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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book starts out very promising. Mina is a child psychologist who goes to the small town of Banathel to evaluate Alice, who is cursed by a witch. Banathel also has a deep history of witchcraft, so the citizens are desperate for answers. Is Alice cursed or is she making it up? The witchy parts of the story are done well and feel creepy. The descriptions surrounding the unexplained events Alice goes through are gross and disturbing. I was really excited to find out if Alice was haunted or not.
Then I got 2/3 of the way into it, and it turned into a completely different book. The ending felt unfocused and left so much unanswered. If the beginning and ending were different books, they would be great reads. I was pretty disappointed in this one and the characters didn’t really do it for me. Mina is a child psychologist but didn’t do much talking with Alice.
Overall, I gave it 2 stars because I really did like the witchy parts of this book and I wish Pearce would have stuck with that.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books for this eARC to review. All opinions are my own. This book is available on February 25, 2025.
Read if you like:
Then I got 2/3 of the way into it, and it turned into a completely different book. The ending felt unfocused and left so much unanswered. If the beginning and ending were different books, they would be great reads. I was pretty disappointed in this one and the characters didn’t really do it for me. Mina is a child psychologist but didn’t do much talking with Alice.
Overall, I gave it 2 stars because I really did like the witchy parts of this book and I wish Pearce would have stuck with that.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books for this eARC to review. All opinions are my own. This book is available on February 25, 2025.
Read if you like:
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Another reviewer mentioned that this is two different books in one and I couldn't agree more. The start of this book does not match the ending. We go from a creepy possibly possessed child to some sort of town cult and our protagonist is just kind of there. It made no sense that a child psychologist and reporter would be allowed to live in someone's house to figure out if the kid was possessed especially when they barely spend time with the kid and go on random side quests. The town clearly believes in witches and such so why even have the psychologist there in the first place? And the reporter character added nothing to the plot and could have been cut and nothing would have changed. This book was just all over the place and was honestly boring for the majority. When the climax kicks in I was ready for it to end and mostly skimmed my way through the cheesy cult ceremony that came out of left field.