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A review by croscot
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
*** SPOILERS GALORE ***
It was so so so so fun until I finished about 81% of the book, because whaaaaat the fuuuck happened there???
I don't really care what his reasoning was, but Lowe knew exactly what to say to hurt Misery, and boy did he not hold back. At first I thought that maybe he already suspected treason, so he really needed Misery to stay alone and be picked up by someone from his pack to see how they'd behave (he did make a bait of another female character dear to his heart before, I wouldn't put it past him), but nope! He just fucked Misery and then fucked off. That kind of behaviour is disgusting, ESPECIALLY towards someone you claim to love so much. And then in the end his whole rant about "I just don't think I'll be able to let you go if/when you decide to leave me!" reeked of the garbage that people with low accountability skills say when they act like an asshole and their partner calls them out on that. "See! I warned you! I told you I was a jerk! It's your fault that you stayed! What did you expect?" I can easily imagine Lowe say that every opportunity he'll get. His secret middle name must be Selfe-Esteeme, or something.
I can't say I liked Misery that much, either, mostly because "sorry" was the most popular word in her vocabulary. Girl, what are you apologising for all the time? You didn't do anything! Maybe that was my fault for expecting her to be this edgy, cool character after her confrontation with Max, but as soon as she got comfortable in Lowe's house, she just became... boring. A few hobbies wouldn't harm her, as Owen rightfully mentioned. And as any person who's familiar with revenge time procrastination will confirm, there are tons of interesting things you can do at night.
The whole coup in the end is what really made me question the logic of... well, everything. So you're telling me that
a) Misery's father was so stupid that he didn't notice the blind spots in the surveillance in Serena's attic? OR that her clothes kept mysteriously tearing? Which I'd assume they did because she was trying to figure out the whole shifting thing, and I doubt it always went according to plan?
b) and that Misery managed to send that "super-cryptic" message to Lowe about Ana's inability to shift, making a very obvious reference to Serena, and her Father didn't catch that?? This whole time he didn't know that Ana couldn't shift? Why wouldn't he??
c) or that with all the guards in the room, NO ONE but Misery noticed Serena's growing claws??
- huh??? Councilman Lark is portrayed as this cold, calculating, all-knowing vamp, and it turns out he's just a silly dude? How did he manage to hold power for so long by overlooking so many things? Maybe it's unfair of me to nitpick this, maybe I shouldn't have expected a high-stakes thriller where things actually make sense from a romance book, but I'm still disappointed when the villain who's known for being smart suddenly becomes an idiot.
My last criticism is that Vampyres are painted as inherently bad. The whole species are just assholes. If they don't actively engage in scheming and murders themselves, they do nothing to intervene. Misery and Owen are practically the exceptions to the rule. I understand that we experience the story exclusively through Misery's eyes, and she saw nothing but disdain from her species. But I still find it weird from the world-building perspective - to introduce a big group of sentient creatures and then assert that they're so despicable that maybe it's ok for everyone to hate them, they totally deserve it, kill them all, who cares. Hell, even they don't, I mean, after centuries of struggling with demographic problems, they still haven't figured out that strength is in community, and this toxic individualism and snobbishness is killing them. Like????? I hope that, if there is ever a sequel, we get to see more of Vampyres to establish that it is just impossible for 99.9% of the population to be so evil.
It was so so so so fun until I finished about 81% of the book, because whaaaaat the fuuuck happened there???
I don't really care what his reasoning was, but Lowe knew exactly what to say to hurt Misery, and boy did he not hold back. At first I thought that maybe he already suspected treason, so he really needed Misery to stay alone and be picked up by someone from his pack to see how they'd behave (he did make a bait of another female character dear to his heart before, I wouldn't put it past him), but nope! He just fucked Misery and then fucked off. That kind of behaviour is disgusting, ESPECIALLY towards someone you claim to love so much. And then in the end his whole rant about "I just don't think I'll be able to let you go if/when you decide to leave me!" reeked of the garbage that people with low accountability skills say when they act like an asshole and their partner calls them out on that. "See! I warned you! I told you I was a jerk! It's your fault that you stayed! What did you expect?" I can easily imagine Lowe say that every opportunity he'll get. His secret middle name must be Selfe-Esteeme, or something.
I can't say I liked Misery that much, either, mostly because "sorry" was the most popular word in her vocabulary. Girl, what are you apologising for all the time? You didn't do anything! Maybe that was my fault for expecting her to be this edgy, cool character after her confrontation with Max, but as soon as she got comfortable in Lowe's house, she just became... boring. A few hobbies wouldn't harm her, as Owen rightfully mentioned. And as any person who's familiar with revenge time procrastination will confirm, there are tons of interesting things you can do at night.
The whole coup in the end is what really made me question the logic of... well, everything. So you're telling me that
a) Misery's father was so stupid that he didn't notice the blind spots in the surveillance in Serena's attic? OR that her clothes kept mysteriously tearing? Which I'd assume they did because she was trying to figure out the whole shifting thing, and I doubt it always went according to plan?
b) and that Misery managed to send that "super-cryptic" message to Lowe about Ana's inability to shift, making a very obvious reference to Serena, and her Father didn't catch that?? This whole time he didn't know that Ana couldn't shift? Why wouldn't he??
c) or that with all the guards in the room, NO ONE but Misery noticed Serena's growing claws??
- huh??? Councilman Lark is portrayed as this cold, calculating, all-knowing vamp, and it turns out he's just a silly dude? How did he manage to hold power for so long by overlooking so many things? Maybe it's unfair of me to nitpick this, maybe I shouldn't have expected a high-stakes thriller where things actually make sense from a romance book, but I'm still disappointed when the villain who's known for being smart suddenly becomes an idiot.
My last criticism is that Vampyres are painted as inherently bad. The whole species are just assholes. If they don't actively engage in scheming and murders themselves, they do nothing to intervene. Misery and Owen are practically the exceptions to the rule. I understand that we experience the story exclusively through Misery's eyes, and she saw nothing but disdain from her species. But I still find it weird from the world-building perspective - to introduce a big group of sentient creatures and then assert that they're so despicable that maybe it's ok for everyone to hate them, they totally deserve it, kill them all, who cares. Hell, even they don't, I mean, after centuries of struggling with demographic problems, they still haven't figured out that strength is in community, and this toxic individualism and snobbishness is killing them. Like????? I hope that, if there is ever a sequel, we get to see more of Vampyres to establish that it is just impossible for 99.9% of the population to be so evil.