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mewtiny's Reviews (22)
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Spunky protag whos a little shit for survival reasons? check. siblings who only have eachother ? check. weird ass haunted house? check. lots of mysteries to chew on? check. emotionally stunted bitch ass man who does in fact care a lot? check !!!
starling house is by no means a masterpiece and the pacing can really drag in places but i personally found the characters to be generally pretty loveable, the romance to be believable, and the mystery fun to follow. I enjoyed piecing together what happened through multiple different accounts and interpretations of the same story.
A little clunky in execution in general but this book is a vast improvement from this author's debut book The Ten Thousand Doors of January and I hope this author continues to improve their craft, I think they have a lot of potential!
Overall rated a 3.5/5 or a 7/10
starling house is by no means a masterpiece and the pacing can really drag in places but i personally found the characters to be generally pretty loveable, the romance to be believable, and the mystery fun to follow. I enjoyed piecing together what happened through multiple different accounts and interpretations of the same story.
A little clunky in execution in general but this book is a vast improvement from this author's debut book The Ten Thousand Doors of January and I hope this author continues to improve their craft, I think they have a lot of potential!
Overall rated a 3.5/5 or a 7/10
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think the premise is really strong and it had a lot of characters I enjoy the concept of but I felt the execution kinda weak in many places. I think this guy has a torture fetish... just a little bit..... I felt that in a lot of places the pacing was awkward and the dialogue kinda cringe. The side characters were a lot more compelling to me then the main ones, I felt our protagonist and her love interest really lacked any spark both individually and between themselves.
I also thought the villain backstory was really weird and convoluted. Was a big "What the hell??? That's so stupid why would you do that!?" Moment when the big origin story was revealed.
I did like how this book is very circular, like the time travel was set up and executed well at least. Some of the better closed loop time travel I've seen! I wish the book leaned into that more.
I think overall this book would've benefitted from committing to a much darker sci-fi tone from the get-go, especially because iirc the whole conception of this book was the (spoiler)time travel shenanigans and clearly this author really likes to write gruesome material. Going into this book with the expectation it's going to be more of an adventurous but high-stakes romp with whimsy and wonder will leave you a bit disappointed I fear, there is very little whimsy to be found.
Strengths: The plot structure, the premise itself. The relationship between (spoiler)our protagonist and the old man from the beginning was genuinely very sweet and definitely the emotional high / throughline of the book to me
Weaknesses: Really flat and annoying characters, actually interesting side characters getting very little screentime or development, the villains being so cartoonishly evil but not in a fun campy way they just kinda. drag. The pacing is all over the place. This guy writes women very weirdly in my opinion. Generally amateurish writing and dialogue
Overall rating it a 2/5 or a 4/10. Not a book to my taste
I also thought the villain backstory was really weird and convoluted. Was a big "What the hell??? That's so stupid why would you do that!?" Moment when the big origin story was revealed.
I think overall this book would've benefitted from committing to a much darker sci-fi tone from the get-go, especially because iirc the whole conception of this book was the (spoiler)
Strengths: The plot structure, the premise itself. The relationship between (spoiler)
Weaknesses: Really flat and annoying characters, actually interesting side characters getting very little screentime or development, the villains being so cartoonishly evil but not in a fun campy way they just kinda. drag. The pacing is all over the place. This guy writes women very weirdly in my opinion. Generally amateurish writing and dialogue
Overall rating it a 2/5 or a 4/10. Not a book to my taste
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking