jalepahe 's review for:

House of the Beast by Michelle Wong

4.0

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Real talk, this book was going to be 5 stars. It probably SHOULD have been 5 stars. On vibes alone, it is 5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. It was different, it kept me guessing (which normally never happens, especially with fantasies) but -- and this is a big one...

Calling this a Fantasy Romance/Romantasy is doing it a disservice. There's not a lot of romance in this. And while reading this, I absolutely

believed the love interest was going to betray the female main, only to doubt myself, only to go into loops with the thought. and then I turned out to be right, and it devastated me because I was actively routing for these two to have their happy ending. And they don't. There is no happy ending here, folks. There's a slight...happy for now, for our main character but like ---

This is not a romance heavy book.

Not only that, but in the second part of the book, the FMC actively started annoying me with her naivety and how she wanted to continuously change the plan because she's a 'good person'. It was tiring to read.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed reading this. I did not really enjoy the ending, because it's really kind of bittersweet. I'm giving this a 4 star for that reason.

I do think you'll like this regardless of there being next to no romance. It's got gothy vibes to it. FAFO Revenge Girlie.