kirbylover16 's review for:

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

2.0

adventurous funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really didn’t enjoy this book and nearly DNF’d it several times. The world-building purely vibes, with little logic or historical grounding. While the dream and omen concepts started off intriguing, they quickly became repetitive. The characters are underdeveloped, the plot is painfully predictable, and the slow pacing makes the entire book boring.

The romance feels forced and tedious. The smut is sparse, awkwardly written, and not spicy. It’s mostly just endless pining and teasing. It’s disappointing because I usually enjoy enemies-to-lovers, but here, there’s no real chemistry, and they’re not even enemies.  I dislike every character except the gargoyle (even with the predictable twist). He’s sweet and funny with so many great one-liners.

 

All the gothic atmosphere and interesting magic in the world can’t disguise how dull the characters and romance are. 2/5 stars, I wouldn’t read it again, and I have no interest in the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Alcohol

1) The MC is kidnapped multiple times, like Princess Peach with Bowser's situation. Plus, Diviners all came from the streets and the Orphanages. 2) Diviners, Omens, and Gargoyles are immortal, so big age gaps, and one could argue that they're not of age. We also see visions from before they were diviners, thus underage child abuse and death tags. 3) Boy King spends most of his scenes drinking and doing drugs with his knights. I put drug use in explicit, but not alcohol, because the MC and her love interest spend most of their time smoking, and we never see them get drunk.