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emily_zylstra02's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Animal death, Gun violence, and Blood
estefizaga's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Excrement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, and Drug abuse
katemarie99's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Bumping up from 3.75 stars to a nice even 5. Loved this so much more the second time around. So much complexity, so many layers. The themes really came through and I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, gore.
Kinda gave me Addie LaRue vibes, but this succeeded where that one fell flat for me. I'd like a sequel, please.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gore, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Sexual content, Body horror, Classism, Grief, and Rape
jai_98's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Drug use
madinhoa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt
maddiereadswords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
My biggest problem with it is that you can just tell this is the first adult novel by a YA author, and I don't say that to disparage YA at all!! It just feels like Leigh Bardugo wanted so badly for this to be an Adult Novel with Adult Themes, but rather than actually writing a story that engages on an adult level with complex themes, she just decided to throw in a bunch of drug use, body horror/gore, and graphic sexual assault to remind you that her characters are Adults in College. (Check the content warnings on this one if you need them!!) It was just way too much, and yet it did nothing? Like, Alex is a recovering drug addict, but at no point in time does that actually affect her as a character except to remind the reader of her fucked up backstory, even though she's constantly exposed to and using all kinds of magic drugs (and has no qualms about using them on others). Also, as an MC she's literally just so boring. All the characters kind of are tbh, and there's so much telling instead of showing about characters. We're told blatantly that Dawes likes taking care of people, like Bardugo doesn't trust the reader to put that together from context clues. We're told that Darlington's a gentleman, but he's really just a mediocre white guy with money (literally do not get me started on Darlington, he was such a nothing character to me and the fact that he's the fan favorite is disappointing, but not surprising.)
As for the plot, it's WAY too slow. I know even the people who love it say that it picks up like 100-150 pages in, but first of all, it should not take a third of the book for things to actually get moving. That's straight up just bad pacing. Also, the dual timelines were entirely too much. It took so long to catch up to the present, and the way the flashbacks were inter-spaced, it tended to disrupt any momentum in the actual story. Even when it did "pick up" it still felt like was crawling along at a snail's pace up until the very end. And speaking of the ending, it was SO unsatisfying. It was a mediocre resolution to a bad mystery because it wasn't like there was enough information thoughtfully woven into the story to encourage the reader to put together actual clues; it was all just withheld completely until the two (TWO!!) villain monologues at the very end which is just super frustrating.
This was such a disappointing read for me. I'm genuinely so glad that so many people love this book so much!! But it was definitely not for me. Literally the only thing that saved it from being a 1 star was that sometimes her prose was good when she wasn't beating me over the head with empty statements about characterization or waxing poetic about fucking New Haven. (I get it, you went to Yale! I do not care!!)
All of that being said, I am indeed still going to read the second book because the person who recommended it to me has insisted the second one is better, but I'm not optimistic it'll actually change my mind.
Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Classism, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, and Violence
xiggy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.5
Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, and Death
risaleel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Addiction, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Classism, Racism, Suicide, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Cursing
Minor: Bullying, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
faduma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Violence
msradiosilence'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
2.25
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
I have quite a few gripes with this one. Listen, I love dark academia as much as the next Masterās student, but I donāt like authors writing outside of their lane.
Thereās been a ton of (very fair) criticism about Leigh Bardugo, a white person, writing from the perspective of a Latina woman who has the ādid not earn her placeā stereotype at a prestigious university. There are PLENTY of racists out there who 100% believe that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color donāt earn the spots they have at colleges and universities, and are rather only there because theyāre being used to meet a quota, and subsequently taking the spot of some deserving white person, which is entirely FALSE. This is RACIST. And this is
This is a huge issue, and one that GREATLY dropped my review of a book I think I otherwise would have enjoyed. Secret societies? Yes, give it to me. Murder? Absolutely. A character that can see ghosts? Hell yeah. But itās all overshadowed by the fact that Bardugo chose to write a character like Alex.
Iāll probably read the second one, considering I have it already, but I donāt think Iāll be buying the others. If Iām really pressed about the mystery, Iāll just google it.
Rating: 2.25
Would I recommend? No. I refuse to recommend books I disagree with on a morality issue.
Content warnings: Rape (implied, discussed), Sexual Assault (on page), Child Rape (on page), Gaslighting, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Overdose, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder (on page), Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Racism, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, and Gore
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Drug use, Racism, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder