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bree_h_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
This is definitely a book with a lot of potential, I just think it needed some more polishing to be really good.
To start, out of the three main characters only two felt compelling and like they were properly attached to the plot. Taylor and Jamie were easily the strongest characters with the best connection to the main plot. Taylor as a witch who’s connecting with her supernatural abilities despite her father’s disapproval and feels a call to the house, and Jamie as the person trapped in the house with a ghost trying to uncover its secrets to escape. Theo…was there. He did stuff relating to the plot, but I didn’t find him compelling or interesting as a character. It very much felt like he was just there to be the love interest. Which is fine! It just didn’t feel like we needed his POV and his discoveries could have been done by Taylor or Jamie. Taylor and Jamie also had the strongest character dynamic. I felt like they played off each other and I bought into their friendship in a way I couldn’t buy into Taylor and Theo’s friendship and Jamie and Theo’s romance.
I think my issues buying into Theo’s relationship with the other characters is the early book having an issue with trying to speed run the development of character relationships and telling the reader things instead of showing them. It skips over all the establishment of friendship and romance and tries to explain it was by being obsessed with each other one at first sight. I felt so lost and just couldn’t buy into the being friends, despite the book TELLING me about how they were close friends now and developed a close bond. I never SAW that happening on page because it was skipped over. This also made the pacing feel really off, there were several instances I thought the pacing felt weird and the most common reason was it felt like the book was rushing itself.
I think those compounded into a book I just didn’t care about and had minimal interest in. I think it has potential, again, it just needed some more work. If you check it out I hope you enjoy!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Grief, Medical content, and Physical abuse
Minor: Child abuse
akal's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Racism and Homophobia
aurora4847's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
3.75
I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like this book at first. It was slow to grab me, but once it did I was hooked. Lovely story about witchcraft, hauntings, and the ways in which we hold ourselves back from things we really want.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Car accident, Racism, and Hate crime
A main character is in the foster system. There is blood and non-descriptive animal death for ritual purposes. A main character is grieving the loss of their parent, which has strained their relationship with their other parent. A main character is confined to a house with an individual trying (sometimes violently) to keep them there.marmaladereads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
This was such an unexpectedly beautiful story, it really washed over me in stages, and by the time I reached the end, I was completely entranced.
This story is a triple POV shared by three teenagers connected by a haunted old house in the woods.
Jamie has been rejected his whole life by everyone around him. He was raised in foster care and immediately does not fit in the small town of his latest placement. He runs away from his foster home and ends up squatting in an abandoned house in the woods, only to realize once he's entered the house that the ghost that occupies it will not allow him to leave.
Theo is an overly anxious goody two shoes who has always felt like he has to be perfect to be loved by anyone, including his parents. He stumbles across the haunted house and Jamie, and vows to help him, even though they don't really get along.
To help Jamie, Theo also locates and enlists the help of Taylor, a local witch who comes from a long maternal line of witches but has been forbidden from practicing her craft by an overprotective father after the death of her mother.
The three must work together (racing against time and fighting an angry ghost) to rescue Jamie from the house he is trapped in before it is too late, growing from strangers to friends to more. There is a beautiful romantic subplot between Theo and Jamie, as well as the unraveling of multiple interconnected threads of family and personal secrets that all made this story feel like it was really woven together.
I loved the way the relationship between Theo and Jamie blossomed, but I also really enjoyed the fact that Taylor remained integral to the story throughout and never felt like a third wheel. There are definitely some twists that shocked me, and I rushed through the end of the book with baited breath. By the end I simply loved it.
There are definitely a couple of creepy moments but this is more of a mystery than a horror and ultimately I found it more hopeful and heartwarming than scary. It does start at a slow to medium pace, and at about the 60% mark it picks up pretty rapidly and it suddenly becomes apparent that everything up until that point was some skillful build up.
I did have an issue with a couple of moments that didn't make sense to me other than to dismiss them as Teenage Logic™, like why it would be so bad for anyone else to discover that Jamie was trapped in the house, and I didn't feel that Taylor's friend Anna really added much to the story, but these minor issues didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story in the end.
This story is a triple POV shared by three teenagers connected by a haunted old house in the woods.
Jamie has been rejected his whole life by everyone around him. He was raised in foster care and immediately does not fit in the small town of his latest placement. He runs away from his foster home and ends up squatting in an abandoned house in the woods, only to realize once he's entered the house that the ghost that occupies it will not allow him to leave.
Theo is an overly anxious goody two shoes who has always felt like he has to be perfect to be loved by anyone, including his parents. He stumbles across the haunted house and Jamie, and vows to help him, even though they don't really get along.
