owlishbookish 's review for:

Beautiful Darkness by Kerascoët, Kerascoët, Fabien Vehlmann

3.5

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Never before have I set down a book and think, "What the eff did I just read!?" as strongly as I did when I finished Beautiful Darkness. At first you think you're getting whimsy that gradually grows darker. No. You get whimsy for 3, maybe 4 pages, before the walls start caving in and you realize that the whimsy is a facade from the absolute beginning. From the moment the nature of Aurora and company's "house" is revealed, you're quickly dunked into an increasingly disturbing nightmare. The soft colors simply add to the nightmarish aspect. I'll be honest and say I don't know with 100% certainty how I feel about this one. It's definitely going to have me thinking about it for a while.