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saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Also, I felt the use of Wicca was just cliche and leaned into stereotypes that pagan religions are demonic/evil. Not saying that's what the author was intending, rather that's how I read it. With that said, I am not very familiar with Wicca nor the author and so do not know how accurately it was portrayed, so take it with a grain of salt and correct me if I'm wrong.
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
modernmatilda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death
cjdbooks1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Body horror, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Grief, Child death, Torture, Cursing, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
hiashleynine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Child abuse and Blood
Moderate: Confinement and Death
Minor: Death of parent
leahjanespeare's review against another edition
3.0
The Whispering Dark was one of my favorite books of 2022 and was a knockout debut. Sadly, this sophomore novel was a slump for me, and I am crushed.
The ideas were there, the atmosphere were there, but I think it needed tightening up, and more clarity on the magic system and dynamics between the main characters. I kept losing track of who was 'good' and who was 'evil' - and no it's not because they were morally gray, I was trying to keep track of motives and why anybody was doing what they were doing. Also a character had two names, I think? I thought it was a narrator inconsistancy but then later on it was clear that no, he had two variations of his name. And who was I supposed to be rooting for romance wise? I think it was a love triangle but I am actually not sure.
Also, the similarities to The Raven Boys were SO STRONG that I couldn't help but compare it and since Raven Boys is one of my all time fav series, this one didn't have a chance.
(farm setting, dead parents, weird magic, curses, barn-set, love triangle, undead animals, twisted friend groups, sentient environment)
ANYWAY I hope the next one is better.
Moderate: Blood and Body horror
tnemelce's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
alatedbibliophile's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I received an advanced copy of this book to give my honest review. Everything in this review is written in my own words for no other compensation than the e-copy of this book. For more information on my review policy, click here.
This was my first read by Kelly Andrew. I have to admit, the cover immediately drew me in, and then I read the blurb and knew I had to read it. Fantasy? Check. Creepy aesthetic? Check. Friends-to-enemies-to-lovers vibes? Check, check, check!
This book was [mostly] a pleasant surprise. It was wonderfully written with some lovely prose that I greatly enjoyed reading. I love fantasy and paranormal, so the premise of this story was right up my alley.
- the monsters in this book were genuinely creepy and a couple times what I was reading gave me a chill I wasn’t expecting!
- Peter was a walking red flag and I loved it.
- since I didn’t read the first book Kelly wrote, I had no prior attachments to or expectations for Wyatt’s friends and the way they were introduced to this book was kind of jarring. They were just all of the sudden there. Maybe if I’d read the other book, it wouldn’t have felt so out of the blue, I’m not sure.
- this has no merit to the story whatsoever, but this is absolutely one of my favorite covers ever. It’s gorgeous!
Overall, I enjoyed this book as a whole, but I’ve gotta admit…the ending almost ruined it for me. Oftentimes the ending will either make or break a book, and this one kind of broke the book in my opinion. This will not be a re-read. Honestly, if I’d known how the book was going to end, I probably wouldn’t have ever picked it up to begin with. If you have book ending anxiety, I have a spoiler tag below that you can click on. Otherwise, that’s all I’m going to say about it. (I took the spoilers out of this review. If you want to read them, feel free to visit my blog)
3/5
Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Slavery, Abandonment, Animal death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Bullying
nikki_saulnier'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
4.0
Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Blood, Child death, Murder, and Violence
nostoat's review against another edition
5.0
They'd dreamed together. They'd fought together. And eventually - reluctantly - they'd grown together.
"You're mine. You and Peter. You always have been." / "People don't belong to people." / "Don't they? I take care of what's mine."
He could only remember James. The way he laughed, lit from beneath by a firefly glow. He could only remember Wyatt, and the way the skies thundered when he kissed her that first impossible time.
This book hit me in the same place that remembering reading Narnia, watching Little Woman (2019), and watching my nieces and nephews grow up while contemplating the flow of my own life between my fingers does. Which is to say, it hit me in the gut with all the force of a freight train with emotions about childhood, growing up, leaving it all behind, being haunted by the ghosts of the past good and bad and complicated. It doesn't matter how grey the skies were, the golden moments of joy still ache like taking a bite of fresh from the freezer ice cream. I feel it in my teeth, in my bones, in my soul. This book is one long "you can't go back, god, you can't go back, you just can't ever go back."
It's also a story about three people so deeply deeply entangled, it's as though the green sap of Willow Heath runs through all their veins. It's always the three of them, you see. There is hate, there is anger, there is violence and blood and crying and kissing. And at the end of it all there they are. What relationship between three people who grew up under the heavy thumb of a strange, pressing ritual guild could possibly come out normal in the wash? Their hands are bloody for each other; their arms locked in an embrace nothing could possibly break. Is it romance? Sure I guess. I don't know. I'm aromantic. To me, this is simply the deepest well of devotion that could possibly exist; bigger than romance. Deeper than romance.
There is so much pain in this book, but there is also power. Andrew, in my opinion, balances the power dynamics so deftly on a knife's edge. It's thrilling. It's delicious. I felt like I was reading a feast spread just for me.
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Medical content
sol_journal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, and Death
Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement
There’s also mention of spiders but mildly so for anybody with arachnophobia. It’s nothing terribly explicit, I’d say?? But there is a big spider mentioned in one or two chapters towards the end of the middle half.