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A review by anaisniz
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
🍇 Plot: 2/10
🍵 Characters: 2/10
👻 Setting: 2/10
✍️ Writing style: Poor.
📚 Would I recommend it? No.
"It's said that five belladonna berries are all it takes to kill someone."
I've only given 1 star to one book in my life, to give 1 star to this one too, it says a lot. At least the other book was fun bad, but this? Boring bad.
❤️ Up's:
1) Interesting concept
- 1: To be honest, the concept it's pretty cool. Death is a lonely man that kills who touches, but then, there's someone who can touch him without dying, someone who can't die at all. I really enjoyed how Death talks about being lonely and that death can sometimes be a "bless" and this brings a little new vision to Signa. Like when he told her that she was free of the people who abused her, only because they died. (Yeah, so why does she even hate death, when it was what saved her). If I enjoyed their romance, I would probably liked this more, since I love dark (fantasy) romances.
💔 Down's:
1) Boring Plot & No Gothic Vibes.
2) Bland Characters
3) Illegal/Awkward "Chemistry"
4) Poor/Cringe Writing
5) The Nonsense Mystery
6) The Nonsense Ending
-1: This was such a boring and dry book, I had a hard time to finish it. The plot is so slow paced, and flat, and I felt as if there was no action in the entirety of the book. The book made it sound like, it was going to be Signa solving a mystery with the help of Death, who she hates, but you know, she will start to like him. But this plays only at the last 30% of the book. Most of the plot was Signa trying to 'fit' into society, drink tea, admiring hot men and preparing for her debut as a lady to marry or whatever. The whole mystery was so rushed at the end and it was a lot less complex than I hoped it would be and also dumb. Signa doesn't even have good family dynamics. This is her ONLY remaining family, that actually treat her well, something that she always wanted but there are no family dynamics, it feels like she's not even interested on them. If I recall, she didn't even cared for Lilian's ghost at the start, she just wanted to get free of her.
This book didn't even had vibes, there was no atmosphere. Just bland.
-2/3: First, Signa is a terrible name. Signa needs some spices on her tea, cause she's that bland and uninteresting. Death tries too hard to be charming, which ends up being cringe and even confusing, he was nothing but a shadow following Signa since she was a baby. Let's also talk about that, he has been "waiting" for her, since she was a baby. Initially, I thought he was talking about her powers or something, BUT quotes like this kept going: "Death dipped his head low, words brushing against her ear. “I have waited for you for a very long time, Signa Farrow.”" and; "Death spoke as though Signa were a child. As though she were a small, fragile thing that needed to be coddled." Pedo, anyone???? Like, I don't mind reading age gaps in fantasy romances, like vampires, fairies, etc, because they don't behave like this. They don't say that they have been waiting for the girl since she was 2 years old, and then bang her when she's 19. Here, he's ALWAYS saying that he's been waiting or that he was always by her side and even talks about their future or some shit. It's so weird.
But let's say, that he's not a pedo and they are a normal to-be couple. Still, they had no chemistry and however they are together it feels so awkward. Signa is always thirsty over man (like Sylas) and so she's always thinking of how hot he is and he's always just calling her "little bird" :/
Other characters, yeah, don't remember any. I only liked Blythe because she rarely spoke since she was dying.
- 4: I'm not really sure what year is, but I would guess around 1800, nevertheless, its a historical fiction. But why is the writing so contemporary and so dry. There's so many cringe phrases like: "Noticing again how large he was. Like a walking tree trunk, really. A tree trunk with muscles. It was astounding."; "He scoffed, the sound so human. So male." MALE? Wtf does that even mean? Imagine how problematic that would be if it was "She scoffed, the sound so human. So FEMALE.".
Whenever Sylas appears, Signa always needs mention his "Smoky eyes"; She's constantly talking about her book and attractive men; and when Death is with her he always says things like "I have been waiting for you" or for her to embrace her power.
- 5: The book plays a lot around the mystery of Lillian's death, even though that it's very rushed in the final. My problem is: it made no sense,that it was Percy. Like his plan was so weird and dumb. First he wanted to kill Marjorie because she told him, she was his mom, so he was like "omg, nobody can know this, even though during all these years she never told anyone or left this house." So he wanted to kill her, so the secret was save, but dude, your father and Lillian also know it and they also didn't told you or anybody else, so why is Marjorie different from them, that you only wanted to kill her?
But ops, Lillian drank the poisonous tea. And now, her ghost knows that it was Percy, but how? Signa says that ghosts can't leave a specific area, so she can't follow him, I guess, outside the mansion? Maybe she could go to the kitchen and see Percy poisoning Blythe's food, but when Lillian talks to him, she doesn't mention that, she just asks why did he kill her. Did she hear him talking to himself or something?
Now Percy wanted attention from his father. So his plan is to POISON HIS SISTER to then POISON HIMSELF. ????. Idk, about poising his sister, would get HIM attention, and that's why he poisoned himself. Why not poisoned yourself in the first place??? He knows how the poison works, he knows how much to take to not die. It makes no sense. His character makes no sense.
- 6: It's hard to believe, but even though I hated this, I actually wanted to read the 2nd book. I thought that's where we would dive in deeper with Signa's powers and the world of Death. Because I actually liked that part. But guess what!Another person dies and now Signa has another mystery to solve! So, I won't be reading the 2nd book. Ending is dumb, Signa and Death act like soulmates. Instead of just saying that Percy died in the flames, Signa says that he ran away idk why. She doesn't say the true about Percy, so the family doesn't suffer, but with him gone and Blythe fully healed after, it's kinda obvious.
