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bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
v1rgo's review against another edition
2.5
ugh. i think i'm through with this sort of ya for a while. i forgot how reading so much of it makes you feel like all you've had for a meal is cotton candy. this was an improvement from the first book in some senses, but i was still kind of let down. the writing had potential like the first book, but was so incredibly clunky. even at like key moments, it felt so.. dull? sludgy? i don't know. the pacing was way too fast too, i still don't have much sense of the characters. it's like when the narrative was in a place that made it so that it'd be necessary to know more about a character, they'd have a end-of-scooby-doo-episode esque internal monologue. and that sort of energy was like compounded by all of the Big Reveals like marshall's dad . couldn't super take the Big Reveals seriously bc of that too. like it just wasn't very well done. also full disclosure i KNOW this is a retelling of romeo and juliet but i was NOT expecting them to acc kill themselves ðŸ˜ðŸ˜. like i just straight up started laughing during the explosion scene i could NOT take it seriously . the ending also didn't provide me with very much closure. i don't mean in an emotional sense, since this is a tragedy, but just in a plot (as the plot relates to the characters not the city) sense. like you'd think that a book that's entirely plot based would at least be able to offer that. and yes this is me being mad about the fact that great value wesper just got their confession scene and nothing else and that celia did not get a gf!!
i was talking ab this w someone and we both agreed that celia was the most compelling character, and i do wonder if it's because she wasn't in romeo and juliet so she's entirely an original character. like maybe the author like. ran into issues because she was working within the confines of the original play and was trying to be faithful to it for those characters??? idrk :/
i think the series should have been longer. a third book would've helped tremendously. it just seems like the author was trying to do too much. i kind of want to rate this lower than the first book altho it was defo a step up from it because for a finale it was soo disappointing.
update: i am rating it lower. rated the first one higher because for a first book in a series it had a ton of potential but this wasn't a good wrap up to the first book imo
i was talking ab this w someone and we both agreed that celia was the most compelling character, and i do wonder if it's because she wasn't in romeo and juliet so she's entirely an original character. like maybe the author like. ran into issues because she was working within the confines of the original play and was trying to be faithful to it for those characters??? idrk :/
i think the series should have been longer. a third book would've helped tremendously. it just seems like the author was trying to do too much. i kind of want to rate this lower than the first book altho it was defo a step up from it because for a finale it was soo disappointing.
update: i am rating it lower. rated the first one higher because for a first book in a series it had a ton of potential but this wasn't a good wrap up to the first book imo
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse