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collinsd's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Murder, and Confinement
I didn't realise until a few pages in that this book was a retelling of Rapunzel/Tangledtaelights's review against another edition
I honestly really not vibing with this story. I kept hoping it would get better but it honestly it didn't.
The writing is bad and repetitive. The world building is bad and hard to understand. Plus both main characters are both so annoying to me.
Also like i don't have issues with witches and/or vampires in general becaus I think there are respectful ways to write those types of creatures. But then there are ways to write those creatures that play into antisemitism. Personally I thought this book kind of protrayed vampires, and in a way witches, with antisemitic / blood libel themes which I personally foubd uncomfortable and yucky.
The writing is bad and repetitive. The world building is bad and hard to understand. Plus both main characters are both so annoying to me.
Also like i don't have issues with witches and/or vampires in general becaus I think there are respectful ways to write those types of creatures. But then there are ways to write those creatures that play into antisemitism. Personally I thought this book kind of protrayed vampires, and in a way witches, with antisemitic / blood libel themes which I personally foubd uncomfortable and yucky.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Antisemitism
atthelibrarywithmegan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I received a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited for this book, and it was unfortunately a let down. It was marketed as a sapphic Rapunzel retelling, and honestly the only Rapunzel aspect was one of the girls having long hair. As several other reviewers have also said, this was much more middle grade writing than young adult writing. It felt more appropriate for maybe 13-15 year olds than 18-25 year olds. The writing is incredibly repetitive and I really had to push through it to finish it. It also feels a bit clumsy as well. I honestly probably would have dnf’d if I hadn’t wanted to write an accurate review.
TW for emotionally abusive/manipulative/negligent mother, physically abusive/negligent stepfather, emotionally abusive/manipulative father, murder, and death of a parent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Blood, Confinement, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse
diannasbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
*Thank you Wednesday books and netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!*
I was very excited to receive this book. Sapphic? Yes please! Rapunzel retelling! Yes! Witches, and vampires? It all sounded amazing. However this read as an upper middle grade rather than a YA for me. Which there isn’t anything wrong with that. I read it fairly fast. I really like the world that Francesca created. The romance was adorable, and I loved the world building as well. Overall it’s a quick and easy fantasy read!
I was very excited to receive this book. Sapphic? Yes please! Rapunzel retelling! Yes! Witches, and vampires? It all sounded amazing. However this read as an upper middle grade rather than a YA for me. Which there isn’t anything wrong with that. I read it fairly fast. I really like the world that Francesca created. The romance was adorable, and I loved the world building as well. Overall it’s a quick and easy fantasy read!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Violence, War, Death of parent, Death, Torture, Gaslighting, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit
ezwolf's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
This book has a gorgeous cover and a very intriguing summary, but the book itself was a terrible let down.
The most interesting character through the whole book is one of the side characters who has maybe ten lines. I disliked both Ava and Kaye and they were written with almost no differing personalities (at one point I read half a chapter from Kaye’s POV thinking it was Ava’s) and I was over half way through the book and their characters should have been well established.
The whole book was all telling, not showing, us anything and so many things were repeated and drilled in I almost feel like the author thought people would lack the ability to have long term memory or good reading comprehension. This was most problematic when it came to character relationships. I am still not convinced that Ava and Kaye like each other in any way and Tristan was just like a weird addition to try and give them friends and some kind of backstory? Nothing any of them did made me inclined to think they had ever been friends.
The way things were named was also so uncreative, ie witches who could manipulate fire are Flame witches and the ones who could use water are Storm witches, a literal wall of bones was the Bone Wall, a tree connected to the heart of a vampire is the Heart Tree.
Overall, the plot had a lot of great potential but suffered greatly from how it was written.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
EDIT: Oh, I cannot believe I forgot this part, but including crosses burning vampires seemed like a bizarre choice? By placing this story in a fantasy world you can do whatever you want with vampire lore (these vampires don’t burn in the sun so clearly we’re not adhering to original vampire characteristics), but added the cross, to me, implies that Jesus existed in this world and they adhere to some kind of religion but that’s never discussed.
The most interesting character through the whole book is one of the side characters who has maybe ten lines. I disliked both Ava and Kaye and they were written with almost no differing personalities (at one point I read half a chapter from Kaye’s POV thinking it was Ava’s) and I was over half way through the book and their characters should have been well established.
The whole book was all telling, not showing, us anything and so many things were repeated and drilled in I almost feel like the author thought people would lack the ability to have long term memory or good reading comprehension. This was most problematic when it came to character relationships. I am still not convinced that Ava and Kaye like each other in any way and Tristan was just like a weird addition to try and give them friends and some kind of backstory? Nothing any of them did made me inclined to think they had ever been friends.
The way things were named was also so uncreative, ie witches who could manipulate fire are Flame witches and the ones who could use water are Storm witches, a literal wall of bones was the Bone Wall, a tree connected to the heart of a vampire is the Heart Tree.
Overall, the plot had a lot of great potential but suffered greatly from how it was written.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
EDIT: Oh, I cannot believe I forgot this part, but including crosses burning vampires seemed like a bizarre choice? By placing this story in a fantasy world you can do whatever you want with vampire lore (these vampires don’t burn in the sun so clearly we’re not adhering to original vampire characteristics), but added the cross, to me, implies that Jesus existed in this world and they adhere to some kind of religion but that’s never discussed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Confinement, Murder, Torture, and Racism
Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Death of parent, and Child death
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