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mxpringle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Death
Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Drug use, Racism, and Stalking
Minor: Antisemitism, War, and Kidnapping
panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The first 80-ish pages of the book aren't that scary. We meet the characters, get to know some stuff about their past and come across an ocult horror movie director. Everything seems fine at first, until both Montserrat and Tristán both realise they are in deep trouble. Of course it is way too late to back off... Those occult stories might not be stories at all...
As soon as the creepy stuff started happening I was on edge every single chapter. The author found the perfect balance between creating a scary and mysterious atmosphere without it being too overwhelming or boring. Throughout the story subtle details are being shared, so I was able to put a few puzzle pieces together and figure some plot twists out on my own. None felt obvious to me, which I liked a lot! It is only until the last few pages the story finally reveals what is actully happening... The ending was a big chef's kiss if it were up to me.
The book gives us bisexual representation, together with trauma and disability rep.
Some content warnings: car accident, dead people, murders, mental health, mentions of addiction, mentions of drug and alcohol use, mentions of suicide, mentions of cancer, racism, scars and blood.
Ps. My edition had a small font, so it was often hard to focus on the letters once my eyes got a bit tired.
Graphic: Blood and Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Racism, Alcohol, and Drug use
Minor: Car accident, Cancer, and Addiction
lonerangerl30's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Classism, Death, Racism, Blood, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Car accident, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Cancer
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Biphobia
paloverdepages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I can suspend my disbelief at them running into and befriending their favorite forgotten director, but I did have a bit of an issue with
Another thing that bothered me was how many times it was mentioned that Montserrat was wearing graphic t-shirt with a different movie poster on it? And more importantly, how some storylines seemed to be dropped or forgotten about. I don't think
I also wanted a bit more from the setting. I LOVED the mentions of how the scene was becoming more Americanized, and I would have been interested to hear more about that through maybe some interactions that Montserrat or Tristán had with other people.
The overall plot is good, it just doesn't quite come together thematically. It touches on lots of interesting aspects without exploring any of them to their full potential. I think maybe this book needed another good once-over, but I've definitely enjoyed it to want to look into the rest of the author's work and maybe do some research of my own on what inspired her.
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Grief, Ableism, Death, Murder, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Car accident, Blood, Biphobia, and Cancer
hjb_128's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Murder, Drug abuse, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Animal death
garrettcz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I struggled with this book. I really liked the occult and mysticism elements. I really liked the history tie-ins and details. I liked some of the details about the film industry.
I really disliked the characters. It felt like the author was going out of her way to make them unlikable and really awful to each other.
I felt the story spent way too much time on really boring, mundane things and far too little time on the cool things like mysticism, occultism, and the horror elements. The story would sometimes dip into horror but the scenes felt way too fast so the atmosphere didn’t build up enough to where I really felt anything from them. I couldn’t get immersed in the spooky/horror scenes to really care and I didn’t care about the characters enough to really be engaged by the action scenes, so there never really felt like there was enough tension.
Spoilers:
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I REALLY hated the romance ending thing. I saw it coming and was really hoping this wouldn’t happen. These characters felt like they really disliked each other and if romantic chemistry could be approximated with temperature theirs would be somewhere in the ballpark of absolute zero. Yuck.
3.5
Graphic: Sexism, Toxic friendship, Murder, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence, Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Drug abuse, Cancer, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Terminal illness
achay91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Racism and Cursing
Minor: Drug use and Murder
wenwanzhao's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and Drug use
chloesnotscared'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
3.75
Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Grief
Minor: Biphobia, Drug use, Cancer, Death, Racism, and Violence
erandle'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Classism, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Cancer, Drug use, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Violence, and Addiction