A review by ellejo3
Foxglove by Adalyn Grace

dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
The continued casual ableism in this series is disappointing. In Belladonna, Death alluded that a disabled man's life was worth less than an able-bodied person's because he would've lived with pain wrought in his bones, as though it was a mercy that Signa's choice led to his death. In Foxglove, this trend continued with the way Signa treated Blythe. Signa deliberately mentioned that she had to hide the truth from Blythe because of Blythe's illness and how frail that made her. This is despite the fact that we got Blythe's point of view and could repeatedly see how strong and capable Blythe was throughout this book. I could understand Signa wanting to hide the truth because she's afraid that it'd cost her relationship with Blythe, but Signa repeatedly infantilized Blythe simply because of her illness.

This book also suffered from second book syndrome. It was unnecessarily long. Signa didn't grow at all. She was willing to make the same choice as in book one
taking an innocent person's life to spare someone in her family
, having learned nothing about the cost of death. The mystery was stagnant for most of the book, only to unfurl on its own by happenstance at the end. I wanted to like Fate, but he had no concept of consent. I haven't forgiven Death for his ableism in book one and so I didn't care about his relationship with Signa. The way Signa revealed her secret to Blythe didn't make sense and while it wasn't quite the miscommunication trope, it was only a few degrees off.

The parts of this book I enjoyed were the ghosts in Foxglove and Blythe's journey.
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