Reviews

This book strongly grew on me as I read it. Once the big twist happened at a little past the halfway mark (which I DID NOT see coming), I had an immense appreciation for the setup of the novel. I did not like it that much in the beginning but it got WEIRD as it went on and I really liked it.

Kudos to Holly Black because it seems like it would be VERY DIFFICULT to write this book. Even though it was pretty short, the amount of backstory and information and world building fit in was INSANE.

I really enjoyed Holly Black touching on benign neglect. The way that Hazel and Ben were raised really affected how they saw the world and it is something not commonly included in YA books.

I also really enjoyed the twist. The whole Night Hazel vs. Day Hazel thing SHOCKED me. I thought it was really insane how the twist brought all the weird random stuff together into a really interesting story.

I liked the two relationships, but I wish they could have been fleshed out a little bit more. It was a heavy-plot, 300 page standalone novel, so it is not surprising that the romances were not fleshed out as much as they could have been, but they were still developed a lot more than you would think. That was ambitious of Holly Black to include two romances inside of an extremely plot dense novel.

In the beginning, I didn’t really like the story because it is just so HEAVY with an immense amount of world building so it was hard to get through the first half of the book, but after the halfway mark it was a total page turner and I enjoyed it!

eesh25's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 Stars

Wow so... I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. I thought it would be another okay read, but this was awesome.

This book is set in the town of Fairfold in which Human and fae exist side by side, and there is glass coffin in the woods in which a prince has been asleep for centuries. Hazel and her brother are two of the humans in the town and one day, when the prince suddenly wakes up, they're both swept up in the lives of monsters and kings and princes.

And that's all I wanna say about the plot because anything else might ruin the fun. And this is book definitely fun after you get past the first quarter, which isn't as interesting.

The book was engaging, I liked the writing more than I did in Tithe, I loved the story and the setting the author created. I even liked the characters who I was initially iffy about. What I liked most, though, was how it sometimes took me off guard, in a 'pleasant surprise' sort of way. 'Pleasantly surprise' is, in fact, a pretty accurate description of how I felt about the book as a whole.

It had a very mystical and mysterious tone to it that kept me interested; and Holly Black has a kind of poetic writing style that worked really well for the town of Fairfold and for all the main characters, neither of whom were very normal.

I also couldn't be more glad that this was a standalone because, while I might enjoy reading more about this world, I'm happy that the story concluded in this one book; concluded very well too. There aren't nearly enough Fantasy standalones so it was really nice to read one.

The book isn't perfect though. It has a few flaws, some of which I could overlook, like the slightly tame beginning and Ben's prince-obsession thing that he had going on. I mean, the guy could literally get you to dance your way off a cliff with a song, I think that gives him permission to be peculiar. There is, however, one thing that I can't quite ignore.

Hazel, at one point, does some thing because of which I deemed her TSTL, aka 'too stupid to live', but that was her only moment of such stupid. Other times, she was okay, smart even. Which told me that the reason for Hazel's behaviour was the author.

You see, what Hazel did was very important for the plot to move on, so the author needed to put it there. And had she had a better reason, there would have been no problem. Unfortunately, the author did not give a good reason.

But after that point, things were great. I really enjoyed reading the book and I'm looking forward to reader other works of this author.

I highly recommend checking this book out. It's really good.

slawler's review against another edition

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4.0

YA coming of age story centered around a pair of siblings. I found this very enjoyable. A good balance of mature and youthful. The characters felt like real teenagers, not overburdened with purpose but not too flippant either.

carlyxdeexx's review against another edition

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4.0

This seemed a bit rushed compared to THE CRUEL PRINCE, rushed and insulated, but it was thoroughly enjoyable despite that. It made me realize that Holly Black is really great at taking fairytale tropes and rules, following some with fierce dedication, but also twisting and breaking others. Her characters are all imperfect, struggling, simultaneously lovable and difficult to fully like. That kind of nuance is what makes love stories that could potentially go stale as they’re recycled again and again so satisfying time after time.

emiverse's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

faeriefox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved this book. It was somehow really dark and a little disturbing but so wholesome at the same time. I loved the cast of characters and though I wish they'd had more development they were still wonderful. I also loved the relationships the characters had with each other, whether romantic or not. I really enjoyed this!

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