A review by not_another_ana
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

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

1.75


It had been weeks since Signa last saw the reaper. Only a final breath would draw him out from hiding, and he never left empty-handed. At least, that was the way it was supposed to be. But Signa Farrow was a girl who could not die.

Signa has grown touched by death, her every move shadowed by that dark, gloomy specter. It has made her life hard and lonely, with people around her thinking her cursed. While not completely true she does have a secret, she cannot die but she can see spirits and Death, who is never too far away from her. When her latest guardian dies, Signa is then shipped off to another relative and to a house filled with secrets and grief. Her new cousin is deadly sick but perhaps it's not a natural ailment and if Signa wants to stop this and preserve her new found family she might have to ally with the thing she fears the most.

Seeing all the positives reviews and the rating average for this makes me feel insane. Am I the one on crack or is everyone else? This was bad. Let's start with the protagonist. Her name is SIGNA, which what even is that name but I also kept misreading it a Sigma and finding myself very confused. She is not the worst part of this book, a bit too naive, lacking in curiosity and slow to act but solid enough for me to lowkey root for her. The Thorn family was also fine in general, a bit too tropey at some points but good enough characters. The worst one in this was Death, who is also the love interest. He is THE Death not a reaper, not a guy new to the job, just plain old (very old) Death, yet the author managed to reduce him to a stereotypical black haired YA love interest. He was uninteresting, did not come across as a millennia old entity, unsexy and cliché. We'll talk about the romance in this later, but first the mystery.

The central plot was quite slow because everyone kept dropping the ball. Blythe, the youngest daughter of the family, is deadly ill with the same disease that killed her mother. Signa suspects it's belladonna poisoning, after a conversation with the ghost of Lillian, but has no idea how the poison is getting in. The plot just happens to Signa because if it were up to her Blythe would have died with how slow she was at putting the pieces together or trying to do anything. It was always other characters telling her what to do or interruptions by the unnecessary plot of Signa entering society or Death showing up to "help" with the investigation but actually just being gross.
And related to that, if Death was hanging out around all the time (either as himself or as Sylas) why couldn't he just keep a better watch on Blythe with his spectral powers. Why was this entity so bad at this lmao?? And can we talk about the resolution. How do you ACCIDENTALLY poison someone for so long that they start showing very serious symptoms?? And how is your response to that "oh I'll keep poisoning them so they pass away humanely"? EXCUSE ME???? And then poisoning Blythe for equally wtf reasons, it was unsatisfying.


The book was more about the romance than the detective story and boy was that a romance for sure 😶 After hating him for all her life Signa ends up falling in love with Death, which honestly would not be that bad, I'm not going to sit here and claim to hate all romance between immortal beings and regular humans cause that would make me a hypocrite, except for the fact that Death has known Signa since she was A BABY and has been around her whole life.
Not only has he been watching over her for her WHOLE EXISTENCE, he has also been killing her guardians after deeming all of them unsuited for the task or abusive. These deaths actually ruined Signa's childhood by making her seem cursed and landed her with worst and worst guardians, thus repeating the cycle over and over again. This made her grow up isolated, friendless and without support. Only for MILLENIA OLD MAN DEATH to show up and sweep her off her feet. He sets her up with a nice rich family like it's nothing and that had me thinking ok but why didn't her do this for her AGES AGO. ICK ICK ICK. There's also the fact that Death was just gross and pushy. He kept telling this young impressionable human that she was made for him and that he had waited centuries for her. Creep much? Where was her choice, her agency?? She just took everything in stride and let it happen. GIRL YOU ARE BEING ABUSED. Oh and let's not forget the fact that he created this persona of Sylas, the most obvious plot twist in the world, to be around her and trick her and then she just forgave him for that?? HE WAS LYING TO YOU. And once again, if he had time to do that between all the reaping and being a pervert towards Signa, why couldn't he watch over Blythe!!! Horrible, horrible interpretation of Death, I'm calling the cops on him.


I will say something positive about the book: I think the author isn't a bad writer. I did finish reading this fairly fast and found no fault in the narration. That's it. I will not be continuing this series. 
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