A review by juan_adhd_reading
Fallen Thorns by Harvey Oliver Baxter

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a very cute book! Despite the inherently dark fact that it is about a boy being killed and becoming a vampire, this was actually a really lighthearted coming of age story. I found it a bit cheesy at times, but in the way that receiving a bunch of compliments at once can sometimes feel cringy (is that just me 😅). Anyway, this book also has a very emphatic arc of the main character, Arlo, discovering his asexuality which is one of the strongest points of this book. I could relate to Arlo in a lot of ways which was one of the reasons why I really enjoyed this book. The other one being that all the characters genuinely love Arlo, and care for each other very deeply. If you’re a fan of the found family trope, I highly recommend this book. Also, one of the biggest highlights of this book is the character art scattered all throughout. It is gorgeous! I really wish more books included illustrations like this.

My main complaint would be the pacing. Given that most of the book is set on finding the person that killed Arlo, I would expect more tension, action and a bit more mystery. I took longer than expected to finish this book because of the pacing. However, the last 50 -ish pages where extremely action packed and much more violent and dark that the rest of the book. I think I would have rather more of the book to be written this way.
During one of the last chapters there’s the death of a character that carries a strong emotional sucker punch. Personally, I think this could’ve been done better if we had explored more of this character, but it was still incredibly sad.
Still, I am very excited for the continuation of this story, and also the prequel coming out soon about the supporting characters Ben and Casper (loved them!)
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