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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Why aren’t there more books like this? Ugh! I love sapphic post-apocalyptic/dystopian style books, especially lengthy ones. Unfortunately, there just isn’t anywhere near enough of them! I loved Charon Docks at Daylight and have been looking for another book with those similarities ever since first reading it and this hit the spot. I LOVED this book and I also really loved the dynamic between the two MCs. Maddie has my heart.
challenging
emotional
sad
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
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gods, this felt like a slog to get through. Paint by numbers and questionnable blind representation. The chapters where Saff is dying are written well and Lori Prince narrates wonderfully. I hate that I had to go back to Audible for this though, fuck Amazon.
@not_a_sasquatch's DNF at 60% Storygraph review covers a lot of the same critiques I have which are typical for bad books so I won't belabour the point. But I picked it up again at 70% and immediately felt rwady to put it down again. Also, if I can read it at x2.75 speed and still hear words, then no wonder it drove me nuts trying to read it at x2.0.
The main point I want to discuss in more detail is Maddie's blindness, which felt badly done, falling wayside to intermittment PSAs and serving more as excuses to move the plot or characterisations forward. The writing feels close enough to believable of good representation, but if you think about it more it just doesn't match at all. Example, memorising the layout of a place. Is it done by blind people? Yes. But after just ONE instance and it being perfectly replicated, hell no. As for Maddie and Saff's first nighttime interaction, stupid. And an excuse to develop romance via blindness reasons. Eugh.
Maybe Nicole Maser is blind herself, or spoke with lots of blind and visually impaired people to conjure Maddie. I can remain hopeful, albeit skeptical. Perhaps she feels really representative for someone blind and that's great. But for me Maddie's blindness felt like just a convenient facet to cone and go as needed for danger, smut, or just a challenge for Maser to write a scene without relying on sight. (Of course Saff smells like coffee grounds, can't believe it also wasn't pine, eugh). Equal comments could be made about other disabilities in the book.
Having grated on it for so long, I did like the starting bits initially as Maddie and Saff are first getting to know each other. Maddie's experience of light described, Saff's description of guiding a blind person to manouver about a shower and Saff's use of the lamps, and Saff calling out kerbs. Cool shit.
The sapphic stuff was predictable but fine for standard.
24/07/2025
@not_a_sasquatch's DNF at 60% Storygraph review covers a lot of the same critiques I have which are typical for bad books so I won't belabour the point. But I picked it up again at 70% and immediately felt rwady to put it down again. Also, if I can read it at x2.75 speed and still hear words, then no wonder it drove me nuts trying to read it at x2.0.
The main point I want to discuss in more detail is Maddie's blindness, which felt badly done, falling wayside to intermittment PSAs and serving more as excuses to move the plot or characterisations forward. The writing feels close enough to believable of good representation, but if you think about it more it just doesn't match at all. Example, memorising the layout of a place. Is it done by blind people? Yes. But after just ONE instance and it being perfectly replicated, hell no. As for Maddie and Saff's first nighttime interaction, stupid. And an excuse to develop romance via blindness reasons. Eugh.
Maybe Nicole Maser is blind herself, or spoke with lots of blind and visually impaired people to conjure Maddie. I can remain hopeful, albeit skeptical. Perhaps she feels really representative for someone blind and that's great. But for me Maddie's blindness felt like just a convenient facet to cone and go as needed for danger, smut, or just a challenge for Maser to write a scene without relying on sight. (Of course Saff smells like coffee grounds, can't believe it also wasn't pine, eugh). Equal comments could be made about other disabilities in the book.
Having grated on it for so long, I did like the starting bits initially as Maddie and Saff are first getting to know each other. Maddie's experience of light described, Saff's description of guiding a blind person to manouver about a shower and Saff's use of the lamps, and Saff calling out kerbs. Cool shit.
The sapphic stuff was predictable but fine for standard.
24/07/2025
2.5 ⭐️
It was meh. The main characters didn’t do anything to endear me to them and everything that happened felt inorganic. It didn’t feel like the world was pushing the story forward just the need to get the next plot point.
It was meh. The main characters didn’t do anything to endear me to them and everything that happened felt inorganic. It didn’t feel like the world was pushing the story forward just the need to get the next plot point.
I wish this book was 1000 pages longer. Sapphic The Walking Dead. I just wish the story continued!
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
I can't put into words how much I adored this book. Such a beautiful love story. Please read it.