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chelseylb1988's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Death, Murder, Body horror, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Grief
kbairbooks's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual content
asipofcozy's review
- 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
4.5
I have read quite a few YA fantasy murder mysteries, especially from Kerri Mansiscalco; However, if I would have to compare Adalyn Grace's ability to keep me enraptured and guessing over authors, I would choose Grace hands down.
I picked this book up for three reasons:
1. the main character can see spirits and commune with death
2. the gothic vibes
3. a murder mystery
And it hit all so perfectly.
Signa is by far a perfect character. In fact, her flaws are what make her so intriguing. You can see how she struggles with wanting to be this perfect Victorian lady. Yet when she gets that opportunity, she struggles with how confining and suffocating it actually is. It's that struggle of following society - especially a society where etiquette is everything - and being her own person.
More important to me was the murder mystery. The actual murder was on my "list of suspects" but Adalyn Grace does a marvelous job at throwing off the tracks of the murder. You feel like you are constantly second-guessing your choices. That's what a murder mystery should be!
I cannot wait for Foxglove in August because oh man that ending!
Graphic: Vomit, Gore, Death of parent, Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Grief, Murder, Body horror, and Blood
Minor: Sexual content
headinthepages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I was engaged in the story as soon as I started reading and found the style of writing, characters & dialogue particularly good.
I loved the plot and was very much along for the ride. I loved Death as a character and can’t wait to find out what happens in Foxglove!
Moderate: Sexism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Vomit, Abandonment, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Infertility, Alcoholism, Medical content, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Gore, Child death, and Infidelity
thecatconstellation's review
- 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
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Vomit, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Classism, Sexual content, Blood, Gore, and Pregnancy
ashleyelizabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gore
maeverose's review against another edition
2.75
TL;DR: Loved the beginning, meh towards the end. Love the atmosphere, the secret garden vibes. This is new adult not YA. The romance was highly problematic.
The first half of this book was an easy 5 stars, but the second half was more of a 3 at best. (And in hindsight, the problematic romance just kinda tainted the whole book…)
🖤 🖤 🖤
The thing I loved the most was the atmosphere and writing. The descriptions in this book are so vivid and atmospheric I could clearly picture everything in my mind. I want to be in this world. I love immersive writing, especially in a gothic book, it’s one of the number one things I look for and this definitely delivers on that.
I loved the secret garden vibes. I don’t know if it was intentional but this definitely feels like a gothic retelling almost of the secret garden. Lots of similarities.
💔 💔 💔
I’m very picky with mortal x immortal pairings because they often feel icky. This one did. Without spoilers, Death met her as a two month old baby and kept an eye on her from then until she was 19, when the book takes place.
Signa is so focused on men the entire book when she’s supposed to be focused on saving someone’s life, something that’s incredibly urgent. There was a love triangle that while reading I felt was entirely unnecessary and just took up space in the book that should’ve focused on the actual plot.
Another thing about the romance is that it gets a bit steamier than I would say is appropriate for YA. There’s an on page sex scene that’s somewhat explicit, and besides that Signa is just very horny throughout the book. I would categorize this as new adult, not young adult. I feel like authors forget that the target age range of YA is 12-17. I would not give this to anyone younger than 16, personally.
Signa is very obsessed with being a ‘proper lady’ throughout most of the book and I found those parts to be very annoying. If she had grown out of that mindset earlier I wouldn’t have minded it so much because it does make sense given the time period and her high class status that she’d care about that, but it was overdone imo.
While I loved the writing in the first half, after that it started to feel overwritten and like it was trying too hard to be poetic at certain parts. It started to drag on a bit as well and was a bit repetitive at times. Kinda felt like the author wrote the book in order and got burnt out towards the end.
About the end reveal of who did it:
A very subjective issue: I just don’t like YA. Even though this has more adult themes it’s still written like YA. The main character is very naive (understandably so, but still), she’s so focused on boys instead of the very pressing situation going on, and there’s unnecessary petty drama with some of the other girls her age. I feel like these are common tropes in YA. Maybe it’s just because I’m an adult and don’t like those things but I remember disliking those things when I was a teenager as well so… I just would’ve preferred if this had been written as adult and the characters were more mature and less easily distracted by cute men.
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide attempt and Religious bigotry
Graphic: poisoning Moderate: description of a broken neck Minor: an implication that having a lot of sexual partners leads to ‘diseases’takarakei's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
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This is not a stand-alone!! (I’ve reported this so there’s no confusion for others). I didn’t know that going in so was not expecting it to end not wrapped up!
The overall theme is about our main character Signa embracing the power she has around death and eschewing societal norms to join society and marry a respectable man. It’s definitely a story of self discovery and coming into one’s own as a young person. Also there’s like a murder mystery as a main plot point. Definitely there is romance as well, and it gets kinda spicy for a YA novel! The writing throughout is beautiful.
"I know how society teaches us to be soft and dull and compliant, but you will not be any of those things, do you understand? Do not change the parts of yourself that you like to make others comfortable. Do not mold yourself to fit the standards someone else has set for us." - Blythe
3/5 🌶️
Graphic: Vomit, Death of parent, Sexual content, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Grief and Blood
Minor: Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Alcohol
kirschyhershey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Murder