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2.97 AVERAGE
2.97 AVERAGE
I received an E-Arc copy of this from Netgalley.
I wanted to love this so much. The main character reminded me of Allison from Splintered (which I adore) but for whatever reason I could not get into this story. I appreciated how it tackled controlling relationships but it never went as far as I wanted it too. While the world sounded intriguing and dark it lacked the depth that I expected. Overall I fell like this book was too ambitious, hence my two star rating. It tried to do too many things and ended up not doing any of them all that well. I did like the unexpected romance though. That was cute.
Booktalk video - https://youtu.be/fCN4L-ZnJqs
I wanted to love this so much. The main character reminded me of Allison from Splintered (which I adore) but for whatever reason I could not get into this story. I appreciated how it tackled controlling relationships but it never went as far as I wanted it too. While the world sounded intriguing and dark it lacked the depth that I expected. Overall I fell like this book was too ambitious, hence my two star rating. It tried to do too many things and ended up not doing any of them all that well. I did like the unexpected romance though. That was cute.
Booktalk video - https://youtu.be/fCN4L-ZnJqs
Let's get one thing out of the way first: this is not like The Cruel Prince.
The synopsis might make you think it is, but there's no court intrigue, no hate-to-love romance, and they are just very different stories with completely different messages. Going into this expecting them to be similar will only lead to disappointment.
Never-Contented Things is a dark contemporary fantasy story about a codependent relationship between two foster siblings. It's ugly, messy, disturbing and hard to read, and if you're the kind of person who likes to read about teenagers doing the right thing, I really don't recommend this book. The main characters in this story are in no way role models, and they aren't meant to be. However, I think that stories about messed up teenagers finding a way out are very important.
This is a very uncomfortable read with a beautiful message. A story that says that no matter what you went through, there's hope. You can heal. And maybe you will always be haunted by those memories, but you can get better.
I think we need this kind of stories too, because teens go through similar things - well, not the part were they're trapped by creepy fairies, but you can see that as a metaphor - and this deserves to be recognized. And we need messed up stories from the point of view of marginalized characters (all main characters here are queer) as well. It may not be the most positive representation ever, but it can help. Not everyone sees themselves in stories about unproblematic people.
This book follows three characters:
Ksenia Adderley, arguably the main character. She's currently living with her foster brother Josh and her foster parents, Mitch and Emma, who accuse her of having a bad influence on her brother. She's white, presents as masculine and is described as "not a girl" in some parts of this book, which makes me think she is nonbinary/genderqueer, but she never says anything about it (or, at least, if she did I missed it). She is attracted to multiple genders but doesn't label herself. She has been in multiple traumatic situations before, including sexual assault, and she's perceived as cold by many because she's very closed off. She says and thinks a lot of messed up things, but I understood her and she grew on me.
Joshua "Josh" Korensky, chubby, pansexual and gender-non-conforming. He's perceived as the "good" sibling by his parents. While I understood his motivations (and he is, after all, a victim too), I still kind of despised him.
Alexandra "Lexi" Holden, black, mostly into men but not only, grew up in a supportive family and is a good student. She's Josh and Ksenia's friend, she sees how the situation spirals out of control, and she has a major role in Ksenia's recovery. I really liked her PoV.
The relationship Josh and Ksenia have is unhealthy, codependent and becomes abusive throughout the story. Ksenia is over-protective because she feels like Josh is the only one who understands her and loves her. She is really afraid to lose him, as she has lost many people before. She takes all the responsibility for every time he messes up, and she is seen as the one who has a bad influence on Josh, even if she's actually the one who sees him as a brother. Josh, however, doesn't really see Ksenia as a sister, disregards her (lack of) consent because he believes he knows what she actually wants, and pressures her in romantic/sexual situations.
They're doing all the wrong things to remain together, and it's difficult to read.
But Never-Contented Things isn't just about unhealthy relationships. The friendship between Ksenia and Lexi was healthier, and even the romance (f/f? f/genderqueer?) that develops from it seemed to be. I really liked Ksenia and Lexi together.
One could argue this is a story about a romance helping a person get out of an abusive relationship, but I don't really agree. Ksenia isn't saved by Lexi, or by Lexi's love. Lexi helps her realize she has a problem, but the decision to confront the truth about herself and her relationship with Josh was, ultimately, Ksenia's. Ksenia doesn't just get out of a relationship, she gets out of the mindset that got her there, and that's why I didn't mind that this book ended with a romance.
