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books_with_caity's Reviews (91)
I really wanted to love this, but I think it suffers from some bad marketing, meaning it was nothing like I expected it to be.
From what I have heard about it before reading I was expecting horror, with Labyrinth vibes, set in an eerie mystical forest.
Set in a small and highly religious town where the Lord of the Woods spirits away babies he is offered. Leah, left to look after her baby brother while her mother works, wishes the screaming baby away. The town, ashamed with Leah, send her into the Lords domain to bring her brother back.
Once in the Lords Woods she learns not all is as it seems as the secrets of her hometown come back to haunt her.
I wasn't a fan of Leah's character, she annoyed me with her ignorance and she was slow to figure things out.
The romance in this felt flat, and neither romantic character was well enough devoloped for me to care about their relationship.
I think the overall message was good with it's criticism of forcing girls/women into having babies they do not want in the name of religion. The coverage of complex mental health issues was in my opinion well done.
I think for the right person this would be a good read but for me, I was expecting a lot more horror, tied in with the magic of Jim Henson's Labyrinth which this just doesnt have.
From what I have heard about it before reading I was expecting horror, with Labyrinth vibes, set in an eerie mystical forest.
Set in a small and highly religious town where the Lord of the Woods spirits away babies he is offered. Leah, left to look after her baby brother while her mother works, wishes the screaming baby away. The town, ashamed with Leah, send her into the Lords domain to bring her brother back.
Once in the Lords Woods she learns not all is as it seems as the secrets of her hometown come back to haunt her.
I wasn't a fan of Leah's character, she annoyed me with her ignorance and she was slow to figure things out.
The romance in this felt flat, and neither romantic character was well enough devoloped for me to care about their relationship.
I think the overall message was good with it's criticism of forcing girls/women into having babies they do not want in the name of religion. The coverage of complex mental health issues was in my opinion well done.
I think for the right person this would be a good read but for me, I was expecting a lot more horror, tied in with the magic of Jim Henson's Labyrinth which this just doesnt have.
This book was a fever dream on paper. I spent half the book wondering "What is going on?" and the other half feeling like I'd taken psychedelics. Dreamy, unsettling, and weird all at once; I saw someone compare it to Midsommar X Annihilation X Hot Fuzz and I couldn't agree more.
I personally really enjoyed it, but I can see it not being everyone's cup of tea. It was long, heavy on the descriptions, and sometimes more vibes than plot, though in my opinion these added to the dreamlike, time-warped, always-summer experience.
My only real issue with the book was the characters. The 3 female main characters felt like they were written by a white man, not necessarily in a bad way, just in a noticeable way. Heather especially had the manic pixie dream girl 'I'm not like other girls' feel to her. They all just felt too fictional, like I couldn't imagine any of them as real people. Saying that, I didn't dislike the characters, I just feel like they maybe needed a tad more work.
I don't want to say too much about it as it's best going in blind, but expect highly whimsical and colourful folk horror.
I'm immediately rushing to buy more Dead Ink books ASAP.
I personally really enjoyed it, but I can see it not being everyone's cup of tea. It was long, heavy on the descriptions, and sometimes more vibes than plot, though in my opinion these added to the dreamlike, time-warped, always-summer experience.
My only real issue with the book was the characters. The 3 female main characters felt like they were written by a white man, not necessarily in a bad way, just in a noticeable way. Heather especially had the manic pixie dream girl 'I'm not like other girls' feel to her. They all just felt too fictional, like I couldn't imagine any of them as real people. Saying that, I didn't dislike the characters, I just feel like they maybe needed a tad more work.
I don't want to say too much about it as it's best going in blind, but expect highly whimsical and colourful folk horror.
I'm immediately rushing to buy more Dead Ink books ASAP.
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
I have attempted to write this review countless times but each time I am left seething. The amount of inaccuracies about Scotland and its culture is shocking. The Scots are called brutish, uneducated, and uncivillised throughout. While there is one good Scot in the book, we are continually reminded that he is half English which is why he is so civillised and well educated.
