suzannnn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dieciseisl's review against another edition
1.0
Que libro más raro. Sigo pensando en la trama y demás y lo leí el sábado...
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
Delightfully dark—our narrator is off at boarding school, half in love (probably platonically) with her best friend, Lucy. When a new girl, Ernessa, shows up, the narrator becomes jealous—and then she starts to wonder about Ernessa's secrets.
This is set in the 60s or thereabouts, judging by a reference to the Vietnam War, though time is largely not important. What is important is that the narrator believes everything she's telling us, everything she's writing in her diary: she doesn't want to, not at first, but she can't find another explanation for Ernessa's pale skin, the infrequency with which anyone sees her eat, the rotting smell seeping from underneath her door.
I'm not a huge fan of epistolary novels, as a rule, but this does a masterful job of letting the reader wonder just how much is real and how much is in the narrator's imagination. I won't spoil the ending, but overall I appreciate that this is a very different take on the contemporary vampire novel.
This is set in the 60s or thereabouts, judging by a reference to the Vietnam War, though time is largely not important. What is important is that the narrator believes everything she's telling us, everything she's writing in her diary: she doesn't want to, not at first, but she can't find another explanation for Ernessa's pale skin, the infrequency with which anyone sees her eat, the rotting smell seeping from underneath her door.
I'm not a huge fan of epistolary novels, as a rule, but this does a masterful job of letting the reader wonder just how much is real and how much is in the narrator's imagination. I won't spoil the ending, but overall I appreciate that this is a very different take on the contemporary vampire novel.
caja's review against another edition
5.0
"It's true that I never wanted to grow up. But how important was it really - to have decided to be human?"
I'm going to keep pondering over this line for awhile.
I'm going to keep pondering over this line for awhile.
ivylong's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
phoebebrooke's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
I devoured this. I stayed up late to keep reading! The narrator frustrated me and intrigued wildly. The story built up so perfectly and left such an impression. I’ll think about this for months to come!
I devoured this. I stayed up late to keep reading! The narrator frustrated me and intrigued wildly. The story built up so perfectly and left such an impression. I’ll think about this for months to come!
vixenreader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Despite a strange afterward, it is a rather fascinating, ambiguous novel about the perils of jealousy, teen angst, and mental illness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Antisemitism, Injury/injury detail, Dysphoria, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicide
Moderate: Ableism, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Sexual content, Bullying, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, and Stalking
Minor: Excrement, Infidelity, Medical content, Abandonment, and War
There are also instances of ageism, neglect, breaking porcelain, and slowly watching a close friend waste away.__nyx__'s review against another edition
4.0
I remember first seeing this book - newly laminated - propped up on the shelf in the library. Yes. I judged it by its cover. It breathed an aura of mystery. A diary, easy to read, at times too intimate, but rivetingly full of references and beautifully posed words, waiting to lift and transport you.
The messages about life in this book are strong. Grief can alter one, never for the better and for multiple forevers. Can life truly go on with the emptiness one leaves? Why do friends suddenly become completely and utterly unfamiliar? What is love but an obsessive fascination and desire in another? How can we move from one obsession to the other? “If I needed to, I could always open the window and let them fly away.” Maybe there are deeper meanings to this text than the simple looking diary entry about a vampire that it presents itself as.
But most interestingly, within it is said that “the writer is always inventing, believing in the truth of the unseen.” Do we invent what we see, altering an occurrence to suit what we prefer to have seen?
There’s nothing I love more than a book that leaves me asking all of these questions. The present so quickly turns into the past.
The messages about life in this book are strong. Grief can alter one, never for the better and for multiple forevers. Can life truly go on with the emptiness one leaves? Why do friends suddenly become completely and utterly unfamiliar? What is love but an obsessive fascination and desire in another? How can we move from one obsession to the other? “If I needed to, I could always open the window and let them fly away.” Maybe there are deeper meanings to this text than the simple looking diary entry about a vampire that it presents itself as.
But most interestingly, within it is said that “the writer is always inventing, believing in the truth of the unseen.” Do we invent what we see, altering an occurrence to suit what we prefer to have seen?
There’s nothing I love more than a book that leaves me asking all of these questions. The present so quickly turns into the past.