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A review by neekoshimmer32
A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-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
2.75
It was a very frustrating read. While it was occasionally funny and romantic, the fmc was very naive and childlike. The writing style was mostly short quick sentences and many words were repeated several times in the book. There were several sentences, especially dialogue which I found hard to read one after the other - it didn’t flow seamlessly and took some brainwork to understand how they related. It was true to be a retelling of the story of Hades and Persephone, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between the characters develop. Persephone’s dialogue was difficult to read and I enjoyed her conversations with Hades at the start compared to her lines otherwise. She also makes several poor choices throughout the book. Her character development wasn’t seamless either, as she mostly comes to many realizations by the end chapters of the book and seemed to stand up for herself then, but otherwise she remained mostly naive.
The lines from the book on the back cover is an example of dialogue I didn’t think was seamless. (Persephone simply saying “yes” as hades says he wants to worship her). This is a trend throughout he book. ‘Worship’ is an example of word that was repeated maybe three or four times in this book. It’s hard to see it used unironically/taken seriously and it also felt like it came out of nowhere sometimes. As for slightly triggering words (as up to personal preference), I disliked some words that were used, like ‘flesh” was used maybe three times in one scene. Some more variety would’ve been nice. After the pair end up together near the end of the book, they seemed to end up together in nearly every chapter. Of course, this is just up to personal preference but maybe that’s not for me.
The book also had very fast pacing, so fast that I couldn’t place which moment we were in sometimes. Moments pass by in a sentence, or maybe even hours. It was hard to read romance in third person as well. I’d prefer first person and a dual POV, and slightly slower pacing.
The lines from the book on the back cover is an example of dialogue I didn’t think was seamless. (Persephone simply saying “yes” as hades says he wants to worship her). This is a trend throughout he book. ‘Worship’ is an example of word that was repeated maybe three or four times in this book. It’s hard to see it used unironically/taken seriously and it also felt like it came out of nowhere sometimes. As for slightly triggering words (as up to personal preference), I disliked some words that were used, like ‘flesh” was used maybe three times in one scene. Some more variety would’ve been nice. After the pair end up together near the end of the book, they seemed to end up together in nearly every chapter. Of course, this is just up to personal preference but maybe that’s not for me.
The book also had very fast pacing, so fast that I couldn’t place which moment we were in sometimes. Moments pass by in a sentence, or maybe even hours. It was hard to read romance in third person as well. I’d prefer first person and a dual POV, and slightly slower pacing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit