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sophiesmallhands'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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Sexism, Alcohol, and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Drug abuse
Minor: Eating disorder
tinstae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Drug use, and Bullying
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Sexism
Minor: Vomit, Eating disorder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia
cdt96's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Vomit, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Biphobia, Blood, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Eating disorder, Bullying, Addiction, Homophobia, Outing, Self harm, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Cursing, Classism, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
moonbeamdmercutio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug use, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, and Misogyny
Minor: Self harm
pagesofkenzie's review against another edition
4.0
Minor: Suicide, Violence, Sexism, Grief, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Misogyny, Death, and Bullying
danicakvcs's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Mental illness, Death, Addiction, Violence, Drug use, Physical abuse, Body horror, Infidelity, and Murder
Moderate: Suicide, Bullying, and Cursing
Minor: Misogyny, Eating disorder, and Vomit
kitanda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Drug use, Physical abuse, Addiction, Death, Blood, Bullying, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Alcohol
liilykke'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? Yes
2.5
It tried to do what the queen TSH is doing but flopped, hard.
There was no need for 7 characters if you're only gonna explore the 2,5 of them. Also I didn't really care about anyone in particular.
Why was Meredith treated so badly?? It really took me out of the mediocre plot...
The pacing was fine I guess, but the writing was borderline bad.
Some honorable quotes
"Hm" she said, gaze descending slowly from the top of my head to my feet with the cold scrutiny of a slave trader at auction.
Also
That's rich coming from a world class attention whore.
Me: "you make it sound a lot like date r*pe"
Alexander: "Do as I've said and it won't come to that"
Last one
Between the six of us we'd called Meredith some version of "slut" a thousand times, but this was horrifically different.
Graphic: Misogyny and Murder
Minor: Eating disorder
tinyjude's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Pretentious, dramatic and passionate theatre kids who bring to life shakespearean plays both in ans offstage, are a tangled mess of emotions and riddles while also being quite flat characters. I liked the writing, it was fitting for the theme and atmosphere. I loved some passages and use of the plays throughout the story to obscure and bring light to the characters' feelings. I enjoyed the drama and the story. I had my doubts about dark academia books but this one made it for me and now I know I yearn for more books with theatre actors as protagonists being unhinged and frustrating. I also liked the references to some motifs in Shakespeare's plays (ghosts, lies, blood, guilt, madness). As a Shakespeare enthusiastic, especially his tragedies and villains, I am content.
The parts that mostly bother me are for example, what exactly did send Alexander spiraling into overdose? Was it the guilt in all cases? Did Richard haunt them so bad as a ghost like in Macbeth? Did Wren knew all along it was James? I needed to see them descend into madness more.
At some point I truly thought I was being lied by the internet and my own biased analysis, which always searches for some homoerotic subtext, because HELL the moments between Oliver and James were sparse. Those weren't even crumbs, I was holding the ship with a thread and both eyes closed, going by instinct. So yeah, the slow-burn was way too much, as it didn't deliver the relief you would expect after so many "heteronormative looking" scenes (idk how to describe it bc the book had me doubting my bisexual suspicions and then rooting for a poly relationship between Oliver Meredith and James). (What do you mean a botherly kiss that is not quite brotherly? but yeah, only one brief kiss, nothing else, no more scenes between them that hint at their feelings before or after halloween. I am not even asking for a love confession or any grand gesture, but more subtle scenes between them, more tension... idk i went insane, i am in pain but i also apprecite how complicated their relationship is, as they were best friends, brothers, partners in crime, lovers, enemies...). Or more about the internal turmoil they had going on realizing they are queer, which we barely got because they didn't want to think about it... I wanted to see how they come to terms with their sexuality, the guilt and love they felt (this specially)!!!
I probably forget many things I want to say but frankly I have been reading 3h non-stop and cried at the ending, so cut me some slack.
Graphic: Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual violence, Classism, Misogyny, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Physical abuse
thesmutsister_emma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Can we start with even if I never have to read or hear Shakespeare in or out of context ever again, it will still be too soon. Half of this book, I had no idea what the hell was happening because the main characters were speaking in Shakespeare quotes directly. I can hear the TikTok girl now... "You refuse to read classic literature. Not a question." You're damn right I do and this is why. I could not tell you what half the dialogue in this book was saying. No idea. Empty head, no thoughts.
Another large issue I had with this book was it was so damn predictable. I called the whole plot 50 pages in. The entire thing. Piece by piece. I'll send screenshots if you need them. And for me to call the entire plot without knowing what the hell half the characters were saying a solid 65% of the time is sad. I think the last book I hated this much was Ice Planet Barbarians and I despised that book.
Quite frankly, I feel like this book was not built for me and that I never should have even picked it up.
The Final Verdict
If you don't mind a predictable plot line and not being able to understand half of the conversations happening, have at it. I'm going to stick to my romance novels from here on out. (yes, I understand the hypocrisy. The difference is, a romance novel isn't supposed to keep you guessing, this was.)
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Torture, Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Blood, Bullying, Biphobia, and Body horror