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varo's review
2.75
Decent YA book but author has never heard of subtlety or subtext and spells everything out letter by proverbial letter
cassiahf's review
dark
mysterious
fast-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
3.25
allzen_nochill's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
nancymar's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
5.0
antonia_reads7's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
angelofsappho's review
3.5
This was such a fever dream and made no sense to me but i loved it anyways ?? it was just what i needed to get out of my reading slump + loved the autistic lesbian mc
adjacentvoice's review
2.0
2.5. this whole book was literally a fever dream. i literally cannot with the plot holes and questionable writing. i was confused half the time and did not know what was going on. it only gets 2.5 stars b/c the first part of the book was 3 stars.
themermaddie's review
3.0
so this IS an apocalypse book, but it doesn't really feel like it. i really wish i had better things to say about it, because i liked the characters and thought the writing was pretty good, but unfortunately everything about the plot just fell flat for me.
i'm all for a bit of backstory before we jump into the actual plot, but my god, the masquerade ball plot didn't even start until 50% of the way in, by which point my attention had started flagging already. i was hoping that the fast-paced masquerade would pique my interest again, but what followed was just a string of loosely related events that kept waverly running back and forth from one end of the building to the other. the actual conspiracy was revealed strangely early, so it didn't really feel like there was much urgency to figure out the rest of the story, especially since there was no great plan to stop it, just waverly and her friends knowing they needed to be there to do something about it. it ended up being both predictable and also kind of nonsensical; so much running around and you probably would've ended up with the same result if you skipped the middle quarter of the book.
the worldbuilding leaves much to be desired. for an apocalypse story – a genre that relies heavily on the details of a changing environment – you learn next to nothing about this particular apocalypse. it's not even a man-made apocalypse, it's just another story about the uber wealthy's greed and self-preservation, and not even a very good one. the book ends with our characters walking out into a new world on fire and then.... fade to black. um sorry? okay.
i wish i cared more about the romance between ash and waverly, i really do. the flashbacks at the beginning were promising, they were cute together and i was rooting for them. i expected them to meet up at the masquerade and have to overcome the aftermath of their breakup in order to help save the world, but instead they don't even TALK to each other until the very climax, when they confess their love for each other having not seen the other in a YEAR. as a reader you don't get to fall in love with ash in the present day, especially when all you know about her now is that she's afraid of her dad and spent most of the masquerade ball crying somewhere shady. i feel like the flashbacks were meant to endear her to us, but that nostalgia was definitely not enough to support her character all the way through.
like i said before, i liked the characters and the writing, i loved the representation for autism/nd, disability, queerness, and classism. i thought these were all done well, and i liked waverly's internal struggle with the unfairness of wealth and privilege. as someone in a position to social climb, i thought there was good discussion of the guilt and turmoil that comes with the feeling of "leaving your social class behind". there are lots of good themes here that i thought might have been better suited to a psychological thriller than an apocalypse book.
overall, a fairly quick but disappointing read.
i'm all for a bit of backstory before we jump into the actual plot, but my god, the masquerade ball plot didn't even start until 50% of the way in, by which point my attention had started flagging already. i was hoping that the fast-paced masquerade would pique my interest again, but what followed was just a string of loosely related events that kept waverly running back and forth from one end of the building to the other. the actual conspiracy was revealed strangely early, so it didn't really feel like there was much urgency to figure out the rest of the story, especially since there was no great plan to stop it, just waverly and her friends knowing they needed to be there to do something about it. it ended up being both predictable and also kind of nonsensical; so much running around and you probably would've ended up with the same result if you skipped the middle quarter of the book.
the worldbuilding leaves much to be desired. for an apocalypse story – a genre that relies heavily on the details of a changing environment – you learn next to nothing about this particular apocalypse. it's not even a man-made apocalypse, it's just another story about the uber wealthy's greed and self-preservation, and not even a very good one. the book ends with our characters walking out into a new world on fire and then.... fade to black. um sorry? okay.
i wish i cared more about the romance between ash and waverly, i really do. the flashbacks at the beginning were promising, they were cute together and i was rooting for them. i expected them to meet up at the masquerade and have to overcome the aftermath of their breakup in order to help save the world, but instead they don't even TALK to each other until the very climax, when they confess their love for each other having not seen the other in a YEAR. as a reader you don't get to fall in love with ash in the present day, especially when all you know about her now is that she's afraid of her dad and spent most of the masquerade ball crying somewhere shady. i feel like the flashbacks were meant to endear her to us, but that nostalgia was definitely not enough to support her character all the way through.
like i said before, i liked the characters and the writing, i loved the representation for autism/nd, disability, queerness, and classism. i thought these were all done well, and i liked waverly's internal struggle with the unfairness of wealth and privilege. as someone in a position to social climb, i thought there was good discussion of the guilt and turmoil that comes with the feeling of "leaving your social class behind". there are lots of good themes here that i thought might have been better suited to a psychological thriller than an apocalypse book.
overall, a fairly quick but disappointing read.
khosh3kh's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0