A review by crispycritter
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.

I don't understand the hype around this book. This is a copypasta of so many other fantasy romances I've read. 

• Elsbeth isn't nearly a strong enough character to match the Nightmare / make things interesting. Her primary character traits are (1) being hot but not knowing it; and (2) being a passive wet blanket and letting things happen to her. 
• Ravyn (straight to jail) is every other dark-haired broody love interest who is already far too interested in Elsbeth. His eye color is given about as much page time as actual world building. 
• I can just tell the romance is going to swallow the plot whole - the plot being the Pokemon quest to collect all the magical tarot cards. Can't forget the repetitive breaks for nursery rhymes - er clunky nursery sometimes rhymes. 
• And the setting / worldbuilding - a random kingdom hemmed in by a deadly mist where everyone is named after trees. It's small and underdeveloped, existing on ~vIbeZ~. It makes me want to compliment Stephanie Garber on her sexy candyland setting in the OUABH series, because like - if we're going to run of vibes alone, can we not get a bit more vibes please? Garber full-assed the vibes. Gillig watched that one X Files episode and that M. Night Shyamalan movie and said "good enough, let's repackage." 

I'm always grateful for the time and detail folks put into critical reviews, because I feel comfortable DNFing this TikTok darling as my issues don't appear to get resolved. Life is too short to read mid books, even if they have beautiful special edition versions with sprayed edges. 

I tried to read this on my kindle and listen to the audiobook and the audiobook narrator I did not like. At all. I don't hold that against the book, but just know that at times I thought this lady was joking with her whiny character voices. She was not.