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becky_books's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
kefeshe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Slavery, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual content
ladyseven's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
TBF I knew before reaching the 50% that I was hating this and that my best option was to dnf this one.
I kept going because YA is so fast paced and short that I figured that after reading one half the other half shouldn't take long.
okay, I'll just copy/paste my notes in here and call it a day because I'm so mad that not even the somehow satisfactory ending can make me like this book a little more. I decided from the moment I realized I hated this book to give it 2 stars but by the end I was so mad I fixed myself on 1. This is a rare low rating from mee so I'm feeling really bad with myself :(
I Hate this book so much that I took notes on everything I hated as soon as it appeared on page lol
So, things I like about this book:
- The idea of Wildbloods and a jungle full on supernatural things.
Things I didn’t like:
- The overuse of the expression “I kissed my teeth” “He kissed his teeth”. EDITOR PULEASE do something about this, why didn’t you say anything? My eyeballs almost combusted from reading this ever so often.
- The characters, they were Bland AF. I’ve seen the word bland around, used to describe a myriad of bookish things. I’ve never felt the need to use it myself before, until this book. Every character had a single personality trait if they had that luck, if not then they were as blank as my math exams.
- The expression “my boys” *gags* and the way Thorn became one of “her boys” after one day in the jungle. On that note:
- The insta-cringy-love & the unnecessary “love” scene, (not graphic smut since its YA but not fade to black either. I don’t mind this in general, I mean.. I read smut, but here felt wrong. The timing, the inner monologue, everything felt wrong).
- The fact that the age gap between them felt so wrong too. In the beginning I couldn’t understand, she was 18 and he was of an unknown youngish age. Then it sunk… she had her 18th birthday, but technically given her…. Nature(?), 5 years need to be taken from her age so… she’s 13? Well, she certainly sounds like that, her being the narrator sucked for me. I’d rather have Dean.
- The plot was way too predictable. This wouldn’t be something I’d take issue but here it was so obvious that her friends were cannon fodder, they had the dead flag above them even before we knew their names, that sucks.
- FMC in YA tend to be obnoxious, I know that. It’s part of the charm and it all goes away with the magic of character development. They need to be on the “bad” end of the personality spectrum if we want them to get better. But this bitch was dumb from beginning to end.
- Oh, pairing is important! Until the FMC and ML are together, then they need privacy and the jungle in no longer dangerous. Then the rest to go so shush! Go away bothersome group of ppl who are here just because the plot need you, most of them don’t even have a name. Scratch that, we don’t even know how many extras are there. As many as the plot requires to kill. Only the dead are given names, among the living, besides the main cast & antagonists, only the FMC friends and two side characters are given the benefit of names. (And one of the two is slightly antagonistic, the other one is the ONLY other female character… yes, besides the narrator there are no women in this place because the plot only requires one pretty girl and that’s it).
- Oh, the ML was also very obnoxious. He suffers from the syndrome “I’m always right even tho I don’t know shit” and “You need to like me because of my sobby background”. In the beginning of the book all I wanted was for him to shut up already and by the end I just wanted the same thing.
- The stupidly use of the trope “The FMC is too good to kill, she’s better than that” after she killed an unknown amount of ppl. You mean she’s “too good” to kill a named character, because she just slaughtered the cannon fodder bitches in the background without a second thought.
- I can’t believe this but, Dean was a more interesting character than Victoria and/or Thorn. At least he had a little bit of… depth? Not really but at least he was slightly more fleshed out than the rest.
- Samson talking about his conversations with Mumma as if their marriage wasn’t literally 2 days old. “Sometimes I get mad at her…” You’ve known her for literally 2 days! You guys are not an old married couple, not yet at least but nice try.
Reasons I like Dean for:
- "You barely know the man, Victoria.” YES, but she is, of course, deeply, madly in love.
- “Eat your tongue,” Dean mutters. “Then we’ll both win.” This Dude can literally read my thoughts. Thank you Dean, I wanted Thorn to be mute from the second he showed up.
“He’s too cheerful,” Dean grumbles. “You actually like that?”
I smirk. “Are you jealous, Dean?”
He scowls and looks away, down the road toward our dreaded destination. “I just think he needs to learn how to read the room.”
I had one or two extra quotes but I lost them and I don’t feel like looking for them. I’m done with this book.
I kept going because YA is so fast paced and short that I figured that after reading one half the other half shouldn't take long.
okay, I'll just copy/paste my notes in here and call it a day because I'm so mad that not even the somehow satisfactory ending can make me like this book a little more. I decided from the moment I realized I hated this book to give it 2 stars but by the end I was so mad I fixed myself on 1. This is a rare low rating from mee so I'm feeling really bad with myself :(
I Hate this book so much that I took notes on everything I hated as soon as it appeared on page lol
So, things I like about this book:
- The idea of Wildbloods and a jungle full on supernatural things.
Things I didn’t like:
- The overuse of the expression “I kissed my teeth” “He kissed his teeth”. EDITOR PULEASE do something about this, why didn’t you say anything? My eyeballs almost combusted from reading this ever so often.
- The characters, they were Bland AF. I’ve seen the word bland around, used to describe a myriad of bookish things. I’ve never felt the need to use it myself before, until this book. Every character had a single personality trait if they had that luck, if not then they were as blank as my math exams.
- The expression “my boys” *gags* and the way Thorn became one of “her boys” after one day in the jungle. On that note:
- The insta-cringy-love & the unnecessary “love” scene, (not graphic smut since its YA but not fade to black either. I don’t mind this in general, I mean.. I read smut, but here felt wrong. The timing, the inner monologue, everything felt wrong).
- The fact that the age gap between them felt so wrong too. In the beginning I couldn’t understand, she was 18 and he was of an unknown youngish age. Then it sunk… she had her 18th birthday, but technically given her…. Nature(?), 5 years need to be taken from her age so… she’s 13? Well, she certainly sounds like that, her being the narrator sucked for me. I’d rather have Dean.
- The plot was way too predictable. This wouldn’t be something I’d take issue but here it was so obvious that her friends were cannon fodder, they had the dead flag above them even before we knew their names, that sucks.
- FMC in YA tend to be obnoxious, I know that. It’s part of the charm and it all goes away with the magic of character development. They need to be on the “bad” end of the personality spectrum if we want them to get better. But this bitch was dumb from beginning to end.
- Oh, pairing is important! Until the FMC and ML are together, then they need privacy and the jungle in no longer dangerous. Then the rest to go so shush! Go away bothersome group of ppl who are here just because the plot need you, most of them don’t even have a name. Scratch that, we don’t even know how many extras are there. As many as the plot requires to kill. Only the dead are given names, among the living, besides the main cast & antagonists, only the FMC friends and two side characters are given the benefit of names. (And one of the two is slightly antagonistic, the other one is the ONLY other female character… yes, besides the narrator there are no women in this place because the plot only requires one pretty girl and that’s it).
- Oh, the ML was also very obnoxious. He suffers from the syndrome “I’m always right even tho I don’t know shit” and “You need to like me because of my sobby background”. In the beginning of the book all I wanted was for him to shut up already and by the end I just wanted the same thing.
- The stupidly use of the trope “The FMC is too good to kill, she’s better than that” after she killed an unknown amount of ppl. You mean she’s “too good” to kill a named character, because she just slaughtered the cannon fodder bitches in the background without a second thought.
- I can’t believe this but, Dean was a more interesting character than Victoria and/or Thorn. At least he had a little bit of… depth? Not really but at least he was slightly more fleshed out than the rest.
- Samson talking about his conversations with Mumma as if their marriage wasn’t literally 2 days old. “Sometimes I get mad at her…” You’ve known her for literally 2 days! You guys are not an old married couple, not yet at least but nice try.
Reasons I like Dean for:
- "You barely know the man, Victoria.” YES, but she is, of course, deeply, madly in love.
- “Eat your tongue,” Dean mutters. “Then we’ll both win.” This Dude can literally read my thoughts. Thank you Dean, I wanted Thorn to be mute from the second he showed up.
“He’s too cheerful,” Dean grumbles. “You actually like that?”
I smirk. “Are you jealous, Dean?”
He scowls and looks away, down the road toward our dreaded destination. “I just think he needs to learn how to read the room.”
I had one or two extra quotes but I lost them and I don’t feel like looking for them. I’m done with this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Rape
petab's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Child death, Slavery, and Kidnapping
kayjchan95's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I’m so frustrated. I had excitement for this story and it started off strong! About 40 percent in everything came crashing down for me.
