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starlesscircus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
jules_reads_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
bellebeaumont95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
From the outset it has all of my favorite things: Emily Dickinson references, Ivy by Taylor Swift references, gothic romance, inspired by The Haunting of Bly Manor, a sapphic relationship, adorable kids, exploration of grief through fantasy, etc. etc. I was over the moon when I first read the summary.
The Good:
-The romance between Evie and Marin was very soft and sweet, especially the fact that there were
-The premise itself is fascinating, I enjoyed the supernatural aspect in this book. The imagery in the second half of the story is incredible, the horror/gore interwoven very very nicely with really nice bits of dreamy prose, a little reminiscent of Annihilation (2018), would have loved to see more of that fleshed out (ha) and built into the story from the start.
-The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and I really love the title and how they both work into the story.
The Frustrating:
-Marin spends the entire book functionally asleep. I can't stand narrators that sleepwalk through their own stories. It's officially become my worst book pet peeve this year. The children (CHILDREN) had to spell the exact same thing to her several times. She still didn't get it. Another adult had to spell it out a third time. She still didn't understand. She never asked any questions.
-The pacing is wildly inconsistent, much like the timeline of events. Gothic horror typically moves very slowly, carefully and consistently building tension with scene upon scene, until you reach the climax and all bets are off. But there was none of that here. What do you mean days passed "and then suddenly!". We were directly told things like "the girls are demons" and "Alice was scary and wrong" despite only seeing the girls be normal mischievous kids who recently lost their father, and seeing Alice
-The romance is sweet and positive, but had absolutely no build-up. Evie and Marin had known each other all of 5 minutes where they talked about absolutely nothing, and Marin already decided Evie was The Cure to her (alleged) Generalized Anxiety Disorder (which I'm fairly sure the author didn't research beyond "fear of everything"; ex.
The Odd:
-
<b>Tl;dr:</b> The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Pushing Daisies (2007), Frozen (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), Frozen 2 (2019), and Casper (1995) did all of this better. If you like any of those things you might love this book, or be like me, and love all of those things separately, and be ticked off at the pastiche.
Also I'm deliberately stating it because I was worried the whole time: the dog DOES NOT die. Thank you for your time.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child death and Stalking
Minor: Vomit
brittknee52's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Death of parent
blackthornfaery's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Vomit and Alcohol
two instances of cruelty towards cats leading to cat deathallisonsmith120's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit and Stalking
lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
A chilling and suspenseful sapphic horror. Toes the line of having too many "ingredients" but draws most of them together for a satisfactory ending.
TW: parent death, PTSD, flashbacks to train crash (mildly graphic), gore & body horror
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Death of parent
mshiiken's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death and Vomit
marlellow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent