rsngphoenix's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Body horror
Minor: Animal cruelty
zoepagereader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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
4.0
I didn’t expect this book to be as heavy as it was. I thought it was just going to be a funny vampire story, not one with three immortal girls dealing with centuries of trauma and a toxic ex. Granted, it was still great, it just wasn’t what I expected at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Grief, Blood, Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Genocide, and Body horror
nella_allen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Dementia, Torture, Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Emotional abuse
febber's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
Moderate: Dementia, Gore, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Torture, Blood, and Murder
emmylux7's review
dark
funny
hopeful
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
a group of vamp girls teaming up to kill their abusive ex. say less.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Death, Sexual content, and Gore
longlost's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
2.0
mmm. i really wanted to like this book. like many other reviewers i was sold on the Sapphic Vampire Revenge Story premise and while there were parts of the book that really spoke to me and made me feel like it was worth reading, the parts that bothered me were.... a bit too Much to gloss over in favour of what i did like about it.
the good: hartl's brand of dark humour used to tell this story made it feel very engaging to me, but that's very much personal taste. i liked the characters - the core vampire trio (later quartet) were easy to love for their quirks and i found what we did learn about their backstories and histories to be genuinely interesting and at times heartbreaking. holly's issues w/ her mother also really spoke to me when they did become front and centre, and i liked ive never really been that invested in vampire stories so im going into this world with the basics of vampire knowledge, but i really enjoyed the work hartl put into worldbuilding regarding the vampire lore. when i picked up the book to continue reading i was as much interested in seeing where the characters would go next as in how the world and the rules behind vampirism would be unraveled. which sucks because the stuff im going to talk about next really ruined whatever good aspects those parts had.
the bad (and the Ugly): so. the entire premise of the book is the three girls who were coerced by the main villain - a vampire creep who preys on vulnerable, isolated teenagers - teaming up to kill him so he can't ensnare anymore victims. and then we spend the entire book developing a romance between holly and parker of which the inherent weirdness of it is never really acknowledged ? like yea, we know that holly genuinely cares because we're reading things from her point of view and there's a lot of emphasis on how being Turned pauses you at that point in time meaning that holly is Technically still 16 but. it is just, not that simple ? she's been existing for like 30 years and parker is. a teenager. maybe there could have been ways to approach it well but here it just felt.... extremely brushed over despite a major plot point of the story being how the villain did similar things to the main character & her friends. the romance felt kinda bland too but tbf i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until the out of nowhere underage sex scene which very nearly made the book a DNF for me but there wasnt much of the story left at that point and i wanted to keep to my rule about having read a book in full before writing an in-depth review like this and i felt like these issues were glaring enough that they needed to be discussed in context of the story which is. as explained, never really addressed by the author other than holly being like "oh no if we date parker will eventually grow old and die" which. doesn't even begin to address the juxtaposition between the entire revenge plot and holly and parker's relationship. the overall ending seems to be contentious from reading other reviews here but tbh at that point id disengaged emotionally so i dont have any real thoughts on that.
the good: hartl's brand of dark humour used to tell this story made it feel very engaging to me, but that's very much personal taste. i liked the characters - the core vampire trio (later quartet) were easy to love for their quirks and i found what we did learn about their backstories and histories to be genuinely interesting and at times heartbreaking. holly's issues w/ her mother also really spoke to me when they did become front and centre, and i liked
Spoiler
the resolution with her mother in their final scene together.the bad (and the Ugly): so. the entire premise of the book is the three girls who were coerced by the main villain - a vampire creep who preys on vulnerable, isolated teenagers - teaming up to kill him so he can't ensnare anymore victims. and then we spend the entire book developing a romance between holly and parker of which the inherent weirdness of it is never really acknowledged ? like yea, we know that holly genuinely cares because we're reading things from her point of view and there's a lot of emphasis on how being Turned pauses you at that point in time meaning that holly is Technically still 16 but. it is just, not that simple ? she's been existing for like 30 years and parker is. a teenager. maybe there could have been ways to approach it well but here it just felt.... extremely brushed over despite a major plot point of the story being how the villain did similar things to the main character & her friends. the romance felt kinda bland too but tbf i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until the out of nowhere underage sex scene which very nearly made the book a DNF for me but there wasnt much of the story left at that point and i wanted to keep to my rule about having read a book in full before writing an in-depth review like this and i felt like these issues were glaring enough that they needed to be discussed in context of the story which is. as explained, never really addressed by the author other than holly being like "oh no if we date parker will eventually grow old and die" which. doesn't even begin to address the juxtaposition between the entire revenge plot and holly and parker's relationship. the overall ending seems to be contentious from reading other reviews here but tbh at that point id disengaged emotionally so i dont have any real thoughts on that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Sexism, Abandonment, Dementia, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Minor: Confinement, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
