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rcy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
A modern retelling of Persephone, Demeter and Hades. This starts out strong and reads like a fever dream; Cory getting drawn in to the decadence of the island, her mother’s desperation. It lost my interest a little along the way but this was an enjoyable read.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Vomit
sarahmcg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to like this book more! The cover drew me in and I felt intrigued by the play on the Persephone/Demeter story.
I’ll start with what I liked:
I’ll start with what I liked:
- The author’s prose is gorgeous
- I did find myself invested in what was going to happen to the main character, though I did not necessarily find her likable (and I don’t think she is supposed to be)
- Dual POV of mother/daughter
My critiques:
- The chapters were WAY TOO DAMN LONG - omg like I hate stopping in the middle of a chapter but I had to do that several times with this book when I would try and read a chapter before bed and it was taking forever
- The ending… I didn’t like it! I don’t want to give any spoilers. But just… it felt like very poor character development
- I was just kind of bored and the story felt very repetitive at times
Overall, I think maybe readers that are more into lit-fic than I am might enjoy this more than me, so don’t write it off because of my review!
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review; thoughts are my own.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Alcohol