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sugarloaf's review against another edition
4.0
More YA than I expected given I plucked this from the adult section of the library, but I enjoyed it nonetheless even if I found the typical adolescent accidental self-destruction a little hard to watch. All I ever really need from a YA novel is to be well written (I think it's appalling that bad writing is considered characteristic of and acceptable in the genre - teenagers deserve better literature), and even if Anna makes some shocking mistakes, they make sense for her age and life thus far.
I really liked all the main characters in this, even the ones I hated. They have distinct and layered personalities, different dialogue, and always react to situatiins in ways that are consistent with everything else we've seen on the page. I enjoyed watching Anna break out of the shell that had been placed around her and her growing refusal to accept the life she was being forced into, and I found the romance well constructed as it was both developed over the course of the book and there is another twist at the end which makes it make even more sense.
Anna's other love interest, Paul, was somewhat bland, and the school bullies are boring for their one-dimensionality, but those were my only real complaints. Curiously, I think I was meant to like Effie more than I did, but to me she mostly came across like she was using everyone as her plaything, including the coven.
The plot was a little messy; the book was both trying to set up the main conflict for the series and the conflict for this book, as well as delivering a hell of a lot of exposition about the world, and it struggles to do all three at once. It takes a long time for the plot to make itself apparent and the book seems to wobble between different elements a bit haphazardly. But despite that, I wouldn't really look to cut much from the story and it kept me turning the pages, I just think it could have been arranged more cleanly. I'll be reading the next book when it comes out
I really liked all the main characters in this, even the ones I hated. They have distinct and layered personalities, different dialogue, and always react to situatiins in ways that are consistent with everything else we've seen on the page. I enjoyed watching Anna break out of the shell that had been placed around her and her growing refusal to accept the life she was being forced into, and I found the romance well constructed as it was both developed over the course of the book and there is another twist at the end which makes it make even more sense.
Anna's other love interest, Paul, was somewhat bland, and the school bullies are boring for their one-dimensionality, but those were my only real complaints. Curiously, I think I was meant to like Effie more than I did, but to me she mostly came across like she was using everyone as her plaything, including the coven.
The plot was a little messy; the book was both trying to set up the main conflict for the series and the conflict for this book, as well as delivering a hell of a lot of exposition about the world, and it struggles to do all three at once. It takes a long time for the plot to make itself apparent and the book seems to wobble between different elements a bit haphazardly. But despite that, I wouldn't really look to cut much from the story and it kept me turning the pages, I just think it could have been arranged more cleanly. I'll be reading the next book when it comes out
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Sexual harassment
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