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shellbell_04's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Alcohol
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 🔥
“Life doesn’t seem worthwhile without synthesizing my experiences into art, the catharsis of putting it all out onto the page. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to get other people to understand how I’m feeling.”
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
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
aliteraryescape's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death
Minor: Alcoholism
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Blood, Sexual content, and Drug use
Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment
Minor: Racism
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
bookishvicky'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
Where do I start. The characters. Each one so unique, so strong and detailed and mysterious and beautiful. Carmilla’s inner voice, her brattiness covering for her deep loneliness, just SCREAMED vampiric longing. She wanted so deeply of the world that she had to change to get it, and even then she only found that refuge in Laura.
Oh Laura. Oh man. The only character. The best girl. I’m so proud of her. She deserves everything. EVERYTHING.
De Lafontaine. Holy shit. I don’t know if I want to brush her hair or run her over with a car. What a complex character. I’d pay to watch her and Constanta duke it out.
SPEAKING OF
Great dark academia, steamy with yearning and longing and hope peeking through the misery. Utterly beautiful prose. I’m going insane at how much I adored this.
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, and Alcohol
madlysoph's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
Minor: Abandonment
the_lesbrarian's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent and Adult/minor relationship
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