3.14 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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
sydisquidy's profile picture

sydisquidy's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

I found the main characters to be insufferable. Very much cringy in all aspects. The one girl Adeline reminded me of the unsafe weird ppl who wore cat ears and hissed at people in school. I really tried to like it and I think it's a good idea for a story the main characters just weirded me out and made me feel uncomfortable.
adventurous dark medium-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: No

Jumping into your favorite book because you're so obsessed with the characters is the most relatable concept. There was a lot I liked about this story. I did not expect the Lovecraftian beasts and the idea of the world you love being corrupted and creepy was a wonderful surprise to me since I knew nothing coming in. The friendship between our 2 main characters was so believable despite their early separation and I could understand these two being friends despite their differences. 

All in all what prevented this from being a top tier book was the inconsistent choices made about the plot of the book they jumped into and any sense of explanation as to WHY this was happening 

not to mention that super abrupt ending that seems to indicate a sequel but there doesn't appear to be one. Hate an ending like that really. Wrap it up or don't but don't give me some weak "The end...?" nonsense
adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Great concept. Sub par Execution 
adventurous tense medium-paced

I think the comparison to The Hazel Wood does this book a disservice - both main characters are likeable and the black character isn't there just to prop them up and be insulted, so it's already leagues better. My reading this was DESPITE the comparison, because The Hazel Wood was not a pleasant read and I would never recommend reading it.

I think this should also have been marketed at Lovecraftian horror, since all the negative reviews hate that aspect despite it being interesting and fun during the book. Who doesn't love cosmic horror? There's tentacles on cover it kind of gives you an idea of what you're getting into.

The only complaint is that this book felt vaguely juvenile at places, but since it's a YA with 16yr old protagonists I let that go, that's to be expected. The LGBT rep with Connie felt rough at the beginning, but eventually she got into the swing of it where it wasn't awkward to read.




Spoiler




Also people not liking the ending is wild to me, who doesn't love unexplained unhappy ambiguous endings.






(It also explains to me how Adelle lived so long with scissors in her neck. I love the potential of the horror continuing and them actually having a fake victory.)

DNF — I should have loved this book, I WANTED to love this book but I just could not finish it as much as I wanted to. Idk if I’m in a reading slump right now, but I’m super disappointed.

Will probably try to give it a second chance later this year.
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes