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A review by emperorcupcake
All I Want by Darcey Bell
1.0
oh noooo
This is the second book in my "read the two lowest-rated books on my TBR" challenge. I really liked the first one! But this was a hot mess. Possibly the lowest-rated book I've read, period, and I can see why. And I wanted to like this! I loooved the movie A Simple Favor (haven't read the book but sure gonna now out of sheer curiosity), and if you think I'm gonna pass up a book with a hot pink cover and a haunted house, just who do you think I am?? don't answer that.
Thing is, I was actually enjoying this til like, the last third? fourth? It was a very quick, easy read, I'll give it that, and I was intrigued even if it seemed pretty obvious where it was going. But then the aforementioned hot mess, delivered on a silver platter. The author had no idea how to end this. She had places to be, people to see, and none of them involved actually finishing this book.
Let me take you through my journey. My first clue that "oh this is bad, actually" was the repeat of the Christmas pageant scene we get in the prologue. It was not a scene worthy of a callback, there was no need for that prologue. Then we get some muahaha-y villain exposition chapters, which I hate. HATE. Then it slams into me how weak and awful a character Emma actually is. I never liked or connected with her but holy shit, she is a literal invertebrate. I'm not here for blaming the victim, but I'm kinda blaming the victim. GROW BONES LADY.
Then the "ending." I'm not gonna "spoil" it, so I'll just repeat that no shits were given, by anyone, by the end of this book. Someone had a plane to catch. Muffins in the oven. A little league game. Something way more important than the ending of a novel that lots of idiots like me will probably read because they liked an Anna Kendrick movie. ok seriously
That was a lot of words to say I did not much care for this. Consider this a warning. As it says on the back, buyer beware. Turns out they were talking about the book itself, not the haunted house. If only I'd listened! 1.5, extra half star because by God, it had me part of the way. It was just weird enough with an off-kilter, almost I'm Thinking of Ending Things-y energy. Though maybe that should make me hate it MORE because if it had started as bad as it finished, I would have just dnf'ed it.
EDIT: In retrospect I am giving this one star, because the ending means the villain chapters make NO SENSE. Like they literally should not exist. That makes the book objectively bad.
This is the second book in my "read the two lowest-rated books on my TBR" challenge. I really liked the first one! But this was a hot mess. Possibly the lowest-rated book I've read, period, and I can see why. And I wanted to like this! I loooved the movie A Simple Favor (haven't read the book but sure gonna now out of sheer curiosity), and if you think I'm gonna pass up a book with a hot pink cover and a haunted house, just who do you think I am?? don't answer that.
Thing is, I was actually enjoying this til like, the last third? fourth? It was a very quick, easy read, I'll give it that, and I was intrigued even if it seemed pretty obvious where it was going. But then the aforementioned hot mess, delivered on a silver platter. The author had no idea how to end this. She had places to be, people to see, and none of them involved actually finishing this book.
Let me take you through my journey. My first clue that "oh this is bad, actually" was the repeat of the Christmas pageant scene we get in the prologue. It was not a scene worthy of a callback, there was no need for that prologue. Then we get some muahaha-y villain exposition chapters, which I hate. HATE. Then it slams into me how weak and awful a character Emma actually is. I never liked or connected with her but holy shit, she is a literal invertebrate. I'm not here for blaming the victim, but I'm kinda blaming the victim. GROW BONES LADY.
Then the "ending." I'm not gonna "spoil" it, so I'll just repeat that no shits were given, by anyone, by the end of this book. Someone had a plane to catch. Muffins in the oven. A little league game. Something way more important than the ending of a novel that lots of idiots like me will probably read because they liked an Anna Kendrick movie. ok seriously
Spoiler
How is there is villain POV when there's no villain? HOW IS THERE A VILLAIN POV WHEN THERE'S NO VILLAIN, STEVE??That was a lot of words to say I did not much care for this. Consider this a warning. As it says on the back, buyer beware. Turns out they were talking about the book itself, not the haunted house. If only I'd listened! 1.5, extra half star because by God, it had me part of the way. It was just weird enough with an off-kilter, almost I'm Thinking of Ending Things-y energy. Though maybe that should make me hate it MORE because if it had started as bad as it finished, I would have just dnf'ed it.
EDIT: In retrospect I am giving this one star, because the ending means the villain chapters make NO SENSE. Like they literally should not exist. That makes the book objectively bad.