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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
In the aftermath of a tragic train accident that claims her mother's life, 17-year-old Marin Blythe faces a dire predicament with no family, no financial support, and nowhere to turn. Unexpectedly, her favorite author extends a lifeline: an invitation to reside at Lovelace Manor in exchange for nannying services for the author's two peculiar daughters over the summer.
From the moment Marin steps into the mansion, it becomes evident that Lovelace Manor harbors secrets beyond the ordinary. The young girls exhibit peculiar behavior, eerie discoveries of bones and dead animals scatter the property, and the elusive mother, Alice Lovelace, retreats into her office for days on end. The narrative builds suspense, leading readers to anticipate a jump scare or a dramatic twist, perhaps involving Marin's own demise in the train crash that shattered her life.
However, the story takes an unexpected turn, steering clear of the anticipated plot twist. Marin's journey unfolds as she navigates the enigmatic household, ultimately finding solace and love in the unlikeliest of places—a connection with a necromancer. As she unravels the secrets of Lovelace Manor, Marin risks her life to protect her newfound family.
Contemplating between a 3 or 4-star rating, I grappled with recommending and re-reading the book. Ultimately, the suspense and unexpected plot twists won me over, earning a tentative "yes" for a future re-read. The narrative's ability to keep me on edge, coupled with Marin's journey to love, self-discovery, and the formation of an unconventional family, made it a worthwhile experience.
Despite catching me off guard, the romantic subplot seamlessly blended into the intensely suspenseful horror narrative. The book, predominantly centered around female characters, features minimal appearances of male figures such as Charles Hallowell and Mr. Willoughby. This aspect contributes to its distinct female-oriented perspective. In conclusion, I recommend this book to those who appreciate unexpected plot twists and enjoy a suspenseful atmosphere, with a note that the romantic elements may surprise readers in the context of a horror-themed storyline.
From the moment Marin steps into the mansion, it becomes evident that Lovelace Manor harbors secrets beyond the ordinary. The young girls exhibit peculiar behavior, eerie discoveries of bones and dead animals scatter the property, and the elusive mother, Alice Lovelace, retreats into her office for days on end. The narrative builds suspense, leading readers to anticipate a jump scare or a dramatic twist, perhaps involving Marin's own demise in the train crash that shattered her life.
However, the story takes an unexpected turn, steering clear of the anticipated plot twist. Marin's journey unfolds as she navigates the enigmatic household, ultimately finding solace and love in the unlikeliest of places—a connection with a necromancer. As she unravels the secrets of Lovelace Manor, Marin risks her life to protect her newfound family.
Contemplating between a 3 or 4-star rating, I grappled with recommending and re-reading the book. Ultimately, the suspense and unexpected plot twists won me over, earning a tentative "yes" for a future re-read. The narrative's ability to keep me on edge, coupled with Marin's journey to love, self-discovery, and the formation of an unconventional family, made it a worthwhile experience.
Despite catching me off guard, the romantic subplot seamlessly blended into the intensely suspenseful horror narrative. The book, predominantly centered around female characters, features minimal appearances of male figures such as Charles Hallowell and Mr. Willoughby. This aspect contributes to its distinct female-oriented perspective. In conclusion, I recommend this book to those who appreciate unexpected plot twists and enjoy a suspenseful atmosphere, with a note that the romantic elements may surprise readers in the context of a horror-themed storyline.
I am so pissed that I pushed though.
The whole thing is very forced.
First reveal at somewhere around 50 or 55%.
!?! And it wasn't even mind blowing.
Slow, forced romance , forced ending and flat. Not creepy at all.
.
Sum up : Teenager Lesbian in a big house with self-made zombie
.
There wasn't deep connection between characters, their are rather boring and lack of background.
I wish I had dnf it.
The whole thing is very forced.
First reveal at somewhere around 50 or 55%.
!?! And it wasn't even mind blowing.
Slow, forced romance , forced ending and flat. Not creepy at all.
.
Sum up : Teenager Lesbian in a big house with self-made zombie
.
There wasn't deep connection between characters, their are rather boring and lack of background.
I wish I had dnf it.
this was perfectly fine. the romance between evie and marin was very tender and sweet, the exploration of childhood fear and familial trauma was interesting and nuanced. i just don't see myself thinking of this book a few months in the future. always happy to try more YA horror (especially with lgbtqia+ characters).
I wasn't expecting much from this book because YA horror tends to fall a little flat for me. But my wife (who hardly EVER touches YA) read it and really enjoyed it, so that told me I needed to give it a try. Was absolutely NOT disappointed.
This was a heartbreaking and beautiful story about grief and love. Yes, it's definitely a horror novel--that is made very clear from the first pages. But it's MORE than that and I love it for that. The romance was slow and sweet. Characters were all well fleshed out...and the twists that popped up never felt out of nowhere. You could reflect back on the earlier parts of the book and go "OOHHHHHH" with realization.
Atmospheric. Creepy. Beautifully written.
This was a heartbreaking and beautiful story about grief and love. Yes, it's definitely a horror novel--that is made very clear from the first pages. But it's MORE than that and I love it for that. The romance was slow and sweet. Characters were all well fleshed out...and the twists that popped up never felt out of nowhere. You could reflect back on the earlier parts of the book and go "OOHHHHHH" with realization.
Atmospheric. Creepy. Beautifully written.
such an amazing book w incredible portrayals of grief and healing and finding your place after being lost and adrift.. all that wrapped up in a horror ish novel was guaranteed to land a spot on my favorite books
Sigh. I really dislike rating a relatively unknown author with few books so low, especially when there was significant potential here. I needed a way to signal you’d not benefit from reading this imo.
