A review by jenpen
This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I reeeeally wanted to like this book. The author is a lovely person, I was excited to try out a new genre, and the plot seemed really interesting!

But I just could not get myself to like *any* of the characters. The MC in particular was supposed to be a super strong female lead, but she just cried and got herself rescued the entire book. In addition, it was slow and super repetitive, to the point that I skimmed the last half. The twist at the end didn’t excite me. The humor felt forced most of the time. Even though it’s marketed as horror, it was less scare and more gore. 

The writing at a sentence level is pretty and great quality, and the world was interesting. But the lack of a single lovable character is probably what did it in for me. I guess this book just wasn’t for me, unfortunately. Still, I’ll definitely be giving the author’s cozy fantasies a try!
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