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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
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
2.25-2.5. This book for me was two things: extremely underwhelming and a bit disappointing.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed the story well enough I don’t know if it was enough to read the second one though. I feel like the ending almost wrapped up too quickly and left a few details of understanding out, overall great book!
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The book was good just not what I really had in mind. I enjoyed the new take and the different things mentioned in the book. For example, a disease ravaging a city and the whole digging up body thing. Unfortunately, The whole thing just felt like a wound crudely sewn by an uneducated student. The stitches will hold, but they are not nearly as proper as they should be. The plot by the end of the book felt blah and uninspiring, uninteresting. Surprisingly though the book despite its struggles kept me engaged and want to keep reading so much that I finished it in about three days. The main focus of the book is Hazel becoming a doctor and breaking barriers. That sounds great and all but based off the books description there should’ve been more and honestly the book needed more. It felt like everything in the book was propeling the idea of Hazel becoming a doctor. This leads to all the characters being superficial and 2-dimensional. Also, very few characters are mentioned and often for very little time making it frustratingly difficult to feel, care, or understand any of the characters. For example, Bernard, Hazel’s fiance, is mentioned very little and really only in the first half of the book. When he is in the story though all of his actions and words are propelling the whole doctor and bad woman thing. It makes it difficult to hate him because it feels so fake and like the author is trying to make you hate him. Bernard’ll get mad when his appearance has a chance to be tarnished leading to some violent actions, but I can’t tell if he’s violent because we don’t see Bernard often. Despite the fact that he is her fiance. Another thing is that Hazel is living in this wealthy world of Viscounts and Lords leading to the often mentioned idea that faces a lot of obstacles to chasing her dreams. Weirdly though we rarely see her in this world of wealth and when we do it’s brief and often full of negative comments about her desires and her marriage. You’d think that’d add on to the whole obstacle thing, but really it doesn’t and feels forced. Once again propelling the whole doctor thing. Then comes Jack. We know nothing about Jack. Literally nothing which is frustrating. He is superficial and lacking in lots of things. Love story is in the title, but love of any kind is hard to find in the book. The romance felt like a side gig to the side gig. Jack is involved very little in the story and mainly just as a side thing, rarely the focus. In the times when Jack is present the chemistry and so-called love is faint and vague. I’m struggling with the idea of them being together because we never see it. There is no development between them in the book. Every once in a while we’ll see them together in a more intimate sense. It’s confusing though because I don’t know how they got to that level of intimacy. At one point he is in her room which leads me to assume that he has been staying at Hawthornden. I don’t know though which is extremely frustrating. Honestly, their whole relationship (that actually occurs in the book) feels like only bodies and the exam. It makes me wonder if their relationship is anything more than that, bodies and exams. It felt like that while reading and when I finished it. Also, Hazel is engaged to Bernard while in this relationship with Jack. It’s like neither of you are going to discuss this and what you’ll have to do with the situation. Neither really shows any concern or unease about the engagement aside from Jack occasionally. Once again it leads me to the question of have you discussed this or know something I don’t. I just don’t understand how Hazel and Jack's relationship is growing when they never talk about anything. With that being said nobody in the novel talks so basically relationships and characters NEVER develop. The start of the novel is basically only about Hazel wanting to be a doctor and then how she goes about this desire while in an elite circle. It felt like a load of information at the time, but by the end it wasn’t nearly enough. The rest of the book is basically her trying to become a doctor. It reminds me of a highlight reel with the slightest bit more context. The reel is basically only of her becoming a doctor. It seems awesome, but it left me wanting more and feeling like the rest of the novel got forgotten. Another thing is the timeline of the whole story. It felt odd we’d pick up at random times sometimes a day after the last one or weeks. Also, I have no idea how long the whole story takes place. Hazel becoming a doctor on her own takes place over 4 weeks and this period feels like an eternity because you're constantly repeating the same stuff it feels like. Despite that it felt like super speed because every event that occurred was short and vague. Even though a significant amount of time has passed and despite Hazel’s supposed pressures to be in the circle of elites she never is. Hazel isn’t planning her wedding, isn’t around Bernard, and isn’t going to social gatherings which I was led to believe would be a part of the story. Not only do we not see how all of that stuff is holding her back, but it is never discussed. Once again leading to frustration. The whole mystery of the story is not there. In the first half of the book, the so-called mystery of the corpses and missing people is barely heard about and it barely affects any of the characters in the story. Once Hazel and Jack are affected by the bodies nothing really happens, nothing related to the whole creepy corpses is pursued. It just feels like weird happenings, not a mystery, no one trying to solve it, no clues, no comments on it, just one of the many forgotten things in the book. I was able to solve the so-called mystery right away and honestly, it wasn’t that interesting or thrilling. The ending of the book felt so full and packed but bland. The ending left me with so many problems. One is how casually Hazel is talking to the guy who just tried to kill Jack, and her along with killing others. Especially when she was just saying how evil he was, like how did you go from evil to let's chat. Another problem is the fact that we spent literally the whole book working up to her taking the exam, but she doesn’t even take it. She never becomes a doctor officially which could work in a story, but it doesn’t. Third is simply where the heck did this immorality tonic come from. In the story philosophy, immortality, afterlife is never discussed; it felt like immortality was just pulled out of a hat. It just felt like the straw that broke the camel's back and it was honestly too much and much too random. Despite it all though the book kept me engaged and I finished it relatively quickly. Whether this was because it was a train wreck not allowing me to look away or a good book poorly executed is up to debate within my own mind. Overall the book was good, it just left me wanting more from it and feeling like things got forgotten. I can see why some people love this book, it just wasn’t for me. I liked the idea of romance and gore combined unfortunately though I got little of either.