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moonlight161's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.25
Enjoyable and entertaining, relationship of two MCs was enjoyable and endearing
lavdisy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
I think "weird" is the exact feeling to describe how I feel when I read this. When you look into the description, it's really compelling – all about a haunted library where there's a forbidden grimoire, and our main characters intentionally opened it despite it being dangerous. I really am waiting for some engaging plot, but I don't get it. The plot is so flat; even the devil isn't frightening, and he (yes, it was he) is so chill to the point I'm frustrated. Like, why doesn't he do anything? Then, finally up until 80%, the interesting parts come. Also, there's not much origin about this book, and that was the weak part for being the reason why our main characters can't finish their task.
The romance in this plot wasn't my favorite either. It felt like he suddenly liked her despite only knowing her for a few days. While it's okay for the story to unfold like that, there was no chemistry between them, making their romance relationship feel awkward. I think if they had just remained friends, it would have been better. Also, some scenes with the devil confused me; I didn't understand why she did certain things. I don't think those scenes were necessary.
That ending part was something that caught me off guard. I was not really thinking about how it ends, but that sentence was really good. So, I liked the book, and surprisingly, I wasn't bored while reading it, but it's not really going to be my favorite. I actually read her latest release, and I can see her improvement from this book. Maybe this book would fit for dark, mysterious happenings in academia, but keep it simple.
The romance in this plot wasn't my favorite either. It felt like he suddenly liked her despite only knowing her for a few days. While it's okay for the story to unfold like that, there was no chemistry between them, making their romance relationship feel awkward. I think if they had just remained friends, it would have been better. Also, some scenes with the devil confused me; I didn't understand why she did certain things. I don't think those scenes were necessary.
That ending part was something that caught me off guard. I was not really thinking about how it ends, but that sentence was really good. So, I liked the book, and surprisingly, I wasn't bored while reading it, but it's not really going to be my favorite. I actually read her latest release, and I can see her improvement from this book. Maybe this book would fit for dark, mysterious happenings in academia, but keep it simple.
courtney_saba's review against another edition
3.0
Demons and devils and libraries, oh my. Sounds magnificent, right? Unfortunately for this book, it fell a bit short.
I'm finally reviewing this book after weeks of pushing it aside, and idk what to say now. It had everything that you could ever love: devils and romance and darkness and a little horror. It should've been a 5 star read. But there was something off about it.
The chemistry between our two leads was a little off. I didn't believe it entirely.
The darkness, horror, and devil aspects were all there, but didn't live up to their potential. I felt like there was a cloudy veneer over the book: you could see the greatness, the excitement, the black delicious soul of it, but the author just didn't hit the mark, didn't follow through, didn't fully execute it.
Maybe it's bc the book was settled in the back row of the YA section, the one you may come across as you're painstakingly browsing each and every book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. The one that makes you think, "wow, this MUST be amazing," and then you finish it and wish it was deemed New Adult or Adult so that it could be a gorgeous story with themes that are catnip for most readers. I think the YA label limited the author. I also think the characters were too young. This could have easily been set at a university with college age students and the adult themes played with freely.
And the magic aspect? It wasn't utilized or explained as succinctly as I wanted it to be.
Though I will say, it's a pretty dark book for the YA genre, and the author took some liberties with her book that made my black soul squeal in delight. This is why, at the end of the day, I gave it 3 stars, but it couldn't measure up to 4 or 5 bc of its flaws, which is a shame. With a title, cover, and blurb like that, it deserved to be on my favorites shelf, but alas, it fell short.
Was I entertained? Yes. Despite my complaints, it kept me engaged and I wanted to see what the author came up with next. Plus, the devil was charming and slick and clever and spine-tinglingly hot. I will forever think this book should have been aged up bc of the possibilities the author could have taken, the doors that could've been opened for this gem... Whew. A missed opportunity, for sure.
Would I re-read this? I may skim some parts, but overall, I couldn't bring myself to reread the entire thing again.
Would I recommend this? You know? Sure. Maybe someone else would really love this and all its tame, but slightly, darkly spiced glory.
Happy reading, Goodreads fiends.
I'm finally reviewing this book after weeks of pushing it aside, and idk what to say now. It had everything that you could ever love: devils and romance and darkness and a little horror. It should've been a 5 star read. But there was something off about it.