I could go on and on but to summarise, the Xenophobia is truly appalling and I have zero clue how this even made it through editing.
Now even if I could look past Reid's apparent hatred of Scotland (I can't), I still wouldn't have enjoyed this novel. Despite being described as a feminist retelling, Roscille (Lady Macbeth), has her agency stripped from her and every scheme or ploy she attempts to come up with unravels and backfires almost immediately. She also has the incredible power to bewitch men but never uses it unless her husband commands her to do so. Roscille is nothing like Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's work, she is merely a disappointing imitation.
On top of the above mentioned supposed 'feminism', Roscille is frequently called the most beautiful woman in the world, while all other female characters, of which there are only 5 and share about 10 lines of dialogue between them, are considered lesser and talked down upon. Often by Roscille herself. Really doesn't scream 'feminism' to me.
Ava Reid's writing, while lyrical and atmospheric, is also painfully repetitive with near constant references to Roscilles otherworldly beautiful appearance and those god damn lampreys that couldn't go 3 pages without a mention.
In summary:
I hated it :)
I could go on and on but to summarise, the Xenophobia is truly appalling and I have zero clue how this even made it through editing.
Now even if I could look past Reid's apparent hatred of Scotland (I can't), I still wouldn't have enjoyed this novel. Despite being described as a feminist retelling, Roscille (Lady Macbeth), has her agency stripped from her and every scheme or ploy she attempts to come up with unravels and backfires almost immediately. She also has the incredible power to bewitch men but never uses it unless her husband commands her to do so. Roscille is nothing like Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's work, she is merely a disappointing imitation.
On top of the above mentioned supposed 'feminism', Roscille is frequently called the most beautiful woman in the world, while all other female characters, of which there are only 5 and share about 10 lines of dialogue between them, are considered lesser and talked down upon. Often by Roscille herself. Really doesn't scream 'feminism' to me.
Ava Reid's writing, while lyrical and atmospheric, is also painfully repetitive with near constant references to Roscilles otherworldly beautiful appearance and those god damn lampreys that couldn't go 3 pages without a mention.
In summary:
I hated it :)
Rune is a rich socialite living in a country where witches are persecuted and she has a deep secret. She is the elusive Crimson Moth, a vigilante witch who breaks other witches out of prison and helps them escape to safer lands before their execution.
This is to me such an interesting premise but it truly does not deliver.
This book is so full of red flags that I couldn't possibly go into detail about them all because I will run out of character space so if you would like to hear me rant more about this book please dm me.
🚩Major glorification of self harm. The witches, pre genocide, take great pride in their self harm scars and in the act of self harming. This does not feel like something that should be in a YA book.
🚩No protection in the sex scene, again this is a YA book, lets not encourage teens to have unprotected sex.
🚩Gideon is practically leading the genocide against the witches and yet he is the main love interest. He fully was prepared to kill 13 year old girls before Rune managed to save them. With the current real world situation having the almost leader of a genocide being the LI feels so out of touch and frankly disgusting. It made me wildly uncomfortable. We are supposed to feel that Gideon isn't like the other Blood Guard members because he disagrees with the mistreatment of women but he is completely okay with hunting them down then slaughtering them like chattel. cool.
🚩Everything about Rune and Gideons relationship was so fundamentally wrong that it was painful to read. He not only coerced her into getting naked to check for scars he also sleeps with her, though we are supposed to feel it’s okay because he also has feelings for her and has a tragic past.
🚩The book is incredibly violent, it goes into great detail about how witches are killed and it is definitely not YA friendly.
I could go on (and on and on and on).
This entire book made me uncomfortable, multiple times it felt like the message was hating women and loving genocide is okay if you’re tall, handsome, and have a tragic past.
In summary this was atrocious, Alex is the only good character, and Gideon is officially the worst MMC I have ever read about. Well done Gideon