A lot of the choices of the characters doesn’t make sense to me. How tf do you have a captor YET you’re the strongest Wildblood you’ve ever known? Have y’all thought uhhh to overthrow your captor being that he’s actually human and you’re not??? The mix of African spirituality and then mixing Christianity was confusing to me. Homeboy being Christian is one thing but then her understanding and talking about it didn’t make sense being that they come from two different worlds???? Also the crying about Dean ruining her life got soooo old. I’m shocked she didn’t kill him after what he did. She very well should have. Especially BOTH of her boys dying because of him? I don’t get her. All her choices were dumb rash and did I say dumb? I don’t care she’s only 18 if you’re trying to get promoted bickering with your superior is the absolute way to NOT make it up the ranks. Her getting raped by her boss is also insane to me. It felt like it was used as a plot point to drive the wedge between her and Dean but I don’t think it was handled and explained was done poorly. I have not experienced such but I just got the ick hearing about her trauma as if it was just a bad experience. Rather than traumatizing and absolutely something that changes the person. I’m sorry but Dean should have met his maker in this book. He’s done waaaaay to much to V for her to forgive him. Made no sense. Also. The amount of random conflict this book had baffled me. One after another. There rarely any down time to just chill for a second before there’s another annoying conflict. The book feels childish to me like it could have been for 10 year olds. If the cursing (which was minimal by the way), the sex scene, and mention of rape was not stated this could have easily been a kids book. Dead ass. That’s how comical and childish it read to me. My rant is all over the place because guess what! So was the book. The parts I did enjoy was the character chemistry at the beginning between Bunny Sam and Victoria. I chuckled a lot at them! Loved the banter. I also did like Thorn up until the turning point. Everything got confusing and messy when they got together. It’s as if the mission to find gold didn’t even matter. Did they even find gold!? I can’t even remember bc I started skimming at some point. This was a cathartic write. I’m upset. I wanted to like this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Racism and Classism
charisma_reads's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Rape
the_tea_collector22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
2.5
The premise of this story was so interesting and I was hooked for the first third of it, but as the story went on it felt quite repetitive with dialogue or even internal thoughts in conflict with each other about what Victoria wanted or how she felt. I wanted so badly to love it, but the more I kept listening the more I just wanted it to end. I think the world building was so unique with Wildbloods that I really liked it, I just didn’t love the execution and how the story played out. Idk if it’s related to a craft piece or just personal preference but something just seemed to be missing for me to really enjoy it. I did like the narrator on the audiobook, they were really good and had a lovely voice for the different songs some characters sing- so I’d recommend the audio for that aspect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Rape and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Trafficking, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
nannahnannah's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Firstly, I need to express my adoration for this book's cover. The design and the artwork are stunning. This has to be one of my all-time favorite covers. I also loved Lauren Blackwood's first book, Within These Wicked Walls, so I was extremely eager to get my hands on this one.
Representation:
- about half the characters are Jamaican
- the love interest is a Black American
- a secondary character is biracial, Jamaican and Chinese
At the age of six, Victoria was kidnapped from her home in the jungle of Jamaica by a tourist company who uses people like her, Wildbloods who can shape their blood into objects, to protect tourists as they travel through the jungle road to cross the island. Now eighteen years old, Victoria is the most powerful of all the Wildbloods in the company, and she is determined to earn a promotion to save enough money to buy her brother's freedom. But she has just been assigned to a new client who is hell-bent on traveling off the safe road and into the heart of the jungle itself, which abounds with dangerous monsters and spirits—and although she quickly falls for the new client, she knows entering the jungle is too risky. They might not make it back alive, and the longer she stays in the jungle, the more she questions who she is and what she really wants.
The plot at first sounds fairly straightforward and uninteresting: Victoria is helping rich foreign businessmen find gold in the jungle. It's uninteresting, though, because that's not the real plot. It's actually about a young woman held in conditions comparable to slavery who fights to get her and her loved ones free, and to figure out where she belongs.
I have to talk about what I liked first: besides that cover, the entire design of the book is exquisite. I am in love with the bug pattern on the inside pages, and I'm especially in love with the engraving of Victoria's hand holding her thurible. Whoever designed this book is fantastic.
Blackwood's descriptions of the sentient jungle are similarly gorgeous and lush, seeming just as detailed and filled with life as the design of the book itself. Although I think the author shines when it comes to dialogue and witty back-and-forth, in this novel, I think her descriptions of the jungle become the star.
