Reviews

The weirdest part of this for me was Neffy dating her stepbrother. I had to re-read a few lines to make sure I was following. While not technically incest, I was shook.

winter94's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

cupidcove's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm really conflicted on my opinions on this book. It was very readable and I found myself compelled by many of the ideas within but I almost think there were too many things going on. Between the pandemic, octopi, revisiting, and unraveling the mystery of why everyone is was acting so weird, I think we lost some of the complexity that each of those plot points deserved. Still, I did find many elements of the story intriguing and I could see the potential of the good book within. My biggest issue, though, was the portrayal of the virus and its impact on society. I think that if you are going to write a story like this in a post-Covid world you need to clearly justify why society collapsed if it didn't during Covid. I understand that our protagonist wouldn't neceessarily have that information but the author could have figured something out. As it is, it just felt a bit unrealitic when compared to the effects of Covid which continuously took me out of the story. Overall, I think this is worth a read if the concept is interesting to you, but I'm not sure if I will remember it down the line.

clairelovestoread's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

emmaccate's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

christyc's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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? Yes

3.0

This book wasnt what I thought it was going to be - I was thinking it would be a much bigger exploration into a dystopian world but it only touched briefly on it. However, I wasn’t disappointed and was quite intrigued by the route it took, down an almost sci-fi route with the ‘revisiting’.

The

love letters to the octopus really confused me though.

What was the point of them? It didn’t add anything really to the story at all, besides a tiny glimpse into Neffy’s life story.

I still felt that the character development wasn’t great - a lot of the characters were a tad underdeveloped and I questioned their motivations and decisions.

The ending was a tad rushed for me but I still enjoyed it and the story. The prose throughout is beautiful and I do think Fuller created a wonderfully atmospheric novel.

jasminedobert's review against another edition

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challenging sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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