Reviews - Split or Swallow

3.04k reviews for:

Split or Swallow

Lindsay Straube

3.53 AVERAGE

awjackson's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

madbow15's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

kipalmer's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gwynnas's review against another edition

4.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

zombiefrogqueen's review against another edition

3.0

I felt like the story was lacking a bit and took forever to progress. It contained several intimate scenes but based on what I'd heard about it, it was rather tame. I'm curious to read the next one even though I felt a little let down.

lindsinmco's review against another edition

0.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Maybe this is for someone, but it’s absolutely not me. This is a contender for worst book I’ve ever read and it’s my first 1 star of 2025. I almost DNF’d multiple times, but powered through simply so I could share a complete opinion. This reads like a sexual awakening moment triggered by Chamber of Secrets and then turned into a kinky fetish novel that somehow got popular on social media. The “plot” is repetitive, off-the-rails nonsense that only serves to link one sex scene to another. Whatever booktok account sold this to me as romantasy, was wrong. This is certainly not fantasy, romance, or romantasy! The FMC is insufferably irritating, whiny and confoundingly dumb. How either of the male characters find her so desirable is highly questionable. I enjoy a why choose trope, but this is packed with banana-crackers kinks in the name of “plot” and they don’t land with what I assume the intended impacts were. For example, the FMC must sleep with MMC’s dad in front of the entire community in order to prove herself and gets her pelvis shattered during sex, but loves it and keeps going for more immediately. The spice is there for shock value, it’s not arousing or enjoyable and worse, it’s not actually integral to the development of the characters relationships. The MMC’s lack any meaningful personality and are boiled down only to their desire for the FMC. The author seems to think that world-building means describing the main characters surroundings during sex. The relationships are toxic and abusive. Dialog is so clunky and juvenile it pulls you out of the genuinely insane plot to contemplate if an editor ever looked at this. This book is also about 350 pages too long. Someone please explain why this is getting a sequel!!??

justsayunionyes's review against another edition

I kept expecting Tem to become relatable. Or any of the characters to be redeemable. Lost me at non-consensual choking.

lyniebell's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

If you’re looking for spicy this read hits the ground running. Most of it forwards the plot line (sometimes in a cringey way). It presents an interesting take on not trying to humanize ‘the other’ and instead embracing that otherness and letting it just be. The writing style is very engaging and I flew through the book, but definitely some uncomfortable themes too.

Content Warnings

nhallgren's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aw21594377's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have a lot of thoughts about this one. Totally called the plot twist of her mother fell in love with her basilisk instructor and Tem is part basilisk, part human.

SPOILER ALERT (tags aren't working)

Pros:

Intriguing premise
Some beautiful introspection
- “Pain is a physical sensation. Desire is an emotion” (164) -Tem to Caspen when he affects her emotions to protect her (though immediately after she says it’s just as bad as what Jonathan did when he tried to rape her…so to me, that’s a false equivalency since their intentions were completely different. I get what she was trying to say, like don’t take away my agency, but she undermined her own argument.)
Some minor representation of a triad
- At the end, when she let Leo go, I CRIED. That was one of the only times i truly felt like she loved both equally. Telling them both at the same time that she loved them was actually really beautiful. And when she talks about how loving someone is allowing them to choose instead of entrapping them. Telling Leo to go find Evelyn was so touching
Sex positive culture — though the basilisk culture isn’t really well explained with founded logic, i.e. the hive orgy only happen once in a lifetime
- Caspen explains it to her, but it’s all supposed to be taken at face value
Social critique (basilisks are hunted, enslaved, and kept in captivity for the benefit of the Royals and their domain)
Differentiating between Caspen and Leo esp via dialogue
Unique spicy scenes, even if horrifying (i.e. ritual to be accepted by Caspen’s quiver)
Relatively fast-paced plot
Really liked how crest is resolved for Tem and Leo
Loved Leo’s backstory with Evelyn and I wish we had gotten more of it. Seems like it’ll develop more in book 2?
Tem cresting herself was kind of a cool resolution
NGL Bastian’s demise was satisfying, though cannibalism was unexpected
Rowe’s castration was also startling, yet satisfactory

