Scan barcode
traeumenvonbuechern's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Blood, Gore, and Child death
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
Minor: Drug use, Body horror, Stalking, Suicide, and Racism
hannahwhiteyy's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a really good book! Written by a queer author, the book showcased a beautiful diversity of gender, sexuality and race. It was slow-paced in the beginning, which I didn’t love - hence the 4 stars. By the middle and end, I was truly engaged and genuinely related to each of the main characters. Worth the hype, but be careful of the content warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Trafficking, Stalking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism
fthepatriarchy's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
this book 😭😭 its 100% one of my new favourites. i had really high expectations for it and it definitely met them. arlo’s so fucking pure gn when she asked for a bathroom in the laboratory bc of the slushies she drank 😭 my heart. me too arlo. me too. also shes the most relatable mc i’ve seen, like yes not all heroes are gladly noble and endlessly brave. she’s strong as hell tho i wanna hug her.
nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover … HER AND ARLO’S KISS this is so unfair i needed to know what happened after they kissed. i feel robbed of a scene where arlo’s lying on her w nos stroking her hair. i want. so badly.
VEHAN my baby </3 THAT ONE SCENE w the psychic or wtv where he was spewing his true feelings 😭 like oh my god come here let me hug you. his mum’s such an asshole oh my god can i please adopt him. please.🥺
the mutual pining between vehan and aurelian near enough killed me. like pLEASE i need them to be able to be together in the next book. feeling so mfing bad for aurelian.
ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.
im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3
nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover …
VEHAN my baby </3
the mutual pining between vehan and
ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.
im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Cannibalism, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Mental illness
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse
thecourtofreading's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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
4.5
"heroes went through so much hardship. heroes were the stuff of tragedies."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Drug use, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Gun violence, Body horror, Racism, and Emotional abuse
alibader's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
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
3.25
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year which is what makes this especially disappointing. The plot and pacing were all over the place, it felt as though the story didn't really start until 300 pages in and the beginning was very slow. The ending felt rushed and several moments throughout I found myself rereading a chapter because things weren't explained.
The only aspect that saved this book and makes me want to pick up the sequel is the characters, I thought they were very entertaining to read about and the romantic buildup was well written.
The only aspect that saved this book and makes me want to pick up the sequel is the characters, I thought they were very entertaining to read about and the romantic buildup was well written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Stalking, Trafficking, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Grief and Gun violence
Minor: Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Suicide, and Vomit
camy_1911's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This is a great book about a murder mystery set in a faerie world with a wlw main couple, a mlm main couple, non-binary/gender fluid rep. One of the main characters Nausicaä is super sassy and sarcastic. Plenty of funny scenes and pining. Additionally, the author has added content warnings at the start of the book.
Also great pop culture references 😄
Also great pop culture references 😄
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence
Minor: Body horror, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
booksthatburn's review
I love Fae and Greek mythology, so when I realized this was going to give me Tisiphone and the High Court all in one book I was intrigued. Ultimately I’m stopping because it feels like it’s trying to do too much, and by trying to remember the many characters and track the complex blend of two already massive paradigms/pantheons... it got to be overwhelming. The Furies are great, and the Furies plus the Faerie Courts would be really cool, but the Furies, the Greco-Roman creation myth, complex systems for inheritance, political machinations, a serial murderer (or murderers), and the marginalization of the faeries (which are different from the Fae), and the persecution of the Ironborn (which could variously be considered Fae, Faerie, or human?)... it’s a lot. It would be a lot for even a trilogy to establish gradually, it begs for the room to have major details conveyed simply at first and then expanded, distorted, and recontextualized over the course of two books minimum. You can do really cool narrative things with “knowing” something then finding out your information was wrong and it changes how you think about what came before. Here things were established, rebutted, and adjusted so quickly I’m not even sure if they were supposed to be changes at all. I made it just over a third of the way through and I feel overwhelmed by the world and underwhelmed by the plot.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Body horror and Suicide
Full CWs provided from the Author’s Note. TWs may be incomplete. CW for anger, arson, blood/gore, body horror (minor), death of a child, depression, disownment, divorce, drug use/addiction, grief/grieving, human trafficking, poverty, psychopathy, stalking, suicide (past, off-page), suicidal ideation, toxic relationship/manipulation, trauma/PTSD, racism, violence/gun violence. TW for Harry Potter reference (page 169).stubbornlybookish's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings: murder/death, serial killings, depression, human trafficking
If you want a campy, hella queer, fae story that is super reminiscent of YA from the past decade, this is absolutely a story for you. A Dark and Hollow Star follows four queer teens navigating supernatural life. We have a prince and his guard, an immortal being with dubious intentions, and a half fae girl desperate to stay in the world of magic who cross paths when a string of murders crop up and no one seems to want to get involved. What they discover will shake the magical realm to its core.
