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mckisreadin3 's review for:
Oleander: A Great Expectations Reimagining
by Scarlett Drake
i fear i wasn’t warned properly about how devastating this book would be… it was good but holy shit i am never reading this thing again. that hurt
it was hard not to hate cas for a gooooooooood portion of this book. obviously it’s clear from the beginning what was happening between him and xavier was fucked up and completely not his fault, and it only got clearer throughout. still, he could be so cruel towards jude that it was hard to want them together. i think my main thing is his explanation only comes at the very end of the book, followed by a super short chapter of Happiness- i feel like after all that pain i (and jude tbh) deserved more.
the most important thing though is to acknowledge that xavier and gideon are both pieces of shit. especially xavier, perverted freak. but gideon is not innocent either. both of them deserved a lot worse than what they got. someone give me and jude a gun and we’ll deal with it ourselves. still, by the end i didn’t hate cas anymore. he really was the victim in this whole scenario, and while i can’t love the way he treated jude at times, i can understand it
jude was interesting in that usually his sort of character is one i love (characters who are done dirty are my kryptonite. don’t think too hard abt what that says abt me) but he was such a doormat that i kinda wanted to shake him more than i felt bad for him. ofc there is something admirable about how completely he loved cas in all his moods, but still i just would’ve liked maybe a litttleee groveling or more of him balancing out their relationship. it felt like jude gave gave gave all those years, i would’ve liked a little more from cas once they could finally be together.
but then again, maybe it’s wrong to say i wanted more from him when clearly his time apart from jude wasn’t a walk in the park. all in all, they both suffered enough all those years, im just glad they found peace with each other. a lot of conflicting emotions here, i know, but that’s what makes this such a devastatingly good read
last i’ll say besides the fact that xavier really should’ve got a worse fate, is that the writing was very good. it hurt me ofc but it felt so real and raw. i’m def gonna need a lighthearted read next. but yeah, this was written beautifully and im really glad jude and cas got their happy ending
3.75
it was hard not to hate cas for a gooooooooood portion of this book. obviously it’s clear from the beginning what was happening between him and xavier was fucked up and completely not his fault, and it only got clearer throughout. still, he could be so cruel towards jude that it was hard to want them together. i think my main thing is his explanation only comes at the very end of the book, followed by a super short chapter of Happiness- i feel like after all that pain i (and jude tbh) deserved more.
the most important thing though is to acknowledge that xavier and gideon are both pieces of shit. especially xavier, perverted freak. but gideon is not innocent either. both of them deserved a lot worse than what they got. someone give me and jude a gun and we’ll deal with it ourselves. still, by the end i didn’t hate cas anymore. he really was the victim in this whole scenario, and while i can’t love the way he treated jude at times, i can understand it
jude was interesting in that usually his sort of character is one i love (characters who are done dirty are my kryptonite. don’t think too hard abt what that says abt me) but he was such a doormat that i kinda wanted to shake him more than i felt bad for him. ofc there is something admirable about how completely he loved cas in all his moods, but still i just would’ve liked maybe a litttleee groveling or more of him balancing out their relationship. it felt like jude gave gave gave all those years, i would’ve liked a little more from cas once they could finally be together.
but then again, maybe it’s wrong to say i wanted more from him when clearly his time apart from jude wasn’t a walk in the park. all in all, they both suffered enough all those years, im just glad they found peace with each other. a lot of conflicting emotions here, i know, but that’s what makes this such a devastatingly good read
last i’ll say besides the fact that xavier really should’ve got a worse fate, is that the writing was very good. it hurt me ofc but it felt so real and raw. i’m def gonna need a lighthearted read next. but yeah, this was written beautifully and im really glad jude and cas got their happy ending
3.75