💜 Final thoughts:
I'm sad that this disappointed me, since I was sure I was gonna love it, I was even waiting for the hardcover to be available to buy it, but thank god I didn't. After reading this book I am very surprise by the fame this has.
Sad book honestly.
🍵 Characters: 2/10
👻 Setting: 2/10
✍️ Writing style: Poor.
📚 Would I recommend it? No.
"It's said that five belladonna berries are all it takes to kill someone."
I've only given 1 star to one book in my life, to give 1 star to this one too, it says a lot. At least the other book was fun bad, but this? Boring bad.
❤️ Up's:
1) Interesting concept
- 1: To be honest, the concept it's pretty cool. Death is a lonely man that kills who touches, but then, there's someone who can touch him without dying, someone who can't die at all. I really enjoyed how Death talks about being lonely and that death can sometimes be a "bless" and this brings a little new vision to Signa. Like when he told her that she was free of the people who abused her, only because they died. (Yeah, so why does she even hate death, when it was what saved her). If I enjoyed their romance, I would probably liked this more, since I love dark (fantasy) romances.
💔 Down's:
1) Boring Plot & No Gothic Vibes.
2) Bland Characters
3) Illegal/Awkward "Chemistry"
4) Poor/Cringe Writing
5) The Nonsense Mystery
6) The Nonsense Ending
-1: This was such a boring and dry book, I had a hard time to finish it. The plot is so slow paced, and flat, and I felt as if there was no action in the entirety of the book. The book made it sound like, it was going to be Signa solving a mystery with the help of Death, who she hates, but you know, she will start to like him. But this plays only at the last 30% of the book. Most of the plot was Signa trying to 'fit' into society, drink tea, admiring hot men and preparing for her debut as a lady to marry or whatever. The whole mystery was so rushed at the end and it was a lot less complex than I hoped it would be and also dumb. Signa doesn't even have good family dynamics. This is her ONLY remaining family, that actually treat her well, something that she always wanted but there are no family dynamics, it feels like she's not even interested on them. If I recall, she didn't even cared for Lilian's ghost at the start, she just wanted to get free of her.
This book didn't even had vibes, there was no atmosphere. Just bland.
-2/3: First, Signa is a terrible name. Signa needs some spices on her tea, cause she's that bland and uninteresting. Death tries too hard to be charming, which ends up being cringe and even confusing, he was nothing but a shadow following Signa since she was a baby. Let's also talk about that, he has been "waiting" for her, since she was a baby. Initially, I thought he was talking about her powers or something, BUT quotes like this kept going: "Death dipped his head low, words brushing against her ear. “I have waited for you for a very long time, Signa Farrow.”" and; "Death spoke as though Signa were a child. As though she were a small, fragile thing that needed to be coddled." Pedo, anyone???? Like, I don't mind reading age gaps in fantasy romances, like vampires, fairies, etc, because they don't behave like this. They don't say that they have been waiting for the girl since she was 2 years old, and then bang her when she's 19. Here, he's ALWAYS saying that he's been waiting or that he was always by her side and even talks about their future or some shit. It's so weird.
But let's say, that he's not a pedo and they are a normal to-be couple. Still, they had no chemistry and however they are together it feels so awkward. Signa is always thirsty over man (like Sylas) and so she's always thinking of how hot he is and he's always just calling her "little bird" :/
Other characters, yeah, don't remember any. I only liked Blythe because she rarely spoke since she was dying.
- 4: I'm not really sure what year is, but I would guess around 1800, nevertheless, its a historical fiction. But why is the writing so contemporary and so dry. There's so many cringe phrases like: "Noticing again how large he was. Like a walking tree trunk, really. A tree trunk with muscles. It was astounding."; "He scoffed, the sound so human. So male." MALE? Wtf does that even mean? Imagine how problematic that would be if it was "She scoffed, the sound so human. So FEMALE.".
Whenever Sylas appears, Signa always needs mention his "Smoky eyes"; She's constantly talking about her book and attractive men; and when Death is with her he always says things like "I have been waiting for you" or for her to embrace her power.
- 5: The book plays a lot around the mystery of Lillian's death, even though that it's very rushed in the final. My problem is: it made no sense,
But ops, Lillian drank the poisonous tea. And now, her ghost knows that it was Percy, but how? Signa says that ghosts can't leave a specific area, so she can't follow him, I guess, outside the mansion? Maybe she could go to the kitchen and see Percy poisoning Blythe's food, but when Lillian talks to him, she doesn't mention that, she just asks why did he kill her. Did she hear him talking to himself or something?
Now Percy wanted attention from his father. So his plan is to POISON HIS SISTER to then POISON HIMSELF. ????. Idk, about poising his sister, would get HIM attention, and that's why he poisoned himself. Why not poisoned yourself in the first place??? He knows how the poison works, he knows how much to take to not die. It makes no sense. His character makes no sense.
- 6: It's hard to believe, but even though I hated this, I actually wanted to read the 2nd book. I thought that's where we would dive in deeper with Signa's powers and the world of Death. Because I actually liked that part. But guess what!
💜 Final thoughts:
I'm sad that this disappointed me, since I was sure I was gonna love it, I was even waiting for the hardcover to be available to buy it, but thank god I didn't. After reading this book I am very surprise by the fame this has.
Sad book honestly.