I won't lie, I didn't enjoy reading most of this. While it does have its fun moments (...the scene about Prince on the burning chair made me laugh out loud), I almost DNFed it multiple times. It made me feel sick. I also highlighted entire pages of it, especially near the ending, because the character development was wonderful.
What I liked the most about Never-Contented Things was Ksenia's character arc. It's one of the most well-written arcs I've read in a while.
This is a story about denial and self-hate. Ksenia believes she can't be loved or understood, and that's why she gets too close to the only person she believes loves her; she also believes she is a bad person, that she doesn't really deserve to be happy. That part in which she says that she struggles to appreciate the good things about herself, that she gets she should in the abstract but doesn't really feel it? I understand this kind of double standard more than I'd like to.
You might have noticed that so far I've barely mentioned the fairies. That's because this is not really a "fae book", the fairies here are... kind of incidental. They make the situation worse, and they add a lot of creepiness - pool party with dying ghost horses? Door graveyards? Eyes growing on your hat? There's a lot here - but they're not the focus.
That doesn't mean they weren't awesomely disgusting. Especially Unselle. She's the girl on the cover of this book, and everything she says and does is very creepy and wrong on so many levels. I loved reading about her.
Trigger warnings for: foster brother/sister incest, codependency, parental neglect, emotional abuse, sexual assault, on-page death, body horror, mentions of suicide.
The synopsis might make you think it is, but there's no court intrigue, no hate-to-love romance, and they are just very different stories with completely different messages. Going into this expecting them to be similar will only lead to disappointment.
Never-Contented Things is a dark contemporary fantasy story about a codependent relationship between two foster siblings. It's ugly, messy, disturbing and hard to read, and if you're the kind of person who likes to read about teenagers doing the right thing, I really don't recommend this book. The main characters in this story are in no way role models, and they aren't meant to be. However, I think that stories about messed up teenagers finding a way out are very important.
This is a very uncomfortable read with a beautiful message. A story that says that no matter what you went through, there's hope. You can heal. And maybe you will always be haunted by those memories, but you can get better.
I think we need this kind of stories too, because teens go through similar things - well, not the part were they're trapped by creepy fairies, but you can see that as a metaphor - and this deserves to be recognized. And we need messed up stories from the point of view of marginalized characters (all main characters here are queer) as well. It may not be the most positive representation ever, but it can help. Not everyone sees themselves in stories about unproblematic people.
This book follows three characters:
Ksenia Adderley, arguably the main character. She's currently living with her foster brother Josh and her foster parents, Mitch and Emma, who accuse her of having a bad influence on her brother. She's white, presents as masculine and is described as "not a girl" in some parts of this book, which makes me think she is nonbinary/genderqueer, but she never says anything about it (or, at least, if she did I missed it). She is attracted to multiple genders but doesn't label herself. She has been in multiple traumatic situations before, including sexual assault, and she's perceived as cold by many because she's very closed off. She says and thinks a lot of messed up things, but I understood her and she grew on me.
Joshua "Josh" Korensky, chubby, pansexual and gender-non-conforming. He's perceived as the "good" sibling by his parents. While I understood his motivations (and he is, after all, a victim too), I still kind of despised him.
Alexandra "Lexi" Holden, black, mostly into men but not only, grew up in a supportive family and is a good student. She's Josh and Ksenia's friend, she sees how the situation spirals out of control, and she has a major role in Ksenia's recovery. I really liked her PoV.
The relationship Josh and Ksenia have is unhealthy, codependent and becomes abusive throughout the story. Ksenia is over-protective because she feels like Josh is the only one who understands her and loves her. She is really afraid to lose him, as she has lost many people before. She takes all the responsibility for every time he messes up, and she is seen as the one who has a bad influence on Josh, even if she's actually the one who sees him as a brother. Josh, however, doesn't really see Ksenia as a sister, disregards her (lack of) consent because he believes he knows what she actually wants, and pressures her in romantic/sexual situations.
They're doing all the wrong things to remain together, and it's difficult to read.
