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jules_reads_books's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Animal death, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Body horror
Minor: Vomit
sorcha_bookish_quill's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Animal death
Moderate: Stalking
thewoodlandbookshelf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Stalking, Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Medical content, Car accident, Body horror, Grief, Toxic relationship, Child death, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Alcohol, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Death, Gore, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Vomit
bellebeaumont95's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- 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
I wanted to love this book so so much.
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 wereNO buried gays, nature is healing.
-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.Everything with Charles Hallowell and Alice Lovelace in the sunken crypt at the end.................... OOF .
-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. She found letters upon letters upon letters addressed to her mother and immediately threw a tantrum about it to Evie The Love Of Her Life She Met Two Weeks Ago And Promised Eternal Understanding To Five Minutes Prior, instead of, oh I don't know, reading even a single one of them, or, say, asking Neera even once about Alice's history. Halfway through the book, we're treated to a flashback of her mother freaking out about even the mention of Alice and I made the effort to tell myself "well maybe she was a child and didn't understand her reaction, and that's why she trusts Alice anyway" but NO. The flashback was from A MONTH BEFORE THE EVENTS OF THE BOOK. And she still thought it was a good idea to trust this woman her mother was SO terrified of. Exhausting! But okay, let's let it slide since she's young and grieving. Sure.
-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 AliceThe Big Bad? only twice before the climax. Wren and Thea mention that things started coming back to life since Evie came back to the house, but Evie was still at boarding school when Marin found the zombie bird in her closet her first night at the house. What? Were we supposed to take it that was somehow Thea's doing? .
-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.Marin has a "panic attack" at one point and the solution was apparently Evie kissing her in the middle of her hyperventilation. Come on. Even Bridgerton did that better). I wondered to myself what on earth Evie saw in Marin besides the fact that she was there. Yes, some people feel safer than others, but not generally complete strangers that you find hot.
The Odd:
-So we're really just not gonna talk about how two walking corpses somehow aged naturally and gave birth, one of them as many as three times? We're just? Not gonna address that? Even though the coroner found evidence of each of her deaths on Alice's body? But her OBGYN saw nothing out of place? WILD
<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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child death and Stalking
Minor: Vomit
blackthornfaery's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
two instances of cruelty towards cats leading to cat deathlynseygx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Death of parent
allisonsmith120's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Animal death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Stalking and Vomit
city_girl_writer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
This was a creepy, haunting gothic horror story. The gory descriptions of animal deaths made me squirmy. The sapphic romance was...fine? I don't think the writing was lyrical or romantic to make me deeply invested in their love story, but it was nice to see them care for each other. I had no idea necromancy was involved in the story! Grief and death were major themes here, and I think it was handled well. Everyone had their own ways to handle their grief.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Stalking
Minor: Emotional abuse and Child death
pigeonbooknook's review against another edition
I just can't deal with this much of animal death and graphic injury...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty