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bergha1998's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Emotional, 2 1/2 š„
āLife doesnāt seem worthwhile without synthesizing my experiences into art, the catharsis of putting it all out onto the page. Itās the only way Iāve ever been able to get other people to understand how Iām feeling.ā
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Bullying, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Death
hedonsgaybookshelf's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Dark academia, obsessive sapphic romance, vampires, kink, and gore? Yes please!
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia
fseely's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Emotional abuse
blacksphinx's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Well... this book includes an interview with the author. In it, she says her stories start as a music video in her mind with vibes-based images and that's exactly how this novel turned out. It's vibes. It is a collection of scenes that if it was a movie or a music video, would be turned into gifs and reblogged on tumblr until the end of days. There's a massive college party where all four floors of the dorms are transformed into a representation of The Divine Comedy. During the opening ceremony, senior girls in pure white dresses put laurel crowns on the incoming freshmen around a bonfire. Does this have anything to do with the themes of the story? Nope! But they are cool to think about!
Things only happen to push us from one pretty set piece to another. And there's very, very few things that happen in this novel. It honestly bothers me that both protagonists are poets and spend all of their time off-screen writing poetry, but we only get two poems from them in the entire book. The author is a poet... where are the poems? This novel also doesn't need two PoVs, and I sometimes got them confused because they were so similar. (I feel bad that the author admits she struggled to make their voices sound different; I don't think she succeeded.) I also think it's weird that the protagonist being plus size is a selling point but no one mentions this until like 45% through the book?
But the thing is like, I was one of those girls reblogging collections of stolen photos a decade ago. The vibes are immaculate! I would reblog the gifs of the movie of this novel! But it's like, eating a giant puff of black cotton candy from a cone with bookshelves printed on it. There is no substance here. The words are beautiful, but so little happens. I am completely torn on what number to give to this book. It was pretty. It bored me. I'd read her other novels. I'm glad I checked this out of the library instead of preordering it.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Murder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Lesbophobia, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Physical abuse, and Confinement
kaiyakaiyo'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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
maddiereadswords's review
5.0
I loved quite literally everything about this book. The writing is poetic and beautiful, I enjoyed both Laura and Carmilla as characters, and frankly I too would risk it all for a hot older vampire with too much of her own shit going on. The atmosphere was simply incredible, and even though it took me longer to read than I expected, I found myself savoring every second of the experience. There were some minor details that I could nit pick, and I do wish that this book was like a hundred pages longer so that the actual plot portion of the third act could have been a little more fleshed out, but my enjoyment and love for it as a whole won out. I'm literally never going to stop thinking about this book, and I know I'll be revisiting it time and again in the future.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Alcohol
noshinbean's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse
summermorning'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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death
Minor: Vomit
bookameme's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Dark, Gripping, & Stimulating
Quote:š
In the end, I stayed. I had the awful, yawning feeling inside myself that for her, I would always stay.
Thoughts: š”
The first chapter had a slightly slow and meandering feel to it, but as soon as the story dove into the rivals to lovers vibes I was hooked. There is this moment of intense attraction that quickly burns into rivals that grabbed all of my attention in a sharp flash and from that point on the story had a fast and dark vibe, and I adored every minute of it. The imagery and poetry that permeated everything was spectacular. It was very LGBT positive but still recognized the struggle of marginalized people in the time period. I canāt sing enough praises for this story.
Writing Mechanics: āļø
The plot is inspired and the language used and structure of it all is brilliant. All the characters were beautifully developed with rich backstories and deep motivations. There were points of the story that were so eloquently written that I had to reread and ruminate on the context and beauty of it. And the poetry! Gah! I canāt sing the praises of it enough! Everything in this book was spectacular!
Fun Bits:
āļø Sapphic Vampires
āļø Academic Rivals
āļø Needing to Please The Teacher
āļø Beautiful Poetry
āļø Sizzling Romance
āļø Plus Size Heroine
Important Note:āØ
Standalone companion novel to A Dowery of Blood.
Full Content Warning:ā ļø
Uneven Power Dynamics, Inappropriate Relationships Between Professor & Students, Toxic Academic Environments, Blood, Gore, and Murder, Alcohol and Drug Use, Smoking, Racist Political Policies, Homophobia, Religious Discrimination Against Women
Stats:š
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Characters: ššššš
Dark Historical Fantasy: Dark Academia, Sapphic Romance, Academic Rivals to Lovers, Vampires, Mystery Vibes
First Person, Present Tense, Dual POV
Graphic: Murder, Racism, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Gore, Outing, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Violence, Abandonment, Misogyny, Homophobia, Bullying, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death of parent
gaby_readsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Thanks to Negalley and Redhook Books for allowing me access to the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Blood