But Never-Contented Things isn't just about unhealthy relationships. The friendship between Ksenia and Lexi was healthier, and even the romance (f/f? f/genderqueer?) that develops from it seemed to be. I really liked Ksenia and Lexi together.
One could argue this is a story about a romance helping a person get out of an abusive relationship, but I don't really agree. Ksenia isn't saved by Lexi, or by Lexi's love. Lexi helps her realize she has a problem, but the decision to confront the truth about herself and her relationship with Josh was, ultimately, Ksenia's. Ksenia doesn't just get out of a relationship, she gets out of the mindset that got her there, and that's why I didn't mind that this book ended with a romance.
I won't lie, I didn't enjoy reading most of this. While it does have its fun moments (...the scene about Prince on the burning chair made me laugh out loud), I almost DNFed it multiple times. It made me feel sick. I also highlighted entire pages of it, especially near the ending, because the character development was wonderful.
What I liked the most about Never-Contented Things was Ksenia's character arc. It's one of the most well-written arcs I've read in a while.
This is a story about denial and self-hate. Ksenia believes she can't be loved or understood, and that's why she gets too close to the only person she believes loves her; she also believes she is a bad person, that she doesn't really deserve to be happy. That part in which she says that she struggles to appreciate the good things about herself, that she gets she should in the abstract but doesn't really feel it? I understand this kind of double standard more than I'd like to.
You might have noticed that so far I've barely mentioned the fairies. That's because this is not really a "fae book", the fairies here are... kind of incidental. They make the situation worse, and they add a lot of creepiness - pool party with dying ghost horses? Door graveyards? Eyes growing on your hat? There's a lot here - but they're not the focus.
That doesn't mean they weren't awesomely disgusting. Especially Unselle. She's the girl on the cover of this book, and everything she says and does is very creepy and wrong on so many levels. I loved reading about her.
Trigger warnings for: foster brother/sister incest, codependency, parental neglect, emotional abuse, sexual assault, on-page death, body horror, mentions of suicide.
I was sent this book as an advanced copy by the publisher via NetGalley for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.
4.5 stars, rounded up after careful consideration.
This book's biggest flaw was the way it was marketed.
First things first, I loved this book. I think it might have been a 5 stars under slightly different circumstances, and if I can ever bring myself to read it again I think I will be able to give this the 5 stars it probably deserves.
Before we get into what it did right and why I liked it, let me once again do the job that the publisher* failed to do and clarify that, first of all, that blurb is totally misleading. Prince is not the protagonist of this book and he's frankly not even that important. Fairies in this book are just a clever excuse to explore humanity, or better said, some very fucked up and ugly sides of humanity. And that brings me to my second point, which you should keep in mind before even thinking about reading this book: this is fucking dark. It's ugly, it's triggering, it's maddening, and if you manage to read enough of it it has one of the most satisfying character developments and conclusion of any book I've ever read.
To put this on Netgalley without a single trigger warning, and especially to set it as "Read Now", was a huge mistake and a huge disfavor to both readers and the book itself. I'm sorry if I come off as harsh but I'm not just here to review the book, if the publisher really cares about feedback I hope they will take this into consideration for the next books they put up for review.
* (hi, publisher person that will read this when I send my review through Netgalley! please don't take this review as your cue to never approve me for your books ever, again, thank you)
This is initially a story about the codependency between two foster siblings, Josh and Ksenia. Their relationship gets about as unhealthy as you can imagine, and because for the first good chunk of the book we only get to see things through Ksenia's eyes, our reading experience can get incredibly frustrating. If you're someone who while reading needs to be told at any given moment, "This is wrong, btw," then you should stay away from this book. You know it's so, so wrong, but the book *shows* you that it is instead of telling you, because character perspective matters and that's the whole fucking point.
As the story progresses and the codependency slides pretty heavily into abuse, you get a different, healthier POV. And thank god, because reading Lexi's POV chapters are like emerging to finally take a breath after being held under water by Ksenia and Josh. And still it's a while before things can get better, because they need to get worse first.
What truly struck me about this book were two things: the writing, which is absolutely stunning and it completely captured me from page one, and the fact that Ksenia is given all the compassion, all the redemption, all the healing and forgiveness we usually bestow upon male characters. And I don't know if she's a female character, other reviewers have said she's possibly genderqueer, although this isn't explicit in the text, but she's a character I feel was missing in YA, or maybe I just haven't encountered one like her yet.
