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acuriousreader's Reviews (575)
Listen I am well aware that I might be in the minority with this, but…. where is this “fantastic writing” everyone talked about? Just because you use metaphors for the sake of using metaphors, doesn’t make your writing whimsical or give it a nice flowy prose. In my opinion it was actually quite clunky and annoying to read.
The book is about Addie who stuck a deal with the devil on that day that she was set to get married in order to get out of it. She told him, after his initial refusal, that he could take anything. Her soul even. (this is an important thing to remember here cause Addie herself seems to forget this tidbit along the way). so he agrees. He gives her her life. And a lot of it, cause Addie can’t die, but the kicker is that everyone she meets forgets her as soon as they take their eyes off her.
*sigh* So, there is one of the many problems. The moment someone’s focus isn’t on Addie, they forget who she is. And for the first part of the book, that happens so much that it honestly took me out of the story. Every other page Addie was meeting someone only to be forgotten and thrown out a second later. We got it the first few times, you would think the MC would grasp it after the tenth time.
Now, this type of story could be interesting, Addie has lived for 300 years! Imagine all the prominent bits of history she would have seen and maybe even been a part of! Especially given that no one remembers her, ever……Nope. It is HARDLY touched, and even the couple things barely poked at are so brushed by, what was the point. Which is honestly unbelievable to me. It’s so far from realistic (despite being a fantasy) that I could have cared less about the story, or Addie. And not to mention dropping the ball on V. E. Schwabs part. This book and story and characters is the whitest of white that ever did white. It’s ridiculous.
Also, the MC is 300 years old… and you are telling me this girl didn’t pick up a hobby or two??? Honestly, she is so boring and bland that I found the book was more of a sleep aid than not. The love interest couldn’t even save her cause he was just as boring and bland as she was. I literally had nothing to route for at this point. This should have been called “Addie La Rue Does Nothing About Anything and Walks Around New York”.
This honestly could have been 200 pages long and you would loose absolutely nothing of the story. I had such high hopes for this, but turns out I was let down and bored.
The book is about Addie who stuck a deal with the devil on that day that she was set to get married in order to get out of it. She told him, after his initial refusal, that he could take anything. Her soul even. (this is an important thing to remember here cause Addie herself seems to forget this tidbit along the way). so he agrees. He gives her her life. And a lot of it, cause Addie can’t die, but the kicker is that everyone she meets forgets her as soon as they take their eyes off her.
*sigh* So, there is one of the many problems. The moment someone’s focus isn’t on Addie, they forget who she is. And for the first part of the book, that happens so much that it honestly took me out of the story. Every other page Addie was meeting someone only to be forgotten and thrown out a second later. We got it the first few times, you would think the MC would grasp it after the tenth time.
Now, this type of story could be interesting, Addie has lived for 300 years! Imagine all the prominent bits of history she would have seen and maybe even been a part of! Especially given that no one remembers her, ever……Nope. It is HARDLY touched, and even the couple things barely poked at are so brushed by, what was the point. Which is honestly unbelievable to me. It’s so far from realistic (despite being a fantasy) that I could have cared less about the story, or Addie. And not to mention dropping the ball on V. E. Schwabs part. This book and story and characters is the whitest of white that ever did white. It’s ridiculous.
Also, the MC is 300 years old… and you are telling me this girl didn’t pick up a hobby or two??? Honestly, she is so boring and bland that I found the book was more of a sleep aid than not. The love interest couldn’t even save her cause he was just as boring and bland as she was. I literally had nothing to route for at this point. This should have been called “Addie La Rue Does Nothing About Anything and Walks Around New York”.
This honestly could have been 200 pages long and you would loose absolutely nothing of the story. I had such high hopes for this, but turns out I was let down and bored.
First DNF of the year. And honestly saddened that it’s a CoHo book. I am a huge fan of her books but this one is just boring and so out of left field that I just can’t
what the actual fuck.
I honestly don’t even know what the hell I read….. I find it really hard to separate the fact that this author is vegan and that this book is anything more than vegan propaganda. Her ultimate goal had to be to get others to go vegetarian/vegan upon finishing this novel. And seeing as she as praised the fact that her book has done exactly that to a lot of readers it just fuels that theory.
