A review by bibliorama
Crave by Tracy Wolff

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Enjoyment - 3
Perfectly fine, middle of the road story that I mostly used as background noise at work. This could have been closer to a 4 star if we got more of the world and more from some of the side characters. We don't even get a final scene with Macy at the end after everything goes down. I would think after everything it would be important to get Grace's actual family's feelings about the aftermath.

Start - 4
I was down for the beginning. The introduction to the world was interesting and since Grace didn't know the truth of the world going in, it was kind of funny to see her try and rationalize the unhinged parts. I also really liked the descriptions of the school and the cold environment of Alaska.

Characters - 2.5
I like the premise of the characters, but for being over 500 pages, I still feel like these characters are mostly strangers. I feel like they would have benefited from more plot where they could interact more with each other rather all of them mostly interacting with Grace by themselves. Also since most of the time the characters were trying to hide pieces of information from Grace, it was hard to guage who these people really were. I mean for over half the book I was suspicious about Macy (who I still kind of am tbh) even though the surface level interactions we get she's perfectly nice and I quite like her. This is a similar phenomenon that I had with every character outside of Grace.

Atmosphere - 3
Again, I like cold weather. However, there wasn't enough of the school. I mean come on Grace's favorite subject was art and we never even see her in class? What was that about? There was a ton of potential for the school subjects to be wild and unhinged, but it never happens. I also wanted more interactions between the cliques that were setup at the beginning.

Plot - 1.5
Needed less insta-love and more plot. It would have helped everything and built the world up more. I think this story would have been better as a slow burn.

Ending - 3
Interesting for the most part and made sense. It didn't come out of left field which was nice, but the wrap-up was missing a lot of the consequences for what happened. I'm still not over the fact that Grace is almost sacrificed and we don't see her cousin or uncle's reaction to that??? I don't understand.

Style - 3
I really didn't mind Grace's narration. She had a lot of repetitive sentences but it didn't bug me here as it has with some books in the past. Maybe it was because I wasn't super invested and just wanted some entertainment.

Overall - 2.5
Some missed opportunities, that left me wanting more. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series as where it ends isn't the most intriguing. I wish it would have setup the Vampire Queen for the second (I'm sure she'll come up later, but she needed to be teased here more)

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