A review by bzliz
A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffanie Holmes

mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This was a TikTok recommendation and I’ve gotta stop listening to some people on that app because this was not great. I thought the premise was interesting- a woman starts working in a bookshop where book characters keep coming to life- but of course all three of them are obsessed with her immediately and the mystery aspect was just so poorly done. Children’s media have better mysteries that are less heavy handed in doling out clues. 

Mina’s main personality traits are 1) that she’s going blind and 2) ignoring the constant compliments from the 3 bookshop occupants, which is just weird. 

I don’t know if I’ll continue this series. It was tolerable once I started thinking of it like fanfiction but then I remembered I can read so much fanfiction that’s leagues better than this…

Content warnings:
Sexual content (on page):
Mina gets fingered by Morrie against a wall semi-publicly. They then have sex in the bookshop which is partially witnessed by Quoth.

Ableism (off page):
Mina is fired from her fashion job because she’s going blind.

Alcohol (on page):
These people are constantly drinking and at all hours of the day.

Blood, murder (on page):
Ashley is murdered in the bookshop. Descriptions of the scene itself are very brief and not explicit. Less traumatic than any episode of CSI ever.

Toxic friendship (on & off page):
Ashley and Mina’s relationship was definitely toxic. Ashley latched on to Mina’s dreams and followed her to a new continent, then used Mina’s medical condition to undermine her and steal her job, then acted like she didn’t do anything wrong.
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