This is a sapphic horror novel and neither the horror aspects or the sapphic part came together for me. That’s not because the book didn’t have good characters or good ideas (both creepy ones and existentially horrific ones), it was the execution. The blurb says it’s for fans of Bly Manor and that’s not only on point it undersells how much of this book was written to match the series and in the hopes of getting picked up. The attempt to be cinematic is also what killed the book imo - the author wrote it exactly as she’d have wanted to see it onscreen (you can really tell throughout that the scenes are “seen” and not lived), missing out on the fact that there would have been copious stage directions in the case of a screenplay. … and also that what makes sense onscreen and for purposes of dramatic tension doesn’t really translate that well to a book.
So here are my complaints:
1) the events are too rushed to give both the romance and the sense of imminent danger a chance to linger in your mind. Neither the scenes nor the characters get a chance to breathe. Case in point being the titular scene (yes the author wrote a whole book just to get to this one scene). You’d think it gets the buildup it deserves right? Being the climax and all? Well if you call half a page a buildup then yes. But honestly it’s about the 5th climax in a row and it just doesn’t hit all that strongly since the previous climaxes and especially the one that came immediately before are much more emotional.
I like my horror creepy but the author manages to make an extremely haunted and objectively dangerous gothic house not just mundane but boring. You have plot elements here that are not just incredibly scary, but also very gross, sad and existentially troubling in this book but they’re so underwritten they barely register.
2) Too much is happening and the important and truly scary aspects are drowned out by everything else. The book has a tone problem. It attempts to intersperse actually horrific imagery and scenes with hot romance and mundane domesticity and it does so very poorly, because the characters themselves visibly and explicitly start to lose interest in the horror much too early. Furthermore, events are treated very unevenly: bird hits the window and dies? Horror level “completely freaked out”. Revelation that makes you question everything you know about your life? Not dealt with in the moment, no meltdown or anything, just a throwaway line later in the plot. “I cried about it for a while”
This book should have either been double the length or significantly trimmed down the horror tropes it wanted to cover so that we wouldn’t have had to spend time with so many unnecessary little eerie moments and jump scares that were given so much room and thought by the protagonist only for her to react nonchalantly to actual life-threatening situations.
I’m honestly left baffled because this book’s whole problem is that a plot summary and play-by-play description would make it sound incredibly interesting and pique my curiosity but when you read all these amazing moving events on the page, you’re left with an “eh”.
This is a sapphic horror novel and neither the horror aspects or the sapphic part came together for me. That’s not because the book didn’t have good characters or good ideas (both creepy ones and existentially horrific ones), it was the execution. The blurb says it’s for fans of Bly Manor and that’s not only on point it undersells how much of this book was written to match the series and in the hopes of getting picked up. The attempt to be cinematic is also what killed the book imo - the author wrote it exactly as she’d have wanted to see it onscreen (you can really tell throughout that the scenes are “seen” and not lived), missing out on the fact that there would have been copious stage directions in the case of a screenplay. … and also that what makes sense onscreen and for purposes of dramatic tension doesn’t really translate that well to a book.
So here are my complaints:
1) the events are too rushed to give both the romance and the sense of imminent danger a chance to linger in your mind. Neither the scenes nor the characters get a chance to breathe. Case in point being the titular scene (yes the author wrote a whole book just to get to this one scene). You’d think it gets the buildup it deserves right? Being the climax and all? Well if you call half a page a buildup then yes. But honestly it’s about the 5th climax in a row and it just doesn’t hit all that strongly since the previous climaxes and especially the one that came immediately before are much more emotional.
I like my horror creepy but the author manages to make an extremely haunted and objectively dangerous gothic house not just mundane but boring. You have plot elements here that are not just incredibly scary, but also very gross, sad and existentially troubling in this book but they’re so underwritten they barely register.
2) Too much is happening and the important and truly scary aspects are drowned out by everything else. The book has a tone problem. It attempts to intersperse actually horrific imagery and scenes with hot romance and mundane domesticity and it does so very poorly, because the characters themselves visibly and explicitly start to lose interest in the horror much too early. Furthermore, events are treated very unevenly: bird hits the window and dies? Horror level “completely freaked out”. Revelation that makes you question everything you know about your life? Not dealt with in the moment, no meltdown or anything, just a throwaway line later in the plot. “I cried about it for a while”
This book should have either been double the length or significantly trimmed down the horror tropes it wanted to cover so that we wouldn’t have had to spend time with so many unnecessary little eerie moments and jump scares that were given so much room and thought by the protagonist only for her to react nonchalantly to actual life-threatening situations.
I’m honestly left baffled because this book’s whole problem is that a plot summary and play-by-play description would make it sound incredibly interesting and pique my curiosity but when you read all these amazing moving events on the page, you’re left with an “eh”.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
slow-paced
A slow burn of creepy and mysterious sapphic gothic romance. Horror that resembles Turn of the Screw, Haunting of Bly Manor, and House of Salt and Sorrows. Marin just lost her mother, and is invited to nanny by her mothers old friend, the famous author, Alice Lovelace, at Lovelace Manor. The children- Wren and Thea try to terrify Marin in various ways, obliviously trying to spook her enough to leave. Alice begins to display strange erratic behavior, hiding away all hours of the day- writing her Novel. They call home their Eldest sister Evie. Marin is intrigued by Evie’s mysterious nature, and allured by her put together Dark Academia appearance. They slowly begin to bond, but Marin can tell Evie has lots of secrets up her sleeve.
Creepy, fun, tragic, and beautiful.
Creepy, fun, tragic, and beautiful.