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lexcellent's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Murder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Stalking, and Sexual assault
haleyk_reads's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Suicide, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Murder
Minor: Dementia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Vomit
jessratesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, and Suicide
direguard's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Blood, Sexual content, Suicide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Cursing, Rape, Alcohol, Medical content, Vomit, Abandonment, Incest, and Sexual assault
ali_k0's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent and Dementia
Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual assault
biaaaa's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Once Corvina and Vad were actually together it got better, but I would have preferred if it was more of a slow burn, especially considering it's supposed to be a forbidden romance.
I really loved the mystery, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of its resolution... But it was the perfect read for spooky season!
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Sexual assault
straker's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Sexual assault, Self harm, Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
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
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.
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. -rad_blackthorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Sexual assault
jackiespider's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, and Toxic relationship