this is schizophrenia but RuNyx must not have been able to decide if she wanted to have the book contain magic or not yet at this stage (by the end it's evident the answer is both yes and no) because she also says they might be ghosts. She inherits her schizophrenia from her mother and father both and has been previously institutionalised for it. In the middle of the book, she explains this makes her not want to have any children so that they don't inherit this from her. By the end, it's thrown aside. More important is Corvina's mother who, because of schizophrenia and dementia both, is in a care home, sits and stares blankly at everything all the time, and can only speak 1 or 2 words. It feels offensive to portray her this way and is not helped any by Corvina talking to her like she's a deaf toddler throughout the whole interaction.
Overall the book was disappointing. The mystery could be interesting but was too much of an afterthought to become anything worth getting invested in and neither Vad or Corvina were able to stand on their own feet enough to make their romance feel like much of anything.
I couldn't get myself to like, understand, support or root for any of the characters. Particularly Corvina and Vad (very unfortunate for the leads), one of whom suffered a fair lot from the dark academia equivalent of 'not like other girls' syndrome and the other was just a strange, strange man.
RuNyx struggled to find the right balance between the desire to explore Vad and Corvina's romance and the mystery that was being set up alongside it. This leads to sloppy execution in the climax of the book where, with incredibly little sense, both characters defeat the Big Bad for the simple reason they have to in order to get their happy ending. Although there is meant to be a sense of betrayal in this turn of events, there's too much alarm raised by the incestuous curve the story takes to actually care.
There are also the sort of references to literature, particularly to Dracula, that feel 1. offensive to the source material and 2. definitely came from someone who might have thought Little Women (2019) was an original story created for the movie.
As a treat, there is ableism that became hard to overlook. Throughout the book, Corvina explains she hears voices. She knows this is schizophrenia but RuNyx must not have been able to decide if she wanted to have the book contain magic or not yet at this stage (by the end it's evident the answer is both yes and no) because she also says they might be ghosts. She inherits her schizophrenia from her mother and father both and has been previously institutionalised for it. In the middle of the book, she explains this makes her not want to have any children so that they don't inherit this from her. By the end, it's thrown aside. More important is Corvina's mother who, because of schizophrenia and dementia both, is in a care home, sits and stares blankly at everything all the time, and can only speak 1 or 2 words. It feels offensive to portray her this way and is not helped any by Corvina talking to her like she's a deaf toddler throughout the whole interaction.
Overall the book was disappointing. The mystery could be interesting but was too much of an afterthought to become anything worth getting invested in and neither Vad or Corvina were able to stand on their own feet enough to make their romance feel like much of anything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death
Moderate: Incest and Ableism
Minor: Death of parent
lnlaufeyson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Blood
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Incest, and Murder