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ebonwilde's Reviews (901)
do you know the feeling you get when you see a thing enough times and you start tolerating it bc fine, you're here, i guess, but have no feelings of real enjoyment? basically a book-in-law. that is heartless to me. i've been gaslighting myself into liking this, but the more i revisit my highlights (reading with a book club), the more i realize how incredibly bland it is.
heartless is supposed to be this extremely romantic, depressing, overwhelming book, and i simply don't see it. the writing is juvenile and entirely lacking of any emotional depth. something i've noticed that everyone says about heartless is that it's easy to read. it is. to the point that the prose resembles something out of a middle school contemporary book instead of what it's meant to be, a FANTASY. i understand it's young adult, but why is the complexity of the writing equivalent to the babysitter's club? the ending is rushed. the rest of it drags on and on. the characters, unfortunately, have zero depth. you can find this relationship dynamic in any fantasy book (scarlettjulian and evajacks to name a few) and i didn't really expect it to be groundbreaking (okay i did because of how people talk about it), but plenty of authors make it work because of their prose. and prose is just not one of heartless's strong suits. not that anything really is, but regardless. the writing was underwhelming to the point that i didn't even care about the major twist. it was very, "oh, is that it?" just. okay, i guess.
i will always like cathjest because the edits did, in fact, give me the emotional connection i wanted, but not a single positive feeling i have in regards to them results from the book itself. i've seen cathjest posts from 16 year olds on twitter that portray their melancholy better than meyer's writing.
if you want the boring version of evajacks (cough, scarlettjulian, cough), this is for you. as for me, i am so glad meyer went to a writing class after this, and i got serilda.
heartless is supposed to be this extremely romantic, depressing, overwhelming book, and i simply don't see it. the writing is juvenile and entirely lacking of any emotional depth. something i've noticed that everyone says about heartless is that it's easy to read. it is. to the point that the prose resembles something out of a middle school contemporary book instead of what it's meant to be, a FANTASY. i understand it's young adult, but why is the complexity of the writing equivalent to the babysitter's club? the ending is rushed. the rest of it drags on and on. the characters, unfortunately, have zero depth. you can find this relationship dynamic in any fantasy book (scarlettjulian and evajacks to name a few) and i didn't really expect it to be groundbreaking (okay i did because of how people talk about it), but plenty of authors make it work because of their prose. and prose is just not one of heartless's strong suits. not that anything really is, but regardless. the writing was underwhelming to the point that i didn't even care about the major twist. it was very, "oh, is that it?" just. okay, i guess.
i will always like cathjest because the edits did, in fact, give me the emotional connection i wanted, but not a single positive feeling i have in regards to them results from the book itself. i've seen cathjest posts from 16 year olds on twitter that portray their melancholy better than meyer's writing.
if you want the boring version of evajacks (cough, scarlettjulian, cough), this is for you. as for me, i am so glad meyer went to a writing class after this, and i got serilda.
who needs haunting adeline when these are the ya fantasy books being pushed towards middle school girls? "feminist" dystopia but your fmc falls in love with and is impregnated by the child murdering human trafficking rape enabler who cuts up girls' body parts and grinds them into makeup products for the serena joys of the world. i need to do a deep psychological dive into liggett's brain because how ill do you have to be to come up with something as depraved as this? margaret atwood, one day you will be avenged.
a dark and drowning tide is one of the loveliest books i have ever read. the gothic, folkloric atmosphere combined with lorelei's witty inner monologue was everything to me. each character was susprisingly vibrant, something i have not noticed even with many books that have multiple perspectives, but in this, each character's personality was able to shine through from just lorelei's pov. even the villains were well developed. lorelai and sylvia, obviously, remained the most compelling, but i enjoyed reading about everyone else as well. there was never a moment i wanted to skip.
i adore this writing style. one of the most poignant explorations of discrimination i've read recently. my heart broke for lorelei on every page. tragic, captivating, fairytale-like. when i said i wanted a lesbian a study in drowning, i absolutely meant this. this is exactly what i wanted and expected, and i can't say that for a lot of hyped books.
this contained just the right balance of plot and romance. i loved the focus on the mystery and the political landscape. the twist in the middle completely caught me off, in a good way. it is neither one of those twists which is predictable from the first page, nor one of those where you can tell the author picked it out of a hat because of its absurdity. this might be bare minimum, but i loved that the plot and the character motivations made sense and you could see how everything interconnected. i adore a continuous plot, i really do. can you tell this is the best thing i've read in a month and a half?
as for the romance? i was kicking my feet and giggling every time lorelei and sylvia interacted. their rivalry and banter was everything to me. watching sylvia drop hints and lorelei slowly realize that every time she fought with sylvia, she fell slightly more in love? i need more. the dynamic between character A who considers themselves unlovable and too imperfect for character B's love, and the character B who makes it their entire mission to prove to A how deserving of the world they are. the first confession. the first kiss. their history and lorelei's memories of sylvia throughout the years recolored by their new love. everything. they are my everything.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
i adore this writing style. one of the most poignant explorations of discrimination i've read recently. my heart broke for lorelei on every page. tragic, captivating, fairytale-like. when i said i wanted a lesbian a study in drowning, i absolutely meant this. this is exactly what i wanted and expected, and i can't say that for a lot of hyped books.