I actually had to look up the author due to how misogynistic the writing was. I thought no way that this was written by a woman… Well, I was wrong. Let’s dive into that first. The way men and women are written in this story. Near the beginning of the book, the MC and one of the owners of a breeding plant for the Heads (humans bred for slaughter) is showing around a potential buyer/investor. When they arrive at a cage with a “pure” male Head (raised without hormones) the owner mentions that he is a “Teaser Stud”. When asked what that means he tells the potential investor that this male is sterilized but they use him to mount and have sex with the females because they are more “ready for artificial insemination” after he is done. The investor then proceeds to look at and voice his envy of this caged male. PURELY because he gets to mount and fuck a bunch of women when he wants. Excuse me what? Plus add the fact that women are seen as nothing without the promise of babies in this book. And that they are “genrally” submissive, to the point where females will allow them selves to be killed…. of course the exception lies in that if a female is pregnant then they would finally have some fight.
The idea in general that a virus that just absolutely decimates the entire animal population, but doesn’t seem to infect humans, aside from when they eat the meat or get scratched seems incredibly farfetched. And even further that society would crumble that quickly with out meat to begin to eat and slaughter humans, when there are proven and plentiful plant based and alternative foods and diets that the population could EASILY survive on…. its ridiculous and not even close to a plausible thing that can happen.. and that it would be sanctioned by the government??? Please. The fact the author thinks this is a possible out come in the “near future” is insane.
The book tackles nothing of the societal issues that exist and would still exist and come into play here. All of this just furthers the point that this book was graphic for the sake of being graphic and the end game is just pushing vegan propaganda. There was unnecessary detailed scenes of kids bashing in puppies heads for fun. Workers in the “meat” plant celebrating an employee becoming a father by literally eating a kid??? There is no way you can separate yourself that much from the human you are slaughtering and eating that it would be a societal norm.
The only good thing this book had was a twist I did not see coming at the end and made my jaw drop to the floor. And that’s the only reason it got any stars.
I do not recommend this book to anyone, unless you want to be bored and disgusted for a couple hours. Now excuse me while I go make a pulled pork sandwich
I honestly don’t even know what the hell I read….. I find it really hard to separate the fact that this author is vegan and that this book is anything more than vegan propaganda. Her ultimate goal had to be to get others to go vegetarian/vegan upon finishing this novel. And seeing as she as praised the fact that her book has done exactly that to a lot of readers it just fuels that theory.
I actually had to look up the author due to how misogynistic the writing was. I thought no way that this was written by a woman… Well, I was wrong. Let’s dive into that first. The way men and women are written in this story. Near the beginning of the book, the MC and one of the owners of a breeding plant for the Heads (humans bred for slaughter) is showing around a potential buyer/investor. When they arrive at a cage with a “pure” male Head (raised without hormones) the owner mentions that he is a “Teaser Stud”. When asked what that means he tells the potential investor that this male is sterilized but they use him to mount and have sex with the females because they are more “ready for artificial insemination” after he is done. The investor then proceeds to look at and voice his envy of this caged male. PURELY because he gets to mount and fuck a bunch of women when he wants. Excuse me what? Plus add the fact that women are seen as nothing without the promise of babies in this book. And that they are “genrally” submissive, to the point where females will allow them selves to be killed…. of course the exception lies in that if a female is pregnant then they would finally have some fight.
The idea in general that a virus that just absolutely decimates the entire animal population, but doesn’t seem to infect humans, aside from when they eat the meat or get scratched seems incredibly farfetched. And even further that society would crumble that quickly with out meat to begin to eat and slaughter humans, when there are proven and plentiful plant based and alternative foods and diets that the population could EASILY survive on…. its ridiculous and not even close to a plausible thing that can happen.. and that it would be sanctioned by the government??? Please. The fact the author thinks this is a possible out come in the “near future” is insane.
The book tackles nothing of the societal issues that exist and would still exist and come into play here. All of this just furthers the point that this book was graphic for the sake of being graphic and the end game is just pushing vegan propaganda. There was unnecessary detailed scenes of kids bashing in puppies heads for fun. Workers in the “meat” plant celebrating an employee becoming a father by literally eating a kid??? There is no way you can separate yourself that much from the human you are slaughtering and eating that it would be a societal norm.
The only good thing this book had was a twist I did not see coming at the end and made my jaw drop to the floor. And that’s the only reason it got any stars.
I do not recommend this book to anyone, unless you want to be bored and disgusted for a couple hours. Now excuse me while I go make a pulled pork sandwich