To help Jamie, Theo also locates and enlists the help of Taylor, a local witch who comes from a long maternal line of witches but has been forbidden from practicing her craft by an overprotective father after the death of her mother.
The three must work together (racing against time and fighting an angry ghost) to rescue Jamie from the house he is trapped in before it is too late, growing from strangers to friends to more. There is a beautiful romantic subplot between Theo and Jamie, as well as the unraveling of multiple interconnected threads of family and personal secrets that all made this story feel like it was really woven together.
I loved the way the relationship between Theo and Jamie blossomed, but I also really enjoyed the fact that Taylor remained integral to the story throughout and never felt like a third wheel. There are definitely some twists that shocked me, and I rushed through the end of the book with baited breath. By the end I simply loved it.
There are definitely a couple of creepy moments but this is more of a mystery than a horror and ultimately I found it more hopeful and heartwarming than scary. It does start at a slow to medium pace, and at about the 60% mark it picks up pretty rapidly and it suddenly becomes apparent that everything up until that point was some skillful build up.
I did have an issue with a couple of moments that didn't make sense to me other than to dismiss them as Teenage Logic™, like why it would be so bad for anyone else to discover that Jamie was trapped in the house, and I didn't feel that Taylor's friend Anna really added much to the story, but these minor issues didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Abandonment
Moderate: Violence and Animal death
Minor: Xenophobia
bellebookcorner's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
4.0
This book definitely give The Cemetery Boys x Haunting of Bly Manor vibes with the eerie atmosphere from an abandoned empty house in a middle of creepy woods with witchcraft and spells as well!
This book follows three different main characters – Jaime, Taylor and Theo.
They form a friendship after Theo accidentally met Jamie who was trapped in an abandoned house deep in the woods. Figuring out there’s something supernatural involved, Theo asked for Taylor’s help who happened to come from a long line of witches.
I really enjoy the mystery element as the three main characters set out to find the answer to what’s keeping Jaime from leaving the house. And the answer at the end of the book really surprised me!
Not just covering the mystery, the romance blooming between Theo and Jaime is also delightful. It’s sweet and cute, it progresses slowly as they keep spending enough time together.
Each character is unique and has their own problem to solve and through this mysterious event each of them ended up discover something for themselves.
Although, sometimes at the middle of a chapter I can forget which POV I’m reading so I need to go back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself.
Overall, for a debut novel this is a really good heart-warming story which comes with a satisfying ending!
It’s enjoyable, entertaining and perfectly suitable for teens who wanted to read a book for the spooky season!
Definitely will keep an eye out for the next book from this author in the future!
I received an advanced review copy for free through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Huge thank you to the author and publisher!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Blood
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Animal death
Minor: Racism, Homophobia, and Murder
kateh0321's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Author: Alex Crespo
Genre: YA Fiction/Horror
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a very enjoyable read! The three POVs kept the story moving nicely without any confusion and each character was well-written and thought out. This book touched on hard subjects such as growing up in the foster care system, losing a parent, and coming of age and learning it is safe to come out of the closet all while shadowed by a dark and exciting storyline about a haunted house. The love between the characters didn't feel forced or cringy like in most YA novels. I will say the ending was a little rushed, but overall, a great read that I recommend!
Read if you like:
📖Dark Academia
👻Haunted Houses
🧑🏼❤️🧑🏽Queer Representation
Thank you, NetGalley and Holiday House for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. The book is set to be published on June 6th, 2023!
Genre: YA Fiction/Horror
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a very enjoyable read! The three POVs kept the story moving nicely without any confusion and each character was well-written and thought out. This book touched on hard subjects such as growing up in the foster care system, losing a parent, and coming of age and learning it is safe to come out of the closet all while shadowed by a dark and exciting storyline about a haunted house. The love between the characters didn't feel forced or cringy like in most YA novels. I will say the ending was a little rushed, but overall, a great read that I recommend!
Read if you like:
📖Dark Academia
👻Haunted Houses
🧑🏼❤️🧑🏽Queer Representation
Thank you, NetGalley and Holiday House for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. The book is set to be published on June 6th, 2023!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Blood
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent
betweentheshelves's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Animal death, and Confinement
Minor: Racism and Homophobia
raneyak's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
4.25
I loved reading this book. It was quite short, so I was able to finish it between an evening and the next afternoon, but I was very tempted to stay up late reading it all the way through. I found it to be very compelling and hard to put down, which doesn't happen too often for me.
My favorite aspect of the book was the characterization, and specifically, I loved Theo's character. He felt very autistic-coded and I related so much to him. The way that he struggled sometimes to get his thoughts out coherently felt so real, and I empathized with how seriously he takes things and how much of a goody-two-shoes he was for most of his life.
