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A review by pastelwriter
The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I don’t think I’ve ever found a reading experience of a book by Katee Robert so unpleasant 🧍🏻♀️
I’m honestly shocked by it. Well and truly! I only had small bursts of enjoyment while reading this. Most of it was dreadful.
1. The “banter” between Catalina and Thane was irritating. I found some of the lines funny, but most of the time I just thought it was too much.
2. Thane was incredibly neglectful during the entirety of the novella. He locks Catalina up in a tower and for a week she has no clean clothes or environment and only bread for food. Then for several weeks after that she has a clean environment and better (if boring) food, but she’s completely isolated and only (barely) interacts with three people. When he finally decides to give her the time of day, she still doesn’t interact with more people, and we’ve only added one more to the equation (Thane). If that’s not enough, they start fucking like bunnies and he doesn’t consider contraception at all despite not having a desire for children. It’s all just screw up after screw up after screw up.
3. Somehow we’re expected to believe that despite all this Catalina and Thane are in love 🤨 I don’t believe it for a second!
I wanted to love this so bad, but it was far too heavy and messy for a monster romance (and a novella at that!). At minimum this needed to be a fleshed out novel for Thane and Catalina to truly have the space to work through their trauma and still find a way to fall in love. As it is? This was an unpleasant mess.
I’m honestly shocked by it. Well and truly! I only had small bursts of enjoyment while reading this. Most of it was dreadful.
1. The “banter” between Catalina and Thane was irritating. I found some of the lines funny, but most of the time I just thought it was too much.
2. Thane was incredibly neglectful during the entirety of the novella. He locks Catalina up in a tower and for a week she has no clean clothes or environment and only bread for food. Then for several weeks after that she has a clean environment and better (if boring) food, but she’s completely isolated and only (barely) interacts with three people. When he finally decides to give her the time of day, she still doesn’t interact with more people, and we’ve only added one more to the equation (Thane). If that’s not enough, they start fucking like bunnies and he doesn’t consider contraception at all despite not having a desire for children. It’s all just screw up after screw up after screw up.
3. Somehow we’re expected to believe that despite all this Catalina and Thane are in love 🤨 I don’t believe it for a second!
I wanted to love this so bad, but it was far too heavy and messy for a monster romance (and a novella at that!). At minimum this needed to be a fleshed out novel for Thane and Catalina to truly have the space to work through their trauma and still find a way to fall in love. As it is? This was an unpleasant mess.