Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - The Wicked Remain

While a nice and satisfying sequel to the first book, it has enough flaws that make it feel somewhat detached from it's pair.
Following the last book, the story remains strong with enough interesting twists and turns to keep you wanting to learn more and with characters lovable and interesting enough to care and want to see more of. However, it simply tries too hard to be contemporary and funny in places where it simply shouldn't be. Seriously, I get that we're in a more online age, but making references to memes during mayor character beats and crucial moments feels a little too forced. The same can be said about trying to fit certain tropes by sheer force in places where they wouldn't have happened naturally, to the point where some dialogue felt taken straight from a tumblr funny-post that got 100k likes back in 2015. It also weirdly feels like it's trying really hard to be picked up by Netflix at certain points.
This was more of a pet peeve, but

making it so every time Yuki got narration time we would see the same sentences and descriptions of how the darkness was consuming her felt very tiring. The first few times it was fine, but putting that in all of her scenes was simply too much. I feel it would've worked better if used sparingly or every now and then

Nevertheless it was a good read and an interesting continuation to it's predecesor, though it must be said that the previous book stands way better by itself.
Overall, the book felt like a loose fit, and not because the story wasn't good enough.

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hollyk's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Some things this book did well:
-representation
-Anxiety rep
Things this book did not do well:
-literally everything else
Pacing: this book was so lopsided. There is absolutely nothing happening for the first 2/3 of the book, and when, in the final 1/3 mind you, there finally is action, it makes absolutely no sense. The curse made no sense. And while it could be argued that the first 2/3 were meant to be character driven, the point of character driven arcs is to have some form of character development. There was none to be found. The curse didn't feel very urgent considering 4 months pass within the first 2 sections of the book, and then we're led to believe everything else happens within 2 weeks max?? No.

The curse isn't well explained, and also how/why it was broken was confusing as well. Also,

Where was all the magic before? We've seen absolutely no sign of magic outside of Yuki, and now we're to believe that all the teachers and the headmistress have been witches all along?

The character arcs in this book were okay with the exception of Yuki and Ella, though the latter less so. Suddenly Yuki has turned into Bad ~~Cinderella~~ Snow White and is on a villain arc, but she showed no signs of this thinking in the first book and it just came out of nowhere. Also her obsession with Ella? Where was that in the first book? Also Ella suddenly being in love with Yuki?? This came out of nowhere to me as well, and kind of undermined the friendship conquering all message. I just absolutely hated pretty much everyone. No one was interesting, no one was compelling really, and overall it felt hasty.

The villains felt like the author tried to subvert the

evil stepmother

trope, and then, when she realized that there would be no villain, shoehorned the villains in with no foreshadowing in the slightest.

The more I write the angrier I get. I thought the first one was just okay, but this one just did not do it for me.

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jackiepreston's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

Thank you to SourceBooks Fire and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

In the sequel to The Grimrose Girls, things are even more tense at Grimrose Academie as Yuki, Ella, Rory, and Nani deal with the fallout of Penelope's death and try to solve the mystery of the curse that is trapping them in fairytale retellings and killing off girls left and right.

This was so good! I loved everything about it. The entire time I was thinking about Midnights by Taylor Swift and trying to figure out which song works for each. I got one for every girl but the two that felt the most right to me was Anti-Hero for Yuki and You're on Your Own, Kid for Ella. They feel so right for both these girls and their character arcs.

This was great! I'm glad we got some more of Rory and Nani in this one. Such a great duology and definitely recommend for those Dark Academia vibes!

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nerdysread's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

5.0

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH

UPDATE!!!

Okay, okay, okay. Everybody stay calm. Everybody stay f**** calm!

I want to thank SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley so much. Because this book? My favorite of this month. It has everything.

So after a messy and bloody winter ball, and some holidays, the four girls are back together and have one goal: break the curse. But it may not be that easy, and maybe not what it seems.

I loved the first volume; this was my most anticipated book of the year. So when I was reached to read an e-arc I HAD to say yes. And you know what? I don’t regret it. Our characters have significant development, and the mystery and thriller sides are fantastic. I loved the focus on Yuki’s power. Because our girl deserves to be badass and morally grey. I was scared for them all along. Also when I thought “I know what’s happening”... Well no, I did not actually.

The fact that I loved all the girls equally just proves how great Laura Pohl is for writing characters. She’s great at writing mysteries, action, touching, and sad scene. There’s a bit of romance, but what is a fairy tale without a bit of romance? Also, one of them may surprise you.