(Mild/vague spoilers below about the romance aspect of this book)
I also can't get over the raw romantic chemistry that was somehow translated onto the page. I find that a lot of romance relies pretty heavily on the author telling the reader the two leads are falling for each other, or the reader filling in the gaps on their own based on their knowledge of various tropes. In this book, I could feel the characters falling for each other and it felt very real. The language is very lyrical and vivid, and Crespo is able to capture living emotions in a way that many authors struggle to do.
As much as I loved Theo and Jaime, Taylor's story left a little bit to be desired. I think this book could have benefited from being a little bit longer to allow us to really get to know her character better. Since Theo and Jaime spend a lot of their chapters getting to know each other, I felt like I left the book less connected to her than I was to the boys. I would love to see more of her and Anna's relationship, which was abandoned for most of the book. I would also love to see more of her personal life beyond the core plotline, and the same goes for Theo. Once the three main characters got together, it felt like their home lives disappeared almost completely.
I really did enjoy this book, though, and I am excited for it to be released. I can already see it making the rounds through queer reading circles, and I would love to get my hands on a physical copy. Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree for the opportunity to read an eARC!
My favorite aspect of the book was the characterization, and specifically, I loved Theo's character. He felt very autistic-coded and I related so much to him. The way that he struggled sometimes to get his thoughts out coherently felt so real, and I empathized with how seriously he takes things and how much of a goody-two-shoes he was for most of his life.
(Mild/vague spoilers below about the romance aspect of this book)
I also can't get over the raw romantic chemistry that was somehow translated onto the page. I find that a lot of romance relies pretty heavily on the author telling the reader the two leads are falling for each other, or the reader filling in the gaps on their own based on their knowledge of various tropes. In this book, I could feel the characters falling for each other and it felt very real. The language is very lyrical and vivid, and Crespo is able to capture living emotions in a way that many authors struggle to do.
As much as I loved Theo and Jaime, Taylor's story left a little bit to be desired. I think this book could have benefited from being a little bit longer to allow us to really get to know her character better. Since Theo and Jaime spend a lot of their chapters getting to know each other, I felt like I left the book less connected to her than I was to the boys. I would love to see more of her and Anna's relationship, which was abandoned for most of the book. I would also love to see more of her personal life beyond the core plotline, and the same goes for Theo. Once the three main characters got together, it felt like their home lives disappeared almost completely.
I really did enjoy this book, though, and I am excited for it to be released. I can already see it making the rounds through queer reading circles, and I would love to get my hands on a physical copy. Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree for the opportunity to read an eARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Medical content
Minor: Racism and Homophobia
ghostreadin's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Animal death and Child abuse
trippyotter's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
A haunted house in the woods? Yes, please!
Jaime has felt lost his entire life, and the day he comes across the dilapidated house in the woods is no different. To his absolute shock, he finds himself trapped in the house and not able to leave. For the first time, Jamie finds himself having to depend upon someone to help him escape. But will they be able to save him before it's too late?
While our trio is uncovering the past, they'll forge a friendship rich in self-discovery, acceptance, and love. Their path won't be easy, but they'll have each other to lean on, something Jaime had never allowed himself before.
The second half of the story is truly what grabbed me. In many ways, I find myself connecting with each character. Don't get me wrong, I was wrapped up in the story from the first chapter, but their individual struggles and willingness to accept each other are what really captured me.
We've all struggled with something in our lives, and having someone there for you, even someone you just meet - without judgment - is everything.
I really can't go into the "struggles" without giving the plot away, so I'll just say, read the book! You won't be sorry. It's an amazing blend of personal and social struggles that will give you all the feels.
Jaime has felt lost his entire life, and the day he comes across the dilapidated house in the woods is no different. To his absolute shock, he finds himself trapped in the house and not able to leave. For the first time, Jamie finds himself having to depend upon someone to help him escape. But will they be able to save him before it's too late?
While our trio is uncovering the past, they'll forge a friendship rich in self-discovery, acceptance, and love. Their path won't be easy, but they'll have each other to lean on, something Jaime had never allowed himself before.
The second half of the story is truly what grabbed me. In many ways, I find myself connecting with each character. Don't get me wrong, I was wrapped up in the story from the first chapter, but their individual struggles and willingness to accept each other are what really captured me.
We've all struggled with something in our lives, and having someone there for you, even someone you just meet - without judgment - is everything.
I really can't go into the "struggles" without giving the plot away, so I'll just say, read the book! You won't be sorry. It's an amazing blend of personal and social struggles that will give you all the feels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Confinement, Animal death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Confinement
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