What primarily hindered my enjoyment of this book had to be the romance between Victoria and Thorn. I think it's understandable why Victoria latched onto him like she did, but their dynamic from the middle section to the end became nothing but fluff and "beloveds", which got to be too much for me. And I understand that's a me problem, especially since the author straight-up says that she writes romance-heavy fantasy in her bio.
There was also some strange issues regarding consent, too, like when the admittedly awesome River Mumma brought a character back to life for the sole purpose of being her mate, but knowing what we know about the jungle, I think we're meant to understand this as these spirits not having the same morality as humans do. This Mumma certainly isn't a particularly benevolent spirit.
I'm also confused as to why the Wildbloods' magic isn't just called "magic" instead of "science", which always seemed a bit out of place and took me out of the story when I read it. It never seemed very scientific, even after it was explained (and I don't think I truly ever understood the magic/magic system entirely, if I'm being honest).
Despite this, it was still a fun and interesting ride through the jungle, with some extremely intriguing and well-written characters. There are heavy issues talked about here that make it fitting for the older side of YA, and unlike a lot of other young adult books it refreshingly walks through the gray instead of taking a black or white side of complicated issues, like how we feel about our exes and past abusers. It felt very real and genuine to me. Especially that ending, which made me feel so much better about the book in general. It was just the Right ending for this story. I look forward to Blackwood's next novel!
Representation:
- about half the characters are Jamaican
- the love interest is a Black American
- a secondary character is biracial, Jamaican and Chinese
At the age of six, Victoria was kidnapped from her home in the jungle of Jamaica by a tourist company who uses people like her, Wildbloods who can shape their blood into objects, to protect tourists as they travel through the jungle road to cross the island. Now eighteen years old, Victoria is the most powerful of all the Wildbloods in the company, and she is determined to earn a promotion to save enough money to buy her brother's freedom. But she has just been assigned to a new client who is hell-bent on traveling off the safe road and into the heart of the jungle itself, which abounds with dangerous monsters and spirits—and although she quickly falls for the new client, she knows entering the jungle is too risky. They might not make it back alive, and the longer she stays in the jungle, the more she questions who she is and what she really wants.
The plot at first sounds fairly straightforward and uninteresting: Victoria is helping rich foreign businessmen find gold in the jungle. It's uninteresting, though, because that's not the real plot. It's actually about a young woman held in conditions comparable to slavery who fights to get her and her loved ones free, and to figure out where she belongs.
I have to talk about what I liked first: besides that cover, the entire design of the book is exquisite. I am in love with the bug pattern on the inside pages, and I'm especially in love with the engraving of Victoria's hand holding her thurible. Whoever designed this book is fantastic.
Blackwood's descriptions of the sentient jungle are similarly gorgeous and lush, seeming just as detailed and filled with life as the design of the book itself. Although I think the author shines when it comes to dialogue and witty back-and-forth, in this novel, I think her descriptions of the jungle become the star.
What primarily hindered my enjoyment of this book had to be the romance between Victoria and Thorn. I think it's understandable why Victoria latched onto him like she did, but their dynamic from the middle section to the end became nothing but fluff and "beloveds", which got to be too much for me. And I understand that's a me problem, especially since the author straight-up says that she writes romance-heavy fantasy in her bio.
There was also some strange issues regarding consent, too, like when the admittedly awesome River Mumma brought a character back to life for the sole purpose of being her mate, but knowing what we know about the jungle, I think we're meant to understand this as these spirits not having the same morality as humans do. This Mumma certainly isn't a particularly benevolent spirit.
I'm also confused as to why the Wildbloods' magic isn't just called "magic" instead of "science", which always seemed a bit out of place and took me out of the story when I read it. It never seemed very scientific, even after it was explained (and I don't think I truly ever understood the magic/magic system entirely, if I'm being honest).
Despite this, it was still a fun and interesting ride through the jungle, with some extremely intriguing and well-written characters. There are heavy issues talked about here that make it fitting for the older side of YA, and unlike a lot of other young adult books it refreshingly walks through the gray instead of taking a black or white side of complicated issues, like how we feel about our exes and past abusers. It felt very real and genuine to me. Especially that ending, which made me feel so much better about the book in general. It was just the Right ending for this story. I look forward to Blackwood's next novel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
also: lynching (mentioned); there are a couple of scenes where consent is iffyreneethebookbird's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape