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cady_sass's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
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
I will start by saying that loved this and cried at the end. If YA can bring tears to my eyes, you know there’s at least something solid going on here. I’ll be reading the next one as soon as I get my hands on it!
That said, I’m now 3 books and approximately 2100 pages into this series and I have QUALMS. Questions. This isn’t a knock on this book in particular but at the fact that having read this much there are some things that should be addressed by this point. Definite spoilers below, but at this point in the series you should already know all these things.
1. Hudson and Jackson (and presumably others???? Again, no idea) are centuries old. Why are they NOW, at 200+ years old, graduating high school? Surely there is a plot device that could explain this but it hasn’t been written. Normally it’s a high-school-forever plot line, due to being immortal and never aging and moving around forever etc, but this is a school for paranormal that they haven’t been attending for 200 years. WHY????
2. We are dangerously close to being “no plot, just vibes”. You might say “but so much is happening!” and you would be correct, but when it comes to fantasy some of the pillars of the genre are world building and magic systems and we get NONE of either. Some people are fine with this, I get it! But I want to understand this universe, I want to understand the factions, I want to understand the magic. 2100 pages of content and you can’t throw us a bone? :(
3. The spell/ritual that Lia tried to perform in Crave (yes I realize that was 1400 pages ago) still has not been explained. What exactly was she doing and why was it going to work? How did she find Grace at all let alone kill her parents? What about Grace is it that was the ONLY thing that would make it work, the gargoyle thing, the mate thing, something else? It does stand to reason that this could still be explained, but I the fact that everyone just accepted (seemingly) that Lia could and would bring Hudson back and never asked “how” is baffling to me. You can just bring people back from the dead? They should be more concerned about this.
3. The writing is just… not great. Has this stopped me from reading? Absolutely not. But it needs to be addressed. Just because a book is deemed YA doesn’t mean you have to write it like one. This HAS gotten marginally better with each book but it’s still very elementary.
4. This will be an unpopular opinion (probably) - I find myself questioning both the spice level and the violence/gore detail and the appropriateness for a young audience. As an adult, I read this and want more spice. The scenes are so unsatisfying in the way they are written, but they are written that way because it’s not adult fiction. The violence is vivid and grotesque, you feel those visuals deeply. So I find myself wondering if, even as it’s currently written, if it’s a little too much for a tween reader? Maybe not. But there’s a difference between 12 and 17, and my mom certainly wouldn’t have let 13 year old me read this.
That said, I’m now 3 books and approximately 2100 pages into this series and I have QUALMS. Questions. This isn’t a knock on this book in particular but at the fact that having read this much there are some things that should be addressed by this point. Definite spoilers below, but at this point in the series you should already know all these things.
1. Hudson and Jackson (and presumably others???? Again, no idea) are centuries old. Why are they NOW, at 200+ years old, graduating high school? Surely there is a plot device that could explain this but it hasn’t been written. Normally it’s a high-school-forever plot line, due to being immortal and never aging and moving around forever etc, but this is a school for paranormal that they haven’t been attending for 200 years. WHY????
2. We are dangerously close to being “no plot, just vibes”. You might say “but so much is happening!” and you would be correct, but when it comes to fantasy some of the pillars of the genre are world building and magic systems and we get NONE of either. Some people are fine with this, I get it! But I want to understand this universe, I want to understand the factions, I want to understand the magic. 2100 pages of content and you can’t throw us a bone? :(
3. The spell/ritual that Lia tried to perform in Crave (yes I realize that was 1400 pages ago) still has not been explained. What exactly was she doing and why was it going to work? How did she find Grace at all let alone kill her parents? What about Grace is it that was the ONLY thing that would make it work, the gargoyle thing, the mate thing, something else? It does stand to reason that this could still be explained, but I the fact that everyone just accepted (seemingly) that Lia could and would bring Hudson back and never asked “how” is baffling to me. You can just bring people back from the dead? They should be more concerned about this.
3. The writing is just… not great. Has this stopped me from reading? Absolutely not. But it needs to be addressed. Just because a book is deemed YA doesn’t mean you have to write it like one. This HAS gotten marginally better with each book but it’s still very elementary.
4. This will be an unpopular opinion (probably) - I find myself questioning both the spice level and the violence/gore detail and the appropriateness for a young audience. As an adult, I read this and want more spice. The scenes are so unsatisfying in the way they are written, but they are written that way because it’s not adult fiction. The violence is vivid and grotesque, you feel those visuals deeply. So I find myself wondering if, even as it’s currently written, if it’s a little too much for a tween reader? Maybe not. But there’s a difference between 12 and 17, and my mom certainly wouldn’t have let 13 year old me read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Classism, Violence, Vomit, Cursing, Murder, and War
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