At first I really enjoyed this book, because I felt that the characters seemed to grow quite a bit. They both had some things to accept about themselves, and they're quite enjoyable as well. I also did really enjoy the way that Trez is around the person he's attracted to and it makes me want to hurry up and get to his book! I'm still not so enthused by Xcor and the BoB, but I am very enthused about Assail and Sola. I'm not sure exactly if I will like what's happening there but I am intrigued for certain. I have to give this book a bit of a lower score though, because I really don't like the way it deals with Qhuinn's bisexuality. It feels like erasure and it's not fun. It felt like a really cool thing to have a bi character in the story, but then to have the resolution include an "Oh, I'm not actually bi" moment? Not nice. It took some of the happy out of the happy ever after for me. I don't think it's intended that way, but I do think that a lot of the harm that bisexual people go through is from people who think that bisexuality is just a pause en-route to officially being a "gay person" or a "straight person", and that's just not the case. Bi people will usually get into relationships with someone of one of those genders or someone who is non-binary, but being in a relationship with someone who fits a certain gender binary doesn't automatically make you fit a sexuality binary. It actually kind of took away some of that final sweetness at the end. Also I was surprised, especially later on in the book, how many times the scenes went into fade to black mode. I'm not sure if I just noticed it more than I have in the past or if there actually were more scenes that happened that way this time, but it did rankle me a little. It did make sense for the character to be afraid to admit his love because he hated himself, which also makes sense because of how his father treated him while he grew up, but then just have him be scared to admit he loves Blay, without the whole scared to say he's gay part. He could still be bisexual and it would still work for the story. I don't know exactly how many bisexual people, homosexual people, people of colour, non-binary individuals, transpeople, or other groups I haven't thought of right now read these books in hopes of seeing themselves reflected, I'm just disappointed that we had the opportunity to do it here for a few marginalised groups, and we didn't.
Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Classism