Reviews with content warning for Death - Give the Dark My Love

While the overall plot is fine, and the world metaphysics acceptable if not particularly innovative, I struggled to like the characters and care about what happened to them.

Nedra started out okay and I knew from the book description that this would be the story of her fall into darkness. But it wasn't a fall so much as an emotional break. Her arc wasn't convincing or interesting. The ending didn't feel earned. I don't mind that she decided to keep her revenants. That part was fine. Maybe she felt responsible for them or didn't want to lose her last connection to her sister and parents. Those would have been fine justifications! But if that was the reason it was never conveyed leaving us with zero sense as to why she chose to do that. She seemed to be making random decisions and acting out (beating her sister to undeath just to vent her frustration?? REALLY?) so there was no emotional through-line. Also the big issue with necromancy that the book warns about several times- the hunger for death- never seems to actually manifest in any meaningful way. Not in Nedra and not in Adelaide. That was frustrating. I was waiting for that to be the reason, but nope, she didn't kill Grey or any of the other alive people in the room.

And ugh, Grey. What a boring cardboard "love interest". They had zero chemistry such that I kept being surprised at the very awkwardly forced kissing scenes. It's like watching total strangers kissing on a Kiss Cam, they are only doing it because someone outside of themselves (the author in this case) told them they had to. He had no personality of his own except to be a doormat for other people (Tomus and then the Professor and then Nedra). All of his sections were completely unnecessary, they added nothing to the story and he turned out to be completely irrelevant to the way things ended. You could remove him entirely and nothing would change. I know some reviews have noted that at least his sections showed how Nedra looked to other people, and I get that as a device but it wasn't necessary. Nedra herself commented on people's reactions and actually was judgmental and arrogant about those other people's choices up until she had to make the same choices herself and then it was like "but for ME it's okay".

Honestly I cared 1000x more about Ronan, the kind nurse at the quarantine hospital, and Nedra's father than I did about any of the main or major characters characters. If the book had been about Nedra's father gathering up evidence of the spreading plague and doing what he could to help keep those villages from total isolation, with little snippets about Nedra via letters she sent home, that could have been an amazing book, imho!

So yeah, some solid basic fantasy worldbuilding and some reasonable plot twists at the end, but overall disappointing.

Content Warnings

ka_ke's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An interesting look into the science of alchemy. Nedra’s descent into darkness is impressively smooth. Although we can easily predict the events which trigger the change, the desperation slowly grows until she reaches the crisis moment. I will say I was not expecting the twist ending!!

Content Warnings

jenna36's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-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

I really enjoyed this book! It is the first one in a while that has been so engaging that I almost couldn't put it down. I really love Nedra, she reminded me of Rin from The Poppy War. This whole book was honestly giving me Poppy War vibes, which is a good thing since The Poppy War is one of my all time favorite books.

I thought I knew what was going to happen in the end but I definitely did not! It really elevates the reading experience when a book can surprise me like that.

I went into this thinking it was going to be a romance. There are definitely romantic elements, but I would say they are the weaker part of the book. However, I think that is the point; things get so dark and emotional that the idea of romance seems silly and out of place by the end. I actually hope that Nedra ends up alone at the end of the duology. Not in a bad way, but in an independent and freeing sort of way.

This absolutely would have been 5 stars if a certain subplot regarding the wealthy students had been explored a bit more. I am still a little but confused about what all that was about, but I have faith that I will find out in the next book.

Content Warnings

bookishkenzie's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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? Yes

4.0

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booksnbones13's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

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