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bowden's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
2.0
This was an interesting mystery. The story is told with 4 POV. Audra is your main POV. She's the one with the plan, the barely concealed anger and the most vague of all the characters. Max is another POV, unfortunately. I didn't think his POV was necessary and I hated every time a chapter started with him. There is also Juniper, a girl at a camp for artists and we learn about her, her huge group of friends and this art community. Finally, there are notes that give little info to start - some are poems but most are little notes about depression, goals and love. It's hard, for at least the first 200+ pages, to really see how all these storylines go together. It's slow paced, meandering, and it was hard to push through. Once you get through about half way, it speeds up and you get more details and a lot of reveals. But for me, that was about 100 pages too little too late. I wish I'd liked this more but it was just too slow. The ending was shocking through, heartbreaking and gasp-worthy and deserved an extra star!
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
srobs24's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
tiphreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What an enigmatic, slow burning, darkly beautiful way to weave a story of revenge.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Sexual harassment
bookstainedsoul's review against another edition
4.0
spoiler free area
The way the book discusses the grayness of morality and the darkness of humanity is great. The book is very well written. I love the weaving of art pieces throughout the book and the descriptions of those pieces, I think it would be great to get a special edition of the book where we can actually see what some of those pieces were envisioned to look like. I think you could spend a lot of time in this book finding threads of meaning and deciphering language from the found objects. Overall I thought the book was really well written. At times I felt the descriptions of the paintings could have been a bit more clear.
SPOILERS
While I understand the use of M and M in the letters and that is intended to be so you cannot distinguish between the two, I wish we could have gotten more clarity on the details of the relationships between C, M, and M. I wish we could have seen from their points of view the manipulation and abuse that led to C’s death.
I do wonder why Eveline/Audra created such an elaborate scheme to get revenge against max but did not do the same for mantis. Or maybe she did and we don’t get to hear about it. I wonder if mantis understood who was killing him and why when he died, as Audra made sure happened with Max. And if not, why?
The disgust I felt for max throughout this book has been overwhelming. The way he gets off on other people’s pain, delights in seeing women crumble. Then uses their pain to build himself up.
We all crave to see others as they truly are, but to deliberately manipulate vulnerability out of already hurt women and then use that vulnerability to your advantage, to advance yourself, while giving no comfort to the women who’s emotions you are using is sickening. and then to use that vulnerability to further hurt and break down those women to continue to exploit their pain…it’s nauseating. I think his lack of awareness of this behavior is also very poignant, however, I have to wonder if he is actually unaware or if he knows how disturbing his behavior is and doesn’t want to admit it.
I really liked this story, I thought the characters were for the most part, really well created. Though, I think there were times I felt some of them could have used a little more depth, especially when telling such an emotionally compelling story, i sometimes felt I would have expected to feel more emotion than I actually did.
Overall I really loved this book.
The way the book discusses the grayness of morality and the darkness of humanity is great. The book is very well written. I love the weaving of art pieces throughout the book and the descriptions of those pieces, I think it would be great to get a special edition of the book where we can actually see what some of those pieces were envisioned to look like. I think you could spend a lot of time in this book finding threads of meaning and deciphering language from the found objects. Overall I thought the book was really well written. At times I felt the descriptions of the paintings could have been a bit more clear.
SPOILERS
While I understand the use of M and M in the letters and that is intended to be so you cannot distinguish between the two, I wish we could have gotten more clarity on the details of the relationships between C, M, and M. I wish we could have seen from their points of view the manipulation and abuse that led to C’s death.
I do wonder why Eveline/Audra created such an elaborate scheme to get revenge against max but did not do the same for mantis. Or maybe she did and we don’t get to hear about it. I wonder if mantis understood who was killing him and why when he died, as Audra made sure happened with Max. And if not, why?
The disgust I felt for max throughout this book has been overwhelming. The way he gets off on other people’s pain, delights in seeing women crumble. Then uses their pain to build himself up.
We all crave to see others as they truly are, but to deliberately manipulate vulnerability out of already hurt women and then use that vulnerability to your advantage, to advance yourself, while giving no comfort to the women who’s emotions you are using is sickening. and then to use that vulnerability to further hurt and break down those women to continue to exploit their pain…it’s nauseating. I think his lack of awareness of this behavior is also very poignant, however, I have to wonder if he is actually unaware or if he knows how disturbing his behavior is and doesn’t want to admit it.
I really liked this story, I thought the characters were for the most part, really well created. Though, I think there were times I felt some of them could have used a little more depth, especially when telling such an emotionally compelling story, i sometimes felt I would have expected to feel more emotion than I actually did.
Overall I really loved this book.
demegod22's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
danapr's review against another edition
5.0
A really suspenseful and enjoyable thriller! The book takes place in two time frames. In 1988, a group of artists attend an art camp in rural Maine. The artists develop relationships with staff, some of which are complex, unhealthy and even deadly. Everyone goes by nicknames in 1988 which makes the occurrences in 2018 more mysterious. In this second time period, a woman is plotting revenge on one of the campers from 30 years ago but since they go by “real” names now, who are these characters and why would someone go to great lengths to seek revenge? The plot is very intriguing and draws the reader in from the very beginning of the book. The use of nicknames is an extremely creative technique to deepen the plot and keeps the story mysterious and spellbinding right to the end. Hard to put down! I hope to read more from this author.
wgentz's review against another edition
dark
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? Yes
eclark93's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0