ksgoetz's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Torture, and Blood
mxajlikesbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Things I liked:
- short chapters, quick pacing, light and easy to read
- the friendship between Holly and Stacey
- emphasis on female friendship, found family and cameraderie
- some fun gore and fight scenes
- interesting take on/new version of vampire lore
- Holly and Parker were very cute together despite their relationship being a bit difficult to believe
- the teacher character
Things I didn't like:
- for a bunch of teen vampires that want to save others from their fate, they're very callous about killing (apart from Holly with her code), including eating teens
- Elton was a very one dimensional villain, Gwen even more so
- would've liked to have learned more about rose
- the romance with Parker felt based on very little and I didn't quite get how and why she fell for Holly in such a short space of time with so few interactions
Enjoyed it overall, would've liked it a lot more with some tweaks to the writing and characterisation and more depth in places but was a fun read for sure
- short chapters, quick pacing, light and easy to read
- the friendship between Holly and Stacey
- emphasis on female friendship, found family and cameraderie
- some fun gore and fight scenes
- interesting take on/new version of vampire lore
- Holly and Parker were very cute together despite their relationship being a bit difficult to believe
- the teacher character
Things I didn't like:
- for a bunch of teen vampires that want to save others from their fate, they're very callous about killing (apart from Holly with her code), including eating teens
- Elton was a very one dimensional villain, Gwen even more so
- would've liked to have learned more about rose
- the romance with Parker felt based on very little and I didn't quite get how and why she fell for Holly in such a short space of time with so few interactions
Enjoyed it overall, would've liked it a lot more with some tweaks to the writing and characterisation and more depth in places but was a fun read for sure
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Gore, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
Minor: Dementia, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
kt2e56's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
This felt like it was the author’s first time ever writing a book: so many repeated phrases, no proper sense of pacing, a romance with absolutely no chemistry or believability, the blandest dialogue, every cliché imaginable, and the most egregious crime an author could commit: ZERO depth and personality for the characters.
Each character spoke exactly the same despite their age/time period differences. Like the entire book felt like one person arguing with themself.
The book was told from Holly’s point of view but she had no real personality to her.
Rose’s personality was just the author describing her outfits (and she was the only character who ever got such devoted details when it came to clothing. Everyone else might have been naked based on the lack of description they received).
Ida’s personality was that she was supposed to be the dark, edgy one who makes “quirky” art projects using the bodies of her victims but like that’s literally it. Just that one note played over and over and over again.
Parker was beautiful. That’s it. Beautiful (no other character had the same level of description when it came to physical appearance) and unbelievably foolish because
Side characters were also given just one personality trait per person.
It’s a shame this book was as bad as it was because the premise sounded great and I
Each character spoke exactly the same despite their age/time period differences. Like the entire book felt like one person arguing with themself.
The book was told from Holly’s point of view but she had no real personality to her.
Rose’s personality was just the author describing her outfits (and she was the only character who ever got such devoted details when it came to clothing. Everyone else might have been naked based on the lack of description they received).
Ida’s personality was that she was supposed to be the dark, edgy one who makes “quirky” art projects using the bodies of her victims but like that’s literally it. Just that one note played over and over and over again.
Parker was beautiful. That’s it. Beautiful (no other character had the same level of description when it came to physical appearance) and unbelievably foolish because
Spoiler
her little plan to help save the day in the end truly made no sense. Her being turned into a vampire made all of the hard work of the other characters feel pointless. Her romance with Holly wasn’t believable in any way. They barely knew each other. There was no genuine buildup there. None. The author couldn’t be subtle if she tried so the romance between Parker and Holly was not even remotely a surprise but it felt like it came out of nowhere because there was no actual spark or connection between the two characters, just lots of cliches and bland dialogue.Side characters were also given just one personality trait per person.
It’s a shame this book was as bad as it was because the premise sounded great and I
Spoiler
love me a sapphic romance! But c’mon. Us queer women need to stop settling for mediocre books like this because we want representation so badly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Death, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dementia, and Sexual harassment
kay_w's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Toxic friendship, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, and Stalking