Reviews - My Dearest Darkest

872 reviews for:

My Dearest Darkest

Kayla Cottingham

3.77 AVERAGE

mirredd's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lenag_7's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny 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: Complicated

calliapaige's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark 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: Complicated

it was slow going at the start and if i’m being honest, i almost gave up. HOWEVER, queer occult horror? cryptids?? gods?? worth it.

shaninky's review against another edition

3.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I bought this book because it SCREAMED Supernatural to me. Supernatural, a lesbian main character? Hell yeah! Unfortunately, I feel that the plot had so many angles it wanted to tackle and just not enough time. The characters were cute, but it felt so unrealistic that any of them could actually defeat a god. They also just weren't that unique to me, and had pretty basic dialog. The depth of the relationships just didn't go as deep as I had hoped, but it was still an enjoyable read. I also appreciate any book with queer characters!

crofteereader's review against another edition

3.0

I think this book tried to do too many things without really going all the way.

I liked Selena’s character a lot and she felt like the driving force of the story even though Finch should have been at the center. Selena started out as the stereotypical high school mean girl, and I liked that we really dug into her character to see what lay beneath. The balance of social pressures, rumors, her own interests, toxic relationships, and identity made her feel like a very complex and real character.

A lot of the supernatural aspects came up in the book solely because of timing and not because of a character- or plot-driven reason (or at least that’s how it read to me). We don’t see lasting consequences for two out of three of the characters for whom supernatural things happen, and it felt like a major oversight. Plus there’s a huge chunk in the middle where the supernatural is entirely incidental as we sidebar into normal teenager drama, but then the ending is so rapid fire that it felt like an entirely different book. The balance was just off there.

Overall, it was okay. I liked bits and pieces of it - enough that I would probably read another book by the author - but I didn’t love it.

{Thank you SourceBooks for the complementary copy in exchange for my review; all thoughts are my own}