Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Gothikana

So many things....
1. This book reads YA, until it doesn't. 🫣
🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
2. The repetition of describing the same things, in exactly the same way, a couple of pages later, really pulled me out of the story. This was both entire paragraphs and just repeating the same specific adjective/phrase closely together.
3. Some sentences just didn't make sense. Or they did make sense after you reread them multiple times, but that's just not how a proper sentence is structured.

We never find out all of the mysteries. Like big-ish things that are a constant in the storyline or an event that we never get closure on. In the author's opening letter to the reader and in the author's note at the end, this is identified as intentional. It's really just annoying. The author personally identifies with lack of answers, however writing your own story gives you the chance to create answers!

Overall, I was looking for a gothic, dark academia romance... and what I got was a poorly edited story that didn't know it's audience or what actually happened inside of itself.

Content Warnings

_jas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-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

3.5

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stageandpage's review against another edition

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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

fyodrcs's review against another edition

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DNF after 14 chapters (almost 200 pages)

This book started off with a good vibe and atmospheric world-building, and the mystery aspect of the secretive university and the 'Slayers' had me intrigued. But that’s all I enjoyed about the story.

The main issue I had with this book was Vad Deverell. All his "claiming" and "possessing" Corvina gave me the ick.

I‘m gonna describe everything that was wrong with their smut scenes, so here’s a TW for sexual content:

Their first sexual encounter, also Corvina‘s first time (!!!) took place with his car, and Vad didn’t even clarify he had her consent. Although you could interpret from the writing she did want it, it was completely left out of the dialogue. Mutual desire was described, there was no established consent whatsoever.
He didn’t once ask her whether she was ready, really wanted this or felt comfortable at all, let alone asked her what she liked and what felt good to her. No, he solely focused on his own pleasure and rammed into her.

Let me quote him: "You chose the wrong guy for your first time." EW.

When did society decide that a man "possessing" a woman, using her as a puppet, doing to her whatever he wanted, REGARDLESS of her feelings and comfort, was HOT??? And I‘m not shaming kinks here, if you like it rough, by all means, go ahead and do whatever you like but PLEASE establish consent!!!

Also the fact that Vad has a whole ass reputation for sleeping with tons of women, INCLUDING students?!?!

It’s a shame because the world-building and mystery plot actually had potential but the dynamic between Corvina and Vad seemed more borderline-abusive to me than anything else. Young women read this and might think such a dynamic is a actually "hot" or desirable, which it ISN’T.

Girls, if a man doesn’t treat you like a princess, he’s not the one. Raise your standards.

To be quite frank, a single smut scene was more than enough to make me DNF the whole book. And although I was intrigued by some aspects of the book I physically and mentally cannot bring myself to finish it.

There’s so much more to say about this book but if I were to go into depth about that I would end up with a review longer than the actual book.

At this point I really recommend watching "The Book Leo"’s video on Gothikana on YouTube, it covers everything there is to be discussed.

UPDATE:

Currently forcing myself through the audiobook because I just can’t stand leaving books unfinished. Guess what?
IT JUST GETS WORSE.

1. The female narrator imitating Vad’s voice sounds ridiculous.

2. The narrating of the smut scenes? I’ve never witnessed anything that awkward. 😭

Now the absolute worst, Corvina is telling Vad about her own and her mother’s schizophrenia, AND her father’s suicide while he’s eating. her. out.
I can’t even begin to describe how wrong this is. It’s just disgusting on so many levels. I have NO words for this. This is literally throwing mud at mental health issues. What person in their right mind combines the topic of schizophrenia AND oral intercourse IN ONCE SCENE, IN ONE CONTEXT?!?!

If I wasn’t traumatized before, I sure as hell am now.

Content Warnings