The leading theme in this book is how abuse will affect the mind and affections of a victim. How a victim is left alone, ignored, blamed even, and is left so vulnerable to the slightest hint of what they think is love. They think, this is the best I can ever hope for. This is better than it was before, so it must mean it's all I'm worth. And sometimes things really are good, but sometimes they're really fucking not, and Ksenia was unlucky enough to first read the definition of love from the dictionary of Josh, except Josh is a victim too and his definition of love is all wrong, too. This book does an amazing job at never victim-blaming anyone but also at showing the effects of your first, your second, your life-long abuse, because those things can't be ignored when we talk about abuse and especially when we talk about surviving it.
Ksenia isn't magically saved by her love for Lexi, or by Lexi's love for her, but she's given the tool to dig herself out of eighteen years of wrong, and that's the most powerful message you can send readers.
There are so many other things I loved about this book. Everyone is queer (Ksenia is possibly genderqueer and attracted to multiple genders, Josh is fat, pansexual and gender non conforming, Lexi is Black and discovers her multiple-gender-attraction throughout the novel), the writing, as I said before, is absolutely beautiful and atmospheric. The faeries are seriously creepy as fuck and I loved (hated) them. The conclusion was the best one I could hope for. But seriously, the best thing of all is everything I talked about for most of my review.
Now more than ever I encourage you to read the trigger warnings and know that it's okay if you think you can't handle them; these aren't things that are just mentioned in passing, they are very real in the novel and it WILL get super uncomfortable even if this stuff isn't usually a trigger to you. But if you think you can, give this book a try because it's so, so worth it.
Trigger Warnings: incest, codependency, abuse, sexual assault and rape, death on page, violence, body horror, parental neglect.
4.5 stars, rounded up after careful consideration.
This book's biggest flaw was the way it was marketed.
First things first, I loved this book. I think it might have been a 5 stars under slightly different circumstances, and if I can ever bring myself to read it again I think I will be able to give this the 5 stars it probably deserves.
Before we get into what it did right and why I liked it, let me once again do the job that the publisher* failed to do and clarify that, first of all, that blurb is totally misleading. Prince is not the protagonist of this book and he's frankly not even that important. Fairies in this book are just a clever excuse to explore humanity, or better said, some very fucked up and ugly sides of humanity. And that brings me to my second point, which you should keep in mind before even thinking about reading this book: this is fucking dark. It's ugly, it's triggering, it's maddening, and if you manage to read enough of it it has one of the most satisfying character developments and conclusion of any book I've ever read.
To put this on Netgalley without a single trigger warning, and especially to set it as "Read Now", was a huge mistake and a huge disfavor to both readers and the book itself. I'm sorry if I come off as harsh but I'm not just here to review the book, if the publisher really cares about feedback I hope they will take this into consideration for the next books they put up for review.
* (hi, publisher person that will read this when I send my review through Netgalley! please don't take this review as your cue to never approve me for your books ever, again, thank you)
This is initially a story about the codependency between two foster siblings, Josh and Ksenia. Their relationship gets about as unhealthy as you can imagine, and because for the first good chunk of the book we only get to see things through Ksenia's eyes, our reading experience can get incredibly frustrating. If you're someone who while reading needs to be told at any given moment, "This is wrong, btw," then you should stay away from this book. You know it's so, so wrong, but the book *shows* you that it is instead of telling you, because character perspective matters and that's the whole fucking point.
As the story progresses and the codependency slides pretty heavily into abuse, you get a different, healthier POV. And thank god, because reading Lexi's POV chapters are like emerging to finally take a breath after being held under water by Ksenia and Josh. And still it's a while before things can get better, because they need to get worse first.
What truly struck me about this book were two things: the writing, which is absolutely stunning and it completely captured me from page one, and the fact that Ksenia is given all the compassion, all the redemption, all the healing and forgiveness we usually bestow upon male characters. And I don't know if she's a female character, other reviewers have said she's possibly genderqueer, although this isn't explicit in the text, but she's a character I feel was missing in YA, or maybe I just haven't encountered one like her yet.
The leading theme in this book is how abuse will affect the mind and affections of a victim. How a victim is left alone, ignored, blamed even, and is left so vulnerable to the slightest hint of what they think is love. They think, this is the best I can ever hope for. This is better than it was before, so it must mean it's all I'm worth. And sometimes things really are good, but sometimes they're really fucking not, and Ksenia was unlucky enough to first read the definition of love from the dictionary of Josh, except Josh is a victim too and his definition of love is all wrong, too. This book does an amazing job at never victim-blaming anyone but also at showing the effects of your first, your second, your life-long abuse, because those things can't be ignored when we talk about abuse and especially when we talk about surviving it.
Ksenia isn't magically saved by her love for Lexi, or by Lexi's love for her, but she's given the tool to dig herself out of eighteen years of wrong, and that's the most powerful message you can send readers.
There are so many other things I loved about this book. Everyone is queer (Ksenia is possibly genderqueer and attracted to multiple genders, Josh is fat, pansexual and gender non conforming, Lexi is Black and discovers her multiple-gender-attraction throughout the novel), the writing, as I said before, is absolutely beautiful and atmospheric. The faeries are seriously creepy as fuck and I loved (hated) them. The conclusion was the best one I could hope for. But seriously, the best thing of all is everything I talked about for most of my review.
Now more than ever I encourage you to read the trigger warnings and know that it's okay if you think you can't handle them; these aren't things that are just mentioned in passing, they are very real in the novel and it WILL get super uncomfortable even if this stuff isn't usually a trigger to you. But if you think you can, give this book a try because it's so, so worth it.
Trigger Warnings: incest, codependency, abuse, sexual assault and rape, death on page, violence, body horror, parental neglect.
dark
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is one of the strangest books that I have ever read, and at times it felt almost as if I had fallen asleep reading and then had nightmares surrounding the characters and the world but no that was the actual book. For the most part I did really enjoy the uniqueness of the book but it also was a bit of a downfall in ways. I really loved the complex characters especially Josh I thought he was really well done. Kezzer is probably the most fleshed out because we spend the most time in her perspective but I loved how we learn more and more about her as time goes on. She is known throughout the book as keeping people at arms lengths and I feel even when we are reading from her POV, we are also kept at arms lengths. The way the fae in this world were described and portrayed in this world was very intriguing and definitely gave me The Cruel Prince (But that is the only thing about it that did. Do not go into this expecting A Cruel Price type romance.) The things I didn’t like in this book were sometimes it seemed it was trying so hard to be different than everything else that you felt you were imaging the shit yourself because sometimes it was just really out there and some things don’t really make sense. Also while I did enjoy the character of Lexi, I think having her POV for so long was unnecessary and we would have benefited more from having more time with Josh or even having a POV from Prince. Lastly while I did enjoy the romance at the end I think it was far too rushed and would have been better suited as just being implied to, or having them say yeah I like you but I need time.
Verdict: All in all this book was a pretty fun time, (but it did take me a week to read and I very much thought of DNFING it multiple times.) The characters are definitely the highlight of this story and their interactions. I gave this a rating of 3.5/5 and would recommend it for people who are die-hard into dark fae stories, and/or who like characters that push gender bounds, and/or that love LGBTQIA+ stories.
Verdict: All in all this book was a pretty fun time, (but it did take me a week to read and I very much thought of DNFING it multiple times.) The characters are definitely the highlight of this story and their interactions. I gave this a rating of 3.5/5 and would recommend it for people who are die-hard into dark fae stories, and/or who like characters that push gender bounds, and/or that love LGBTQIA+ stories.
dnf @ 40%
I'm sorry. I always feel terrible not finishing books, especially when they're arcs, but I have so many to get to and exam season is coming up and I just don't have the mental energy to read a book I'm not really enjoying. I found it hard to connect to the main characters. I did enjoy the writing style and the sheer weirdness of it though. Perhaps in future when I have more time to invest I'll be able to fully enjoy this book, but I'm afraid that this is a case of wrong book, wrong time.
I'm sorry. I always feel terrible not finishing books, especially when they're arcs, but I have so many to get to and exam season is coming up and I just don't have the mental energy to read a book I'm not really enjoying. I found it hard to connect to the main characters. I did enjoy the writing style and the sheer weirdness of it though. Perhaps in future when I have more time to invest I'll be able to fully enjoy this book, but I'm afraid that this is a case of wrong book, wrong time.