this contained just the right balance of plot and romance. i loved the focus on the mystery and the political landscape. the twist in the middle completely caught me off, in a good way. it is neither one of those twists which is predictable from the first page, nor one of those where you can tell the author picked it out of a hat because of its absurdity. this might be bare minimum, but i loved that the plot and the character motivations made sense and you could see how everything interconnected. i adore a continuous plot, i really do. can you tell this is the best thing i've read in a month and a half?
as for the romance? i was kicking my feet and giggling every time lorelei and sylvia interacted. their rivalry and banter was everything to me. watching sylvia drop hints and lorelei slowly realize that every time she fought with sylvia, she fell slightly more in love? i need more. the dynamic between character A who considers themselves unlovable and too imperfect for character B's love, and the character B who makes it their entire mission to prove to A how deserving of the world they are. the first confession. the first kiss. their history and lorelei's memories of sylvia throughout the years recolored by their new love. everything. they are my everything.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
a dark and drowning tide is one of the loveliest books i have ever read. the gothic, folkloric atmosphere combined with lorelei's witty inner monologue was everything to me. each character was susprisingly vibrant, something i have not noticed even with many books that have multiple perspectives, but in this, each character's personality was able to shine through from just lorelei's pov. even the villains were well developed. lorelai and sylvia, obviously, remained the most compelling, but i enjoyed reading about everyone else as well. there was never a moment i wanted to skip.
i adore this writing style. one of the most poignant explorations of discrimination i've read recently. my heart broke for lorelei on every page. tragic, captivating, fairytale-like. when i said i wanted a lesbian a study in drowning, i absolutely meant this. this is exactly what i wanted and expected, and i can't say that for a lot of hyped books.
this contained just the right balance of plot and romance. i loved the focus on the mystery and the political landscape. the twist in the middle completely caught me off, in a good way. it is neither one of those twists which is predictable from the first page, nor one of those where you can tell the author picked it out of a hat because of its absurdity. this might be bare minimum, but i loved that the plot and the character motivations made sense and you could see how everything interconnected. i adore a continuous plot, i really do. can you tell this is the best thing i've read in a month and a half?
as for the romance? i was kicking my feet and giggling every time lorelei and sylvia interacted. their rivalry and banter was everything to me. watching sylvia drop hints and lorelei slowly realize that every time she fought with sylvia, she fell slightly more in love? i need more. the dynamic between character A who considers themselves unlovable and too imperfect for character B's love, and the character B who makes it their entire mission to prove to A how deserving of the world they are. the first confession. the first kiss. their history and lorelei's memories of sylvia throughout the years recolored by their new love. everything. they are my everything.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
i adore this writing style. one of the most poignant explorations of discrimination i've read recently. my heart broke for lorelei on every page. tragic, captivating, fairytale-like. when i said i wanted a lesbian a study in drowning, i absolutely meant this. this is exactly what i wanted and expected, and i can't say that for a lot of hyped books.
this contained just the right balance of plot and romance. i loved the focus on the mystery and the political landscape. the twist in the middle completely caught me off, in a good way. it is neither one of those twists which is predictable from the first page, nor one of those where you can tell the author picked it out of a hat because of its absurdity. this might be bare minimum, but i loved that the plot and the character motivations made sense and you could see how everything interconnected. i adore a continuous plot, i really do. can you tell this is the best thing i've read in a month and a half?
as for the romance? i was kicking my feet and giggling every time lorelei and sylvia interacted. their rivalry and banter was everything to me. watching sylvia drop hints and lorelei slowly realize that every time she fought with sylvia, she fell slightly more in love? i need more. the dynamic between character A who considers themselves unlovable and too imperfect for character B's love, and the character B who makes it their entire mission to prove to A how deserving of the world they are. the first confession. the first kiss. their history and lorelei's memories of sylvia throughout the years recolored by their new love. everything. they are my everything.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
i'm surprised by how much i liked this. sadie was such a relatable character. seeing her gain confidence and learn to take care of herself instead of putting others first at her own expense was so important to me. i love characters you can actually connect to, and i was able to feel everything sadie felt in this book.
the romance was so, so cute. every exchange sadie and julius had was either the height of comedy or charged with emotion. i adored every single one of their scenes, especially julius's little hints that he loved sadie from the very beginning. ann liang is such a phenomenal writer because i have almost every line in this book highlighted.
i loved the character dynamics—not just sadie and julius, but sadie and abigail and sadie and her family. sadie's relationship with her mother and all the feelings she internalized broke my heart. sadie and abigail were such a funny duo and their banter was everything to me.
overall 4.25. this was such an enjoyable read, and i'm definitely looking forward to reading more of liang's work. thank you to edelweiss and the publisher for an early copy.
the romance was so, so cute. every exchange sadie and julius had was either the height of comedy or charged with emotion. i adored every single one of their scenes, especially julius's little hints that he loved sadie from the very beginning. ann liang is such a phenomenal writer because i have almost every line in this book highlighted.
i loved the character dynamics—not just sadie and julius, but sadie and abigail and sadie and her family. sadie's relationship with her mother and all the feelings she internalized broke my heart. sadie and abigail were such a funny duo and their banter was everything to me.
overall 4.25. this was such an enjoyable read, and i'm definitely looking forward to reading more of liang's work. thank you to edelweiss and the publisher for an early copy.