The chemistry between our two leads was a little off. I didn't believe it entirely.
The darkness, horror, and devil aspects were all there, but didn't live up to their potential. I felt like there was a cloudy veneer over the book: you could see the greatness, the excitement, the black delicious soul of it, but the author just didn't hit the mark, didn't follow through, didn't fully execute it.
Maybe it's bc the book was settled in the back row of the YA section, the one you may come across as you're painstakingly browsing each and every book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. The one that makes you think, "wow, this MUST be amazing," and then you finish it and wish it was deemed New Adult or Adult so that it could be a gorgeous story with themes that are catnip for most readers. I think the YA label limited the author. I also think the characters were too young. This could have easily been set at a university with college age students and the adult themes played with freely.
And the magic aspect? It wasn't utilized or explained as succinctly as I wanted it to be.
Though I will say, it's a pretty dark book for the YA genre, and the author took some liberties with her book that made my black soul squeal in delight. This is why, at the end of the day, I gave it 3 stars, but it couldn't measure up to 4 or 5 bc of its flaws, which is a shame. With a title, cover, and blurb like that, it deserved to be on my favorites shelf, but alas, it fell short.
Was I entertained? Yes. Despite my complaints, it kept me engaged and I wanted to see what the author came up with next. Plus, the devil was charming and slick and clever and spine-tinglingly hot. I will forever think this book should have been aged up bc of the possibilities the author could have taken, the doors that could've been opened for this gem... Whew. A missed opportunity, for sure.
Would I re-read this? I may skim some parts, but overall, I couldn't bring myself to reread the entire thing again.
Would I recommend this? You know? Sure. Maybe someone else would really love this and all its tame, but slightly, darkly spiced glory.
Happy reading, Goodreads fiends.
annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review
4.0
I've lost count of how often I grabbed this book, planning on making it my next read, and on how often I put it back and picked another book instead. This book sounded really like my thing, like something I would like, but for some reason there were always other books grabbing my attention and pulling me away from this one. However, since I officially think I have way too many unread book box books I'm gonna try and read some of them soonish. Starting with this one.
The atmosphere of this book was absolutely and totally amazing! I loved the library, filled with magical books and other dark secrets. I loved how spooky everything was, how hard it was to determine what was real and what wasn't and what was happening in the heads and dreams of the characters and what was truly dangerous. I won't get any nightmares, even though the book was gruesome at times, but I really enjoyed how dark the author dared to go.
Even though we don't get to see much of the rest of the school, it's a summer holiday and although our hero is following some summer classes they are not really important and therefore not described or shown, I did get the college feeling and could have spent way more pages in this library. At times I would have loved a more detailed description of the nooks and hidden places, but who knows what dangers might be lurking there.
I also quite liked the characters in this story! Both of them are going through a hard time, dealing with issues no-one their age should have to deal with. I liked how they kept on fighting, kept on trying, kept on hoping. And even though our hero had some magic in his blood, his issues were quite mundane and I'm afraid also quite common. I'm not entirely sure about the romance between them, but I do believe that for now they are the person the other needs!
The atmosphere of this book was absolutely and totally amazing! I loved the library, filled with magical books and other dark secrets. I loved how spooky everything was, how hard it was to determine what was real and what wasn't and what was happening in the heads and dreams of the characters and what was truly dangerous. I won't get any nightmares, even though the book was gruesome at times, but I really enjoyed how dark the author dared to go.
Even though we don't get to see much of the rest of the school, it's a summer holiday and although our hero is following some summer classes they are not really important and therefore not described or shown, I did get the college feeling and could have spent way more pages in this library. At times I would have loved a more detailed description of the nooks and hidden places, but who knows what dangers might be lurking there.
I also quite liked the characters in this story! Both of them are going through a hard time, dealing with issues no-one their age should have to deal with. I liked how they kept on fighting, kept on trying, kept on hoping. And even though our hero had some magic in his blood, his issues were quite mundane and I'm afraid also quite common. I'm not entirely sure about the romance between them, but I do believe that for now they are the person the other needs!
tortello_alla_zucca's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
3.25
laelyn's review against another edition
2.0
I rarely read young adult horror, so I was actually rather excited to dive into this one. "The Devil Makes Three" mixes paranormal horror with a dark academia-esque setting which I really liked. In the end, it still just wasn't for me.
The writing is solid and the characters are complex and well-written, too. Personally, I thought they read a little older than they are supposed to be, especially Elliot, and in general the setting screamed more college than high school to me. I think the book would have benefitted from ageing up the characters a little for the whole setting to make more sense, but this is a very minor complaint and I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Also, the whole magic thing felt out of place and weirdly tacked on, like the author was trying to write two different books at the same time. I really didn't need it in this particular novel.
The biggest issue I had with the novel was the pacing. I gotta admit that I thought about dnf-ing the book multiple times throughout the first about 30% of it because it was sooooo sloooow and nothing really happened. I was incredibly bored despite the book obviously trying to set up its later action by making me care for the characters, by building context for them, by fleshing them out. But it was just a lot of tell don't show and it dragged on and on and on until finally, things started to get moving once Tess and Elliot find the demonic book. The pacing was still too slow after that but at least there were actual things happening, and some of them were very dark and gruesome which I absolutely enjoyed.
The characters themselves were alright. I admire the complexity Bovalino gives them but there were also weird disconnects between the pov chapters that kept creeping up. Elliot would, in his own pov chapter, talk at length about how he would never make a move on Tess for several reasons, then in the next chapter, this time Tess' pov, he immediately asks her out. What the characters tell us in their pov chapters stands sometimes in opposition to what they do in the other character's chapters or at least doesn't always fit. The romance felt at the same time rushed and incredibly slow. The side characters were kind of... there, but really, none of them were particularly fleshed out, which in some cases kept me from emotionally engaging with certain parts of the plot.
The final twist is rather typical of the horror genre so I predicted it and I'm sure a lot of readers will too, but I still really liked it and it added to the eerie atmosphere of the second part of the book. The devil itself was really well done and I really enjoyed the ink-angle, but it couldn't save the book for me. I'd still recommend it to fans of the ya horror genre.
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!
The writing is solid and the characters are complex and well-written, too. Personally, I thought they read a little older than they are supposed to be, especially Elliot, and in general the setting screamed more college than high school to me. I think the book would have benefitted from ageing up the characters a little for the whole setting to make more sense, but this is a very minor complaint and I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Also, the whole magic thing felt out of place and weirdly tacked on, like the author was trying to write two different books at the same time. I really didn't need it in this particular novel.
The biggest issue I had with the novel was the pacing. I gotta admit that I thought about dnf-ing the book multiple times throughout the first about 30% of it because it was sooooo sloooow and nothing really happened. I was incredibly bored despite the book obviously trying to set up its later action by making me care for the characters, by building context for them, by fleshing them out. But it was just a lot of tell don't show and it dragged on and on and on until finally, things started to get moving once Tess and Elliot find the demonic book. The pacing was still too slow after that but at least there were actual things happening, and some of them were very dark and gruesome which I absolutely enjoyed.
The characters themselves were alright. I admire the complexity Bovalino gives them but there were also weird disconnects between the pov chapters that kept creeping up. Elliot would, in his own pov chapter, talk at length about how he would never make a move on Tess for several reasons, then in the next chapter, this time Tess' pov, he immediately asks her out. What the characters tell us in their pov chapters stands sometimes in opposition to what they do in the other character's chapters or at least doesn't always fit. The romance felt at the same time rushed and incredibly slow. The side characters were kind of... there, but really, none of them were particularly fleshed out, which in some cases kept me from emotionally engaging with certain parts of the plot.
The final twist is rather typical of the horror genre so I predicted it and I'm sure a lot of readers will too, but I still really liked it and it added to the eerie atmosphere of the second part of the book. The devil itself was really well done and I really enjoyed the ink-angle, but it couldn't save the book for me. I'd still recommend it to fans of the ya horror genre.
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!
emilye3's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t even know where to begin with this book. It felt like it was missing many things and the characters were t as flushed out as they could have been. Pacing seemed off at times and I found my self a little confused towards the end. Overall it was an okay book.
gabrielle_erin's review against another edition
2.0
Objectively, this was a perfectly fine book, but for some reason it just did not click with me. It took sooo long for me to get through it! The characters were bland and although the storyline had potential to be interesting the execution just was not what I thought I was going to get out of this book.
tilltab's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hannah27's review against another edition
5.0
actually could i have 5 more of these little british boys