amy_reading_23's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is complicated. Not as in it hard to follow (although I had watched the TV show beforehand so that gave me an advantage) but that I'm not sure what to make of it. There were some bits I really enjoyed. And some bits that made me uncomfortable. I don't like how Matthew treats Diana, I think their relationship is pretty toxic tbh and a bit misogynistic in times. They also excuse too much of his behaviour as "ifs because he's a vampire". But the plot is interesting and I still want to read the next two sometime, I'm just not necessarily in a rush.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Medical content
Moderate: Misogyny, Gore, Domestic abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Kidnapping
Minor: Stalking and Suicidal thoughts
joey_paige's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Medical content, Death, Kidnapping, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Minor: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Grief, and Misogyny
ruthee's review against another edition
slow-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? It's complicated
2.0
Unlike others, I didn’t actually mine the pace or world-building…but the abusive relationship (red flag, after red flag, after red flag) framed as ‘that’s just the way vampires are, and my love is enough’ was so bad it just kept taking me out of the story.
It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this.
In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book.
It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this.
In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism
theimposter's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Classism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Torture
caffeinated_gills's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Misogyny
Moderate: Blood, Child death, War, and Violence
Minor: Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, and Mental illness
mloschi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Good fantasy, with interesting world building and mystery. I liked the dark academia setting. I felt like conflicts within the plot happened and resolved very (almost too) quickly. But overall a good book for some escapism.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Torture
Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content
mimiduggins's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
There is a lot to like about this book: the world-building, the history, interesting characters. One major thing kept me from loving it and definitely distracted from the entire book. The main character’s willful and conscious decision to accept, acknowledge, and embrace the misogyny and sexist ideations of the love interest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny
clarabooksit's review against another edition
I hated this. The writing and story are cheesy, soapy, and cringey. The absolute worst thing about it, though, is the romance: Matthew is controlling and creepy, has anger issues, and treats Diana like a stupid child, and they fall in love to the point of desperation in only three weeks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Misogyny
Moderate: Death of parent
alishamegan's review against another edition
I hate Matthew. Super typical arrogant forceful aggressive male hetero love interest and literally a self admitted abuser and killer of women lol. I really don't like how he treats the female MC (which is super controlling and possessive). He is so one dimensional and the female MC has no personality tbh. Super disappointed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Misogyny
bookishchef's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-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? Yes
1.5
This book is like Twilight.
But without the love triangle.
And somehow even more toxic.
You thought Edward stalking Bella was creepy?
Meet Matthew Clermont! He is actually mentally and physically abusive to our bland Mary Sue protagonist named Diana.
If you're Matthew, life is easy.
Diana has a panic attack? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling scared? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling horny? Threaten her life.
Why? Because you just cannot help yourself of course. After all, it is sooooo hot when men treat women like
A. fragile objects they're supposed to control and protect.
B. things to literally kill.
This book perpetrates the idea that men cannot help themselves from abusing, controling, and commanding women.
Worst thing is, that every time Diana goes against Matthew's wishes, she is immediately punished by the plot. Which only confirms that women are supposed to listen to the men in their lives according to this book.
I have no clue how I, the reader, was supposed to find any of this romantic. All of the scenes were either highly uncomfortable or straight up abusive.
The excuse of "he just can't help himself" is as old as time and has been used time and time again to excuse shitty behaviour from men.
And Diana, the MC, decides that this excuse is not an excuse at all. She seems to think this is actually the way the world works. She doesn't even take the horrible "I can fix him" attitude that so many romance MCs take. Instead she just completely accepts Matthew as the toxic asshole he is and gives up every part of her life to listen to him and conform to his ideas of an ideal wife.
So yeah this book stole the toxicity from Twilight and made it 10x worse.
You know what else it stole?
THE WEIRD BABY PLOTLINE
Yup, you heard me correctly.
This author really looked at Renesmee and went "wow that's such a cool plot point".
Remember how Bella wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant because Ed was a vampire? Well, same goes for Diana in this story. For a solid 80% of the book, we hear nothing about pregnancy rates between witches and vampires. (Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire)
Matthew refuses to have penetrative sex because of *plot*, and Diana gets frustrated because of this. And then suddenly out of NOWHERE it is revealed that witches and vampires can't have babies together BUT Diana has *special* DNA which means she is able to conceive with Matthew. Matthew supposedly didn't know this, so his aversion to penetrative sex was completely unrelated.
Even so, this entire plotpoint seems to exist to make Matthew right once again, and to rip off Twilight.
Truly do not understand why this gets 4+ stars on Goodreads.
ALSO OMG WINE GETS MENTIONED MORE THAN THE MC'S NAME I STG
But without the love triangle.
And somehow even more toxic.
You thought Edward stalking Bella was creepy?
Meet Matthew Clermont! He is actually mentally and physically abusive to our bland Mary Sue protagonist named Diana.
If you're Matthew, life is easy.
Diana has a panic attack? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling scared? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling horny? Threaten her life.
Why? Because you just cannot help yourself of course. After all, it is sooooo hot when men treat women like
A. fragile objects they're supposed to control and protect.
B. things to literally kill.
This book perpetrates the idea that men cannot help themselves from abusing, controling, and commanding women.
Worst thing is, that every time Diana goes against Matthew's wishes, she is immediately punished by the plot. Which only confirms that women are supposed to listen to the men in their lives according to this book.
I have no clue how I, the reader, was supposed to find any of this romantic. All of the scenes were either highly uncomfortable or straight up abusive.
The excuse of "he just can't help himself" is as old as time and has been used time and time again to excuse shitty behaviour from men.
And Diana, the MC, decides that this excuse is not an excuse at all. She seems to think this is actually the way the world works. She doesn't even take the horrible "I can fix him" attitude that so many romance MCs take. Instead she just completely accepts Matthew as the toxic asshole he is and gives up every part of her life to listen to him and conform to his ideas of an ideal wife.
So yeah this book stole the toxicity from Twilight and made it 10x worse.
You know what else it stole?
Spoiler
THE WEIRD BABY PLOTLINE
Yup, you heard me correctly.
This author really looked at Renesmee and went "wow that's such a cool plot point".
Remember how Bella wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant because Ed was a vampire? Well, same goes for Diana in this story. For a solid 80% of the book, we hear nothing about pregnancy rates between witches and vampires. (Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire)
Matthew refuses to have penetrative sex because of *plot*, and Diana gets frustrated because of this. And then suddenly out of NOWHERE it is revealed that witches and vampires can't have babies together BUT Diana has *special* DNA which means she is able to conceive with Matthew. Matthew supposedly didn't know this, so his aversion to penetrative sex was completely unrelated.
Even so, this entire plotpoint seems to exist to make Matthew right once again, and to rip off Twilight.
Truly do not understand why this gets 4+ stars on Goodreads.
ALSO OMG WINE GETS MENTIONED MORE THAN THE MC'S NAME I STG
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Mental illness, Blood, Death, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Torture, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Misogyny
Minor: Child death