Reviews with content warning for Grief - Soul Eater

Very sweet, characters are lovely. Some repetitive dialog that is mildly annoying but overall a very easy, sweet read despite violent, post-apocalyptic setting.

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aytac's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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potalian's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.5

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petrel's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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whatthefridge's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This story hit upon many of my guilty pleasures. The cherry on top is Danny is functionally demisexual (it’s not an explicit label, but he did assume he was fully asexual before Wyn) and Wyn is fantasy-level intersex (he’s not human so I think he can get a pass for having both a penis and a vagina, both perfectly good for fucking).

The majority of the plot is a meandering road trip with no goal in mind. They’re just taking things a day at a time. But it worked for me. And there was always some sort of stakes or tension, and I felt like there was a decent balance between external threats and interpersonal relationship stuff.

The reason why it’s not a full 5 stars is because I have many lingering unanswered questions…

- How did Wyn discover Daniel’s name? We never find out
- What are the odds that something on Daniel’s military stuff has a secret tracking device? It was nagging at me the entire time
- How come every single place they come across has working hot water? Or just any running water at all. It’s a little too convenient after a while
- Why didn’t Daniel react to the fact that he wakes up in a random bed of someone long forgotten? Just no reaction at all after making such a big deal out of it. And then there’s the casual use of the towels, which are not motel towels. These had to have been used towels from ages ago, but it’s entirely glossed over
- How did the military discover that Daniel was having sex with Wyn? There’s not even an offhand mention of seeing them together in any intimate way, like holding hands, it’s just thrown in like it’s a publicly known fact (there’s demons later on that act the same way, like everyone knows Daniel and Wyn are together somehow without ever mentioning how they know this)
- How did no one at the military base notice that Wyn’s head was growing back? They had Wyn’s body ready to dissect but somehow never noticed such a glaring detail??
- If it took Edin years to grow back an arm, how did it only take days for Wyn to grow back half his head? Is it because they’re different species? I wish the concept was brought up even if it was just a one line hand wave
- How did Wyn even get them out of the military base that second time? Did Wyn have to slaughter his way through while carrying Daniel’s body?

None of these questions ruined the experience for me. It’s just stuff that kind of nags at me.

What *did* bug me more than it should have was

the reveal that Wyn sensed Daniel was meant for him since the beginning. I dunno, I just preferred the idea that Wyn was merely curious about the human who didn’t try to kill him and then feelings grew from there. I’m not against mate-bond stuff, but it does take away some agency from characters.

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hariboreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-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

5.0

Fantastic book! The bleak background to this story was a little hard to take at first but the connection and chemistry between the 2mmcs was just mind blowing. Every interaction, every conversation just added more fuel to this smoking hot fire

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unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is like the perfect mix of Things Clare Likes: dystopian hellscape, road-trip, absolutely swoony love story, scorching hot spice, quirky idiots doing Real Stuff™️, HIGH STAKES outside the relationship, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, hurt/comfort, realistic and emotionally charged conflict…ugh so good.

Dystopian monster romance? Yes this genre exists. I know, I was surprised too. The thing I enjoyed the most about Wyn and Danny’s story was that even though it was outrageous and totally fantastical, the situation they were in together allowed their relationship to develop slowly and realistically. I mean, there’s “forced proximity” and then there’s “a mass-murdering monster* saved me from the military and now we are on the run together through a deserted United States crawling with raiders, monsters and other dangers.” Like I said: STAKES ARE HIGH.

*there’s more than meets the eye here, but I’ll let you read it to find out.

👍🏻RECOMMENDED. Check the CW - this is a romance but there are a lot of horror elements in it that were familiar to me as a plague novel/dystopian horror enthusiast that might be hard to take if you’re not expecting them.

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r1vana's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

When I saw him, I recognised him straight away. Even if his face wasn't yet familiar to me.

He was mine.

He was everything.

A Monster X Human romance with apocalyptic subplot that I really enjoyed.

The story is set when monsters were unleashed in the human world and are causing chaos. Due to monsters invading many cities, villages, et cetera, human life has decreased dramatically and are only present in restricted crowded places.

In this story, Danny Sullivan is an “orphan” aged 23 that is part of the military. He has no where else to go and the only way he could ever survive in this hell-hole of a world is being in the military. But what he never expected is to be forced to kill monsters that are killing many humans. His first assignment is Wyn.

Wyn is also known as the Soul Eater. For the past few years, he has been going through many areas/territories and ruthlessly killing humans.

One day, Danny will become the sole survivor of a killing rampage by Wyn(killing his fellow soldiers-mates-that he is not close with).

The higher ups are curious on why Danny survived and will make him investigate Wyn and why he is killing people… et cetera…but something will happen that will make Danny want and need to be by Wyn’s side:

I was choosing a monster over the military. A monster who routinely murdered hundreds of humans and was generally terrifying and had a voice that sounded like a million screaming souls.

The attraction between them was there but barely noticeable: one had a cap that hides his face and the other was terrified of the monster… we get to see Wyn’s true reason for killin humans:

You spend your time ensuring humanity isn't destroyed by fucking.… monster parasites and you don't care that they all hate you?" // Wyn's head slowly turned back to face me. "They? Not you, then?" // I felt a flush creep up my neck, opening and closing my mouth wordlessly. "I mean n-no," I finally said. "I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone. But I especially couldn't hate you now.”

Their relationship will bloom real fast(depending on the reader) and I enjoy it a lot.

In a way, I relate to Danny a lot. His way of thinking, his solitude, his overthinking thoughts , his fear of loneliness… He is a ray of sunshine.

Whereas, Wyn was a total mystery through over half of the story, since the only from Danny’s pov. I love love love how protective Wyn is for Danny. He is so soft:

"I want you all the time, Danny Sullihan.

His nose nudged mine. "My sweet human," he murmured.

He is exactly the character that fits with “I hate everyone but you”. Or even “I would die for you. I would kill for you.” even though he is immortal…

Another thing I like is Edin. He is Wyn’s “brother”/friend? Maybe? Because thankfully because of him, I was able to see how much of a softy Wyn is for Danny.

And I love Danny’s and Edin interaction.

This story does have angst and severe descriptive torture scenes that may not be suitable for some. So beware.

TW: sexual content; confinement; homophobia; slurs uses; torture; violence; death of a parent; grief; panic attacks; use of knife for torture; terror nightmares

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