Cons:

Poor writing mechanics; general lack of foundation in nearly all aspects of the story
- Pacing of relationships was rushed — she has sex with Caspen within 20 pages of the start (nothing wrong with having sex on a first date/first meeting, but there just wasn’t any sort of development or buildup)
- Pacing of plot was rushed
- Tem was an inconsistent character - impulsive, but also emotionally mature at times, and also randomly indignant. At times, it felt like she was upset because that’s how she was supposed to react vs how she actually felt? Parts of her character felt forced
  - Generally, her character growth was clunky and inconsistent and I found her insufferable at times, like when she lashes out at Caspen. She’d tell him to do one thing, then get upset when he tried to help her (it’s relatable for me, but still annoying to read lol)
    - At one point, Caspen calls her out on bating him and setting him up to disappoint her: “Do not bait me into saying something you will hold against me” (250). I loved that line
  - Also generally did not understand why 2 princes fell in love with her so early on in the book…she kind of felt like Bella Swan in that it’s just not well established why she’s so desirable other than being told she was. By the end, I could totally see. But they fell in love with her within the first 20%
- Magic system was not explained well at all, and was often explained as “you’ll just know”; Tem came into her powers way too easily
  - Bloodletting was also not explained at all
  - How Tem’s existing as a hybreed affects her — particularly how she has the same amount of power as a full-blown basilisk while only being half herself
- Leo’s character felt extremely underdeveloped for about 75% of the book — I liked the last 25% with him. Regardless, his growth was so rushed :( I ran into the same issue with him that I have throughout the rest of the book of we’re told he feels xyz but we’re not SHOWN it.
  - No reasonable explanation for why she wouldn’t have sex with Leo other than I guess he’s a playboy?
  - I THINK Straube was trying to differentiate the relationships but Leo and Tem’s connection felt much more superficial and it was hard to believe Tem loved Leo as much as she loved Caspen. The competition aspect especially undermined their relationship because part of it was entirely for show
    - There was such a great opportunity to create a true love triangle, but even with including Leo more towards the end, it was obvious Caspen was the front runner, and I think that’s because Leo became important in Tem’s life too late. I think if Caspen and Tem hadn’t spent so much time together it would’ve been more believable
      - There was a lot of telling the reader she regarded them equally, but without actually demonstrating that
- Conundrum that Tem feels of being torn between Leo and Caspen were relatable for me, in a way, but also felt manufactured. It didn’t feel like her struggles to know Caspen’s thoughts was well founded. I felt like I started to see it because she pointed it out, not because it was shown in scenes/dialogue/actions
- Wish we had gotten more information about Daphne (whose name we didn’t even get until the last few pages of the book?) and Kronos
- Lacked side characters, on the whole, or they were all just kind of terrible (Jonathan, Christopher (?), and Vera)
- Straube could’ve cut out some sex scenes and used the space to explain the logistics behind the world/magic system; could’ve also used the space to develop the relationships at a more organic pace (Caspen finishes into his hand and calls her beautiful IMMEDIATELY — felt cringey)
- Caspen’s penchant for violence as retribution (killing Jonathan and Christopher, castrating Rowe, killing and eating his father…) just really we need to be careful with how MMCs are romanticized

So, even with all of this criticism, I still had a really good time! I would not recommend this as a well-written, well-developed romantic fantasy. There are some really horrific, violent scenes, and some really “out there” scenes, even for a dark smutty romance. I’d almost put this on the same level as the one H.D. Carlton novella I read “Satan’s Affair”, or Leigh River’s Little Stranger. However, if you’re looking for a smutty, wild book, this was a lot of fun!

Content Warnings

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