I initially picked up A Dark and Hollow Star because its pitch is fantastic and appealed to that nostalgic YA bone I apparently still have. City of Bones meets The Cruel Prince set in Toronto with an entirely queer cast of MCs?? Sign me the f up.
Objectively speaking this book needs a little work-specifically in regards to the world building. You can tell this is a debut novel because Ashley Shuttleworth just packs way too much information, much to the detriment of the story. The pacing, plot, and even sometimes the characters get sidelined all so the reader gets told about the various abilities each subsect of fae contain. This persistence lasts right up until the end, whilst during the climax the story was getting undercut by world building interjections. I liked some of the concepts but found the execution lacking.
I also think this needed to be way shorter for what it was. At times the story felt like a giant prologue. So much of the beginning felt unnecessary and did little other than to dump a bunch of
information. Say what you will about classic ya fantasy (which there are plenty of critiques), those books got moving with a quickness that A Dark and Hollow Star desperately needed. I think this story could have easily been 150 pages shorter and the story would not have changed in any significant way.
Subjectively speaking this was a lot of fun. As soon as we got to the meat of the plot, I was in it. Broody characters with witty banter, a dangerous mystery driving the plot forward, a truly ridiculous villain/climax (which I say fully as a compliment). I especially liked our characters and their developing romances. The story could have benefitted from the two different story threads coming together sooner, because I found all of the different character interactions highly entertaining. I also happened to really enjoy the setting. This is incredibly niche but having a fantasy book set in a city I'm familiar with was really enjoyable. Also, the ending, while incredibly campy did actually hook me and I am willing to pick up the sequel to see where the story goes.
I predict this will be a super polarizing book. Depending what you value in stories this could really be your thing or supremely not. And I, of course, find myself in the middle.
*2.5 stars*
If you want a campy, hella queer, fae story that is super reminiscent of YA from the past decade, this is absolutely a story for you. A Dark and Hollow Star follows four queer teens navigating supernatural life. We have a prince and his guard, an immortal being with dubious intentions, and a half fae girl desperate to stay in the world of magic who cross paths when a string of murders crop up and no one seems to want to get involved. What they discover will shake the magical realm to its core.
I initially picked up A Dark and Hollow Star because its pitch is fantastic and appealed to that nostalgic YA bone I apparently still have. City of Bones meets The Cruel Prince set in Toronto with an entirely queer cast of MCs?? Sign me the f up.
Objectively speaking this book needs a little work-specifically in regards to the world building. You can tell this is a debut novel because Ashley Shuttleworth just packs way too much information, much to the detriment of the story. The pacing, plot, and even sometimes the characters get sidelined all so the reader gets told about the various abilities each subsect of fae contain. This persistence lasts right up until the end, whilst during the climax the story was getting undercut by world building interjections. I liked some of the concepts but found the execution lacking.
I also think this needed to be way shorter for what it was. At times the story felt like a giant prologue. So much of the beginning felt unnecessary and did little other than to dump a bunch of
information. Say what you will about classic ya fantasy (which there are plenty of critiques), those books got moving with a quickness that A Dark and Hollow Star desperately needed. I think this story could have easily been 150 pages shorter and the story would not have changed in any significant way.
Subjectively speaking this was a lot of fun. As soon as we got to the meat of the plot, I was in it. Broody characters with witty banter, a dangerous mystery driving the plot forward, a truly ridiculous villain/climax (which I say fully as a compliment). I especially liked our characters and their developing romances. The story could have benefitted from the two different story threads coming together sooner, because I found all of the different character interactions highly entertaining. I also happened to really enjoy the setting. This is incredibly niche but having a fantasy book set in a city I'm familiar with was really enjoyable. Also, the ending, while incredibly campy did actually hook me and I am willing to pick up the sequel to see where the story goes.
I predict this will be a super polarizing book. Depending what you value in stories this could really be your thing or supremely not. And I, of course, find myself in the middle.
*2.5 stars*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Child death
Moderate: Mental illness and Trafficking
Minor: Suicide and Gun violence
More...