Scan barcode
A review by themoonwholistens
Book of Night by Holly Black
2.0
well that was boring
DNF @32%
u know i appreciate the filipino rep but i am quite sick of token Southeast Asian representation. It was mentioned once and then never again, the character didn’t even feel Filipino. If you don’t want to include Filipino characters, then don’t. Stop with this “Representation” baiting. If the only thing you are going to do to make a character “diverse” is mention that they cook pancit and arroz caldo in some past party, I would rather not have it.
that is at least 4 hours of my life i will never be getting back. I was already skeptical because of the amount of people who were disappointed in this book but I was really willing to give it a chance. The magic system sounded interesting in theory but this just read like a modern Vicious by VE Schwab with the college setting and origin of powers/magic but less poetic and obviously lacking the Schwab touch. I had some people saying that it really does have a slow burn plot until around half of the book but honestly the plot was the least of my irritations.
The characters sounded so obnoxious and pretentious. If that was the point, fine. But it doesn’t make the book any more intriguing or interesting. I also don’t like how it felt like they were being objectified based on things such as the clothes they were wearing. I get that it could somehow be a commentary but it just didn’t read that way for me.
I kept cringing from the character relationships. I only read the first 32% and I would have stopped earlier if I didn’t have hope for the magic system. But from the parts I have read, I think that the magic system wasn’t executed in an intriguing manner and the premise was wasted on both an un-interesting execution and annoying characters with even more obnoxious POV narrations.
The only reason this isn’t 1 star is because I didn’t finish it. It represents the hope that the rest of the book got better, I guess.
— 2.0 —
// content warnings: a lot of blood depiction, self harm to get blood because of the magic in this book, very brief mention of cancer, gore, violence, death, murder, child abuse, toxic living situations, depression, grief depiction, panic attacks, anxiety, gun violence, drinking, brief mention of alcoholism, drugging, throwing up, captivity / themes of being forced into places
(taken from Melanie @meltotheany)
DNF @32%
u know i appreciate the filipino rep but i am quite sick of token Southeast Asian representation. It was mentioned once and then never again, the character didn’t even feel Filipino. If you don’t want to include Filipino characters, then don’t. Stop with this “Representation” baiting. If the only thing you are going to do to make a character “diverse” is mention that they cook pancit and arroz caldo in some past party, I would rather not have it.
that is at least 4 hours of my life i will never be getting back. I was already skeptical because of the amount of people who were disappointed in this book but I was really willing to give it a chance. The magic system sounded interesting in theory but this just read like a modern Vicious by VE Schwab with the college setting and origin of powers/magic but less poetic and obviously lacking the Schwab touch. I had some people saying that it really does have a slow burn plot until around half of the book but honestly the plot was the least of my irritations.
The characters sounded so obnoxious and pretentious. If that was the point, fine. But it doesn’t make the book any more intriguing or interesting. I also don’t like how it felt like they were being objectified based on things such as the clothes they were wearing. I get that it could somehow be a commentary but it just didn’t read that way for me.
I kept cringing from the character relationships. I only read the first 32% and I would have stopped earlier if I didn’t have hope for the magic system. But from the parts I have read, I think that the magic system wasn’t executed in an intriguing manner and the premise was wasted on both an un-interesting execution and annoying characters with even more obnoxious POV narrations.
The only reason this isn’t 1 star is because I didn’t finish it. It represents the hope that the rest of the book got better, I guess.
— 2.0 —
// content warnings: a lot of blood depiction, self harm to get blood because of the magic in this book, very brief mention of cancer, gore, violence, death, murder, child abuse, toxic living situations, depression, grief depiction, panic attacks, anxiety, gun violence, drinking, brief mention of alcoholism, drugging, throwing up, captivity / themes of being forced into places
(taken from Melanie @meltotheany)