But what I loved more? The relationships between all the characters. It evolves with good and bad. They are real relationships, and that makes the characters even more real.

So, yes, I loved this book, as I planned to. Thank you Laura Pohl for it.
Also, I annotated it so much…

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

THE WICKED REMAIN concludes the Grimrose Girls duology as they try to break the curse once and for all, to stop the cycle of girls bent and broken to fit tales which deny them happy endings, and usually take their lives.

The worldbuilding focuses primarily on details of the curse, the castle, and the relationships between the characters. This would be a hard book to get into if you’re not at least passingly familiar with a few key stories (Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and probably Sleeping Beauty), and there are a few more that would help (Swan Lake, Rapunzel). It doesn’t pause to explain their plots and only occasionally spells out their relevance. This is probably a good decision, given how steeped in them many people are through cultural osmosis even if they’ve never read them and never seen any of the film adaptations. I think this book halting to explain them would have been more irritating than helpful, but I’m noting it since anyone who’s managed to avoid every Disney Princess’s story will have a rough time here. I know there were minor characters whose stories I didn’t recognize or don’t know, but at least for them my lack of recognition didn’t matter much.

I’m torn about the way that one of the secondary characters is handled. She’s a trans girl whose story involves her (implicitly cis, definitely female) cousin being jealous of her and trying to take over her life (including trying to steal her girlfriend). Because of the way the stories overlap, and characters with their own narrative can fill different roles in other characters’ narratives, she also is implied to be the Beast to her girlfriend’s Beauty. It has room to have such an interesting narrative about monstrosity, transphobia, and jealousy… and then just leaves it there. The cousin is jealous because… I don’t know, the curse makes her jealous to fit Swan Lake’s narrative. There’s no real reason stated, she just is. There’s a line about how the cis(?) cousin thinks she can be a better girl/girlfriend than her trans cousin, which stands out to me as unmistakable transphobia, but it’s not named in the way that the other narratives usually have their issues and abuses stated explicitly by the end. It’s possible this gets more attention in the published version than in the ARC I read, but it’s similarly understated in the first book so I’m not anticipating this particular change. For anyone concerned I'll note that while I can't think of a reason other than transphobia to motivate the cousin, there's no deadnaming or misgendering, just a very weird insistence that she'd be better at her trans cousin's life than she is.

This wraps up a bunch of stuff left hanging from the first book, while also having a full storyline of its own. I don’t recall anything it both introduced and resolved, but it’s the last book in the duology so that’s not an issue. The ending wraps up things very well, with suitable conclusions for the main characters and the school as a whole. The ensemble of point-of-view characters is largely unchanged from the first book and their voices are consistent. This does a good job of relaying important information from the last book in a way that quickly refreshes returning readers and might even enable new readers to jump in knowing only the basic premise. It is the conclusion of a duology, however, so as usual I recommend starting with the first book before reading this one.

Yuki and Ella feel like the main two in the group of protagonists, but Nani and Rory get a larger presence than I remember them having in GRIMROSE GIRLS. The pacing is good, the number of main characters is large enough to feel like a full group and to provide a steady supply of answers and developments along the way. In particular, Nani’s storyline with her father get some answers I wasn’t expecting but were very welcome, and I’m very happy for Rory. The central mystery of the curse gets a satisfying answer and a number of suitably dramatic moments, and I like how it all turns out.

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jkw7072's review

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hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

This ARC was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED the first book so much so I knew I had to snatch up this ARC.

I will say I think this book was a bit slower than the first, not as much intrigue and mystery but still wonderful.

This sequel felt more fantastical than the first, which I love fantasy so all about it. One of my favorite things about this series is that it isn’t simply retelling fairy tales. These girls STILL have their own lives and personalities. They were never truly defined by their fairy tales (aka the whole point of this story).

As much as I loved Frederick, I thought it was so important that Elle did not get swept off her feet by her prince. That she picked herself up and realized she could do whatever she wanted. Cheesy, but so important for any young woman (and really anyone who has ever felt they had to rely wholly on others) to understand no matter the circumstances, they can trust themselves

Of course my favorite part of this series is the diverse cast.
OBSESSED that the entire cast is queer - made my gay librarian heart happy. And it didn’t feel like checking off boxes the way some books do.

I’m all about friendship and love between others so the ending made my heart so happy. That true love can be among friends *UGH* gave me the same happy feels that the end of Loveless by Alice Oseman gave me.

How important it is that you can have platonic true love with your best friends ❤️❤️

Absolutely will be adding this to my library!! Laura Pohl give us more of your amazing characters!! I would die for them

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