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nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.25
I’ll give credit where credit is due: the murder mystery was done really well and was the only reason I kept reading & wanted to finish the book (Blythe being at the center of it and being a favorite character of mine also helped me finish the book). I genuinely had fun trying to solve the mystery occurring at the Hawthorne Estate but sadly I was too often overcome with a rage at the cons the book had that the fun never lasted long.
First off, I did not care AT ALL about Signa. I found her to be an annoying, boring halfwit of a protagonist. Which is confusing because surely a character who cannot die, can speak to death & spirits, AND has powers wouldn’t be boring. But alas. There were also so many instances where I found myself rolling my eyes at Signa’s decisions; I didn’t understand her complete idiocy when things felt so obvious they were staring her right in the face. Because I didn’t care about Signa, anything that didn’t have to do with the murder mystery such as her debut into high society or her interaction with her love interest(s) made me want to rip my hair out. Okay that’s dramatic, I just was uninterested and wanted the plot to get back to the murder mystery portion. Other than Blythe, I enjoyed the characters of Lillian, Thaddeus, and the Apothecary woman (mostly side characters).
Second, Death and Signa’s relationship gave me the ick. Like I can often overlook immortal beings that are thousands of years old with a 19 yr old but the way Adalyn Grace writes their relationship feels so gross and weird. Death first meets Signa when she’s just been freshly birthed and then watches her grow up and then gets into a sexual/intimate relationship with her. Normally I would mark this as a spoiler but it is SO obvious from the start that they will eventually be hot for each other. Not only does Death first lay eyes on Signa was she is a wee little baby but Adalyn Grace MULTIPLE TIMES MIND YOU describes Death as speaking to Signa as “if she were a child.” It just made me so uncomfortable and I’m sure I cringed through all their scenes together.
Third, one of the supposedly biggest reveals (other than the murder mystery) was extremely obvious. So obvious that I predicted it by Chapter 3, page 24. The actual reveal wasn’t until Chapter 43, page 372.
I was majorly disappointed with this book. I was hoping for more ghosts and a more likable protagonist but didn’t get either.
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Animal death
Minor: Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and Medical content
kel_under_the_cover_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse
geiravor's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
bukephalos0603's review against another edition
Graphic: Classism, Death, Sexism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Child abuse
raenbow's review against another edition
Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Murder
moonchild_cos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Grief, Murder, Chronic illness, Child death, and Sexual content
Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, and Animal death
maeverose's review against another edition
2.75
TL;DR: Loved the beginning, meh towards the end. Love the atmosphere, the secret garden vibes. This is new adult not YA. The romance was highly problematic.
The first half of this book was an easy 5 stars, but the second half was more of a 3 at best. (And in hindsight, the problematic romance just kinda tainted the whole book…)
🖤 🖤 🖤
The thing I loved the most was the atmosphere and writing. The descriptions in this book are so vivid and atmospheric I could clearly picture everything in my mind. I want to be in this world. I love immersive writing, especially in a gothic book, it’s one of the number one things I look for and this definitely delivers on that.
I loved the secret garden vibes. I don’t know if it was intentional but this definitely feels like a gothic retelling almost of the secret garden. Lots of similarities.
💔 💔 💔
I’m very picky with mortal x immortal pairings because they often feel icky. This one did. Without spoilers, Death met her as a two month old baby and kept an eye on her from then until she was 19, when the book takes place.
Signa is so focused on men the entire book when she’s supposed to be focused on saving someone’s life, something that’s incredibly urgent. There was a love triangle that while reading I felt was entirely unnecessary and just took up space in the book that should’ve focused on the actual plot.
Another thing about the romance is that it gets a bit steamier than I would say is appropriate for YA. There’s an on page sex scene that’s somewhat explicit, and besides that Signa is just very horny throughout the book. I would categorize this as new adult, not young adult. I feel like authors forget that the target age range of YA is 12-17. I would not give this to anyone younger than 16, personally.
Signa is very obsessed with being a ‘proper lady’ throughout most of the book and I found those parts to be very annoying. If she had grown out of that mindset earlier I wouldn’t have minded it so much because it does make sense given the time period and her high class status that she’d care about that, but it was overdone imo.
While I loved the writing in the first half, after that it started to feel overwritten and like it was trying too hard to be poetic at certain parts. It started to drag on a bit as well and was a bit repetitive at times. Kinda felt like the author wrote the book in order and got burnt out towards the end.
About the end reveal of who did it:
A very subjective issue: I just don’t like YA. Even though this has more adult themes it’s still written like YA. The main character is very naive (understandably so, but still), she’s so focused on boys instead of the very pressing situation going on, and there’s unnecessary petty drama with some of the other girls her age. I feel like these are common tropes in YA. Maybe it’s just because I’m an adult and don’t like those things but I remember disliking those things when I was a teenager as well so… I just would’ve preferred if this had been written as adult and the characters were more mature and less easily distracted by cute men.
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide attempt and Religious bigotry
Graphic: poisoning Moderate: description of a broken neck Minor: an implication that having a lot of sexual partners leads to ‘diseases’nat20charisma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
Minor: Vomit, Blood, and Child abuse
morrigan_gaines_writes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Grief
Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content
jamiebrito's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, and Murder
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury