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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gods, this felt like a slog to get through. Paint by numbers and questionnable blind representation. The chapters where Saff is dying are written well and Lori Prince narrates wonderfully. I hate that I had to go back to Audible for this though, fuck Amazon.
@not_a_sasquatch's DNF at 60% Storygraph review covers a lot of the same critiques I have which are typical for bad books so I won't belabour the point. But I picked it up again at 70% and immediately felt rwady to put it down again. Also, if I can read it at x2.75 speed and still hear words, then no wonder it drove me nuts trying to read it at x2.0.
The main point I want to discuss in more detail is Maddie's blindness, which felt badly done, falling wayside to intermittment PSAs and serving more as excuses to move the plot or characterisations forward. The writing feels close enough to believable of good representation, but if you think about it more it just doesn't match at all. Example, memorising the layout of a place. Is it done by blind people? Yes. But after just ONE instance and it being perfectly replicated, hell no. As for Maddie and Saff's first nighttime interaction, stupid. And an excuse to develop romance via blindness reasons. Eugh.
Maybe Nicole Maser is blind herself, or spoke with lots of blind and visually impaired people to conjure Maddie. I can remain hopeful, albeit skeptical. Perhaps she feels really representative for someone blind and that's great. But for me Maddie's blindness felt like just a convenient facet to cone and go as needed for danger, smut, or just a challenge for Maser to write a scene without relying on sight. (Of course Saff smells like coffee grounds, can't believe it also wasn't pine, eugh). Equal comments could be made about other disabilities in the book.
Having grated on it for so long, I did like the starting bits initially as Maddie and Saff are first getting to know each other. Maddie's experience of light described, Saff's description of guiding a blind person to manouver about a shower and Saff's use of the lamps, and Saff calling out kerbs. Cool shit.
The sapphic stuff was predictable but fine for standard.
24/07/2025
@not_a_sasquatch's DNF at 60% Storygraph review covers a lot of the same critiques I have which are typical for bad books so I won't belabour the point. But I picked it up again at 70% and immediately felt rwady to put it down again. Also, if I can read it at x2.75 speed and still hear words, then no wonder it drove me nuts trying to read it at x2.0.
The main point I want to discuss in more detail is Maddie's blindness, which felt badly done, falling wayside to intermittment PSAs and serving more as excuses to move the plot or characterisations forward. The writing feels close enough to believable of good representation, but if you think about it more it just doesn't match at all. Example, memorising the layout of a place. Is it done by blind people? Yes. But after just ONE instance and it being perfectly replicated, hell no. As for Maddie and Saff's first nighttime interaction, stupid. And an excuse to develop romance via blindness reasons. Eugh.
Maybe Nicole Maser is blind herself, or spoke with lots of blind and visually impaired people to conjure Maddie. I can remain hopeful, albeit skeptical. Perhaps she feels really representative for someone blind and that's great. But for me Maddie's blindness felt like just a convenient facet to cone and go as needed for danger, smut, or just a challenge for Maser to write a scene without relying on sight. (Of course Saff smells like coffee grounds, can't believe it also wasn't pine, eugh). Equal comments could be made about other disabilities in the book.
Having grated on it for so long, I did like the starting bits initially as Maddie and Saff are first getting to know each other. Maddie's experience of light described, Saff's description of guiding a blind person to manouver about a shower and Saff's use of the lamps, and Saff calling out kerbs. Cool shit.
The sapphic stuff was predictable but fine for standard.
24/07/2025
2.5 ⭐️
It was meh. The main characters didn’t do anything to endear me to them and everything that happened felt inorganic. It didn’t feel like the world was pushing the story forward just the need to get the next plot point.
It was meh. The main characters didn’t do anything to endear me to them and everything that happened felt inorganic. It didn’t feel like the world was pushing the story forward just the need to get the next plot point.
I wish this book was 1000 pages longer. Sapphic The Walking Dead. I just wish the story continued!
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
I can't put into words how much I adored this book. Such a beautiful love story. Please read it.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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
Es una de esas tantas historias donde el mundo distopico solo es un recurso para la trama real que se enfoca en la humanidad de las personas y la personalidad de cada protagonista. Aunque no es una historia de accion tiene sus momentos y es de esas historias donde no puedes evitar sentir afecto por los protagonistas. Ambas son muy inteligentes, muy valientes y lo mejor que tiene la trama es la forma en la que se adaptan al mundo en el que viven
ETA after audiobook re-read: LORI PRINCE’S PERFORMANCE MAKES THIS EVEN BETTER!! Bumping up a star because damn. She is good I
And I almost cried a few times.
ohh i loved this!! both MCs were lovable and fantastic and their dynamic was so good. i reaaaaaly fell in love with maddie, in particular, but i adored them both. the secondary characters, esp/mainly, maddie's family were great, and it has everything you could want from a zombie, road trip, sapphic romance novel. really great.
And I almost cried a few times.
ohh i loved this!! both MCs were lovable and fantastic and their dynamic was so good. i reaaaaaly fell in love with maddie, in particular, but i adored them both. the secondary characters, esp/mainly, maddie's family were great, and it has everything you could want from a zombie, road trip, sapphic romance novel. really great.
5 stars!
To be honest, I only got this book because of the numerous TikTok videos I saw that suggested it was a good read. Never have I been happier about the fact that this annoying little app pointed me in the right direction, because damn, I think Hearing Red is the best book I have ever read – and I go through sapphic books at an alarming rate, so that says a lot.
I’m neither a fan of horror, nor do I like zombie apocalypse stories, so it came as a big surprise that the story of HR worked so well for me – and it did so because of the two main characters and the way their slowly blossoming feelings for each other were depicted. All the times they solo traveled or simply spend time together away from others felt special and more often than not ended up making me smile, even in the most intense and dire situations.
Maddie's blindness as well as Saff’s past traumas were also masterfully handled and ended up enriching the story – especially the way the point of view often shifts to Maddie who simply experiences the world in a different way, enhancing the feel of the surrounding chaos and danger but also at times making intimate moments that more impactful.
While it took a little while to get into the story and get to know the characters well enough to start caring about them, when I reached that point, the two of them slowly but surely managed to become what I would call “comfort characters”, or in other words, characters I would gladly read another 500 pages or even more pages about. I’m truly sad that this book had to end and now I’m left with the feeling that this probably pushed my standards for sapphic stories up so high that I won’t be able to enjoy other books for quite a while. Truly, this is one of those titles that I just wish I could erase from my memory to experience again for the first time....
To be honest, I only got this book because of the numerous TikTok videos I saw that suggested it was a good read. Never have I been happier about the fact that this annoying little app pointed me in the right direction, because damn, I think Hearing Red is the best book I have ever read – and I go through sapphic books at an alarming rate, so that says a lot.
I’m neither a fan of horror, nor do I like zombie apocalypse stories, so it came as a big surprise that the story of HR worked so well for me – and it did so because of the two main characters and the way their slowly blossoming feelings for each other were depicted. All the times they solo traveled or simply spend time together away from others felt special and more often than not ended up making me smile, even in the most intense and dire situations.
Maddie's blindness as well as Saff’s past traumas were also masterfully handled and ended up enriching the story – especially the way the point of view often shifts to Maddie who simply experiences the world in a different way, enhancing the feel of the surrounding chaos and danger but also at times making intimate moments that more impactful.
While it took a little while to get into the story and get to know the characters well enough to start caring about them, when I reached that point, the two of them slowly but surely managed to become what I would call “comfort characters”, or in other words, characters I would gladly read another 500 pages or even more pages about. I’m truly sad that this book had to end and now I’m left with the feeling that this probably pushed my standards for sapphic stories up so high that I won’t be able to enjoy other books for quite a while. Truly, this is one of those titles that I just wish I could erase from my memory to experience again for the first time....