behindherpages's review
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief
rhiasofia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Emotional abuse
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
mx_virg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
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
3.0
I loved the premise and really wanted to like this book. And the base elements are there. I liked the characters, the way they come together, how the plot progresses. I like that a big part of the book focuses on female friendships. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think much will stick with me for long.
The world building is really lacking here. How can vampires just carelessly go through the world, killing people left and right, in this day and age? The number of people they kill to feed on isn't small, and yet it's never really a concern. Nothing really is, aside from the main villain. We're given just enough to understand why things have to happen the way they do, nothing more. The vampire thing feels more like a b-plot, we're not given enough info and I wasn't that invested or interested when vampiry stuff happened as a result.
The romance started out cute, but became bland from the half-way point. And even though I liked the ending, the twists felt unnecessary and created if not plot holes, at least more questions that we won't get answers to (because we're given so little info to begin with). The writing didn't help. It wasn't bad, but didn't pull me in either.
So yeah, it's a "meh" read for me, but one I still enjoyed. I'd love to read a book on how our heroines carve a life for themselves, together, from here on out.
The world building is really lacking here. How can vampires just carelessly go through the world, killing people left and right, in this day and age? The number of people they kill to feed on isn't small, and yet it's never really a concern. Nothing really is, aside from the main villain. We're given just enough to understand why things have to happen the way they do, nothing more. The vampire thing feels more like a b-plot, we're not given enough info and I wasn't that invested or interested when vampiry stuff happened as a result.
The romance started out cute, but became bland from the half-way point. And even though I liked the ending, the twists felt unnecessary and created if not plot holes, at least more questions that we won't get answers to (because we're given so little info to begin with). The writing didn't help. It wasn't bad, but didn't pull me in either.
So yeah, it's a "meh" read for me, but one I still enjoyed. I'd love to read a book on how our heroines carve a life for themselves, together, from here on out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Abandonment, Body horror, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, and Misogyny
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
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
pineapple_queen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Death of parent
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
elwirax's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The premise was everything, a band of vampire exes teaming up to kill the vampire who turned them then stealing his new girlfriend. What more could you want? Unfortunately, in this case a bit more. I had such high hopes and was rather dissapointed. I also started this book in September 2021, it is now June 2022 sooo...just goes to show how much I was enjoying it.
The writing was simple enough, though very dialogue heavy which slowed down the pace of the book significantly and for an already short book it says a lot. I also couldn't gel with the fact that all the characters sounded practically the same, surely someone from the 1920s would not speak in the same manner as someone's from the 1980s. The characters as a whole were too contemporary and rather bland and I just didn't really care.
I was also not convinced by the romance at all, Parker and Holly had no chemistry and it was very insta-lovey. Had the book been longer and developed the relationship I may have enjoyed it more. Then again, I don't think I would have finished the book had it been any longer.
I also didn't think there were many stakes. The way the author created the vampires in her book meant that even the most severe injuries healed quickly (there was a scene where the main character's arm was torn off and it grew back in seconds). This added to the lack of anticipation and excitement as there was never really anything that made me fear for their well being.
One thing I did like was the author's more realistic portrayal of vampires. Living forever probably leaves you with many regrets and isn't as fun as it is usually portrayed. This was an aspect that was explored through all the characters and whatever was given of their backstories. I also kinda liked the heirloom idea but that's about as much as I cared for in this book.
Overall, I was underwhelmed. The premise was great but the execution lacked.
The writing was simple enough, though very dialogue heavy which slowed down the pace of the book significantly and for an already short book it says a lot. I also couldn't gel with the fact that all the characters sounded practically the same, surely someone from the 1920s would not speak in the same manner as someone's from the 1980s. The characters as a whole were too contemporary and rather bland and I just didn't really care.
I was also not convinced by the romance at all, Parker and Holly had no chemistry and it was very insta-lovey. Had the book been longer and developed the relationship I may have enjoyed it more. Then again, I don't think I would have finished the book had it been any longer.
I also didn't think there were many stakes. The way the author created the vampires in her book meant that even the most severe injuries healed quickly (there was a scene where the main character's arm was torn off and it grew back in seconds). This added to the lack of anticipation and excitement as there was never really anything that made me fear for their well being.
One thing I did like was the author's more realistic portrayal of vampires. Living forever probably leaves you with many regrets and isn't as fun as it is usually portrayed. This was an aspect that was explored through all the characters and whatever was given of their backstories. I also kinda liked the heirloom idea but that's about as much as I cared for in this book.
Overall, I was underwhelmed. The premise was great but the execution lacked.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Abandonment
ghostlyprince's review against another edition
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
Minor: Bullying, Dementia, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment