A review by caffeinatedvibe
The Perishing by Natashia Deón

dark mysterious tense slow-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? N/A

3.0

EDIT: After a few months now, I’ve bumped this down to a 3. I may even eventually move it to a 2 but for now I did enjoy the story and then concept but overall it was a little underwhelming especially with how it had been advertised. I think I had been expecting more of an adventurous plot that went into the magical realness more which is what hindered my love for this book. I may still recommend this, but I will be giving my own summary of the book. It’s definitely more of a historical fiction and a bit of coming of age with the overall plot and less about the magic of what’s going on. Which is okay I just wish I wasn’t expecting the magic. I could see this easily becoming a many part series that could take place in many timelines maybe even multiple povs which could help my rating of this book if I knew it were the background info for a more expansive universe but as a stand alone I was left wanting more. 

I liked the concept, the multiple perspective from the same person but different times, and the mystery behind it all. But I don’t think it satisfies me as much I would have liked. I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend it to friends I just felt like it ended abruptly right as I thought maybe the heart of the story was beginning. 

This may not be spoilers, but I just want to be cautious. I’ve seen some reviews not love Sarah’s perspective since it doesn’t become relevant until the end and for the most part I think I disagree. I really enjoyed hearing her talk about her experiences as the future self looking back and I think her story helps explain what’s going on with Lou. With that said though, everything she says is very vague and a lot of it you don’t understand until the end of the book so maybe it’d be worth a reread, but there were chapters that were hard to get through when Lou’s story was getting exciting and it felt like Sarah wasn’t adding too much to the plot. I know there were a lot of things that had to be vague in order to not spoil anything from Lou’s perspective but I think even a few callbacks at the end from Sarah’s perspective that would reveal more specifics would be nice so I wasn’t having to guess what might’ve happened. I prefer books that don’t give me all the answers but I also would’ve liked just a few answers. Like do I assume she killed her brother?? Also was confused by that plot line because the time jumping gets muddled so in that moment when he was explaining his backstory I could visualize where and who they were. There was also the plot of the woman being thrown in the water and that’s why Lou’s was called there but it was never actually explained, unless I missed something which is possible, so overall I just didn't understand why/what was going on. It’s still above 3 for me though slightly because I did enjoy the story I liked Lou’s journey for the most part. Mainly I just felt unsatisfied since I picked it up thinking it was about time traveling or some kind of magic of sorts and then it spent most of the story being about a girl just trying to figure out her life and who she is which would have been okay if the book description wasn’t heavily focused on the immortal aspect.
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