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A review by sa_ra1014
Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy by Amerie
5.0
I enjoyed this book so much! I didn’t expect to fly through it as fast as I did but once I got started on a story, I just couldn’t stop.
Almost every story in here was done so well and honestly, I wouldn’t mind having some of them turned into an entire novel.
That said, there were a few misses for me (but I think the only reason I can even call them ‘misses’ is because the level of storytelling in this anthology was just phenomenal).
The blood of Imuriv and Julian breaks every rule were kinda ‘meh’ for me. They didn’t pack as much as a punch as the other stories and the Blood of Imuriv specifically mostly just went over my head. I didn’t feel connected to the characters or really understand how the world in which they lived in worked. (I feel like they could’ve started off the book with a stronger story - because I’m not sure I’d have continued reading if I’d been judging the anthology based off just that first story)
On the flip side, I absolutely LOVED the Sea Witch, Beautiful Venom, Death Knell (Sera was also a close to the top fave). The characters in each story were so vastly different but all so well crafted and the last page of each tale left me with so many questions and quite a few were directed towards myself which is EXACTLY what I’d want from an anthology that explores the concept of villainy and the line between good and evil.
Beautiful Venom is particular was amazing. It took an age old tale and told it in a way that brought out elements of the story that highlighted flaws in both ancient and modern society. I could seriously rant about this story all day but I’m going to leave it at that. It was just *chefs kiss*.
On to my thoughts on the commentaries provided by the booktubers/book bloggers in the anthology.
Being a lover and long time watcher of book tube myself, I really enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces scattered here and there throughout the book.
But I have to say, at times these additions unfortunately took away from the story for me?
To be fair, this only happened...twice I believe?
Actually scratch that.
The only time it somewhat significantly took away from my enjoyment of one of the stories was in the case of Nicola Yoon’s ‘Sera’ (this may be why it didn’t make my top faves list).
Don’t get me wrong, I think this story was BRILLIANT. It was haunting and morally grey and made me really re-examine my definition for what a villain is which was all great BUT.....
But then, I got to the little addition by Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy and it just totally took away from the depth and power of the story of Sera.
And I understand that the humor is to perhaps lighten the tone of the anthology a little and maybe add some of the bloggers/booktubers personalities to the book but damn, this commentary just took all the seriousness and deep discussion of morality and good and evil that was in the story and just threw it down the drain.
The commentary didn’t add any extra layers to the story, barely explored any themes discussed in it, no analysis, no nothing. It just seemed like a chapter from a cheap, how to book and it was such a weird shift from the seriousness of ‘Sera’ that it just totally threw me off.
And I’m not at all against humor in the commentaries. So many of the other influencers involved in this anthology used humor as a part of their additions to the book but you know what they also did?
Analyzed and added their actual thoughts about the story to their commentaries.
I think the best example of this would be ‘Evil Revealed’ by Regan Perusse (written about Marigold) - there was a lot of silly phrasing and humor in her commentary but she discusses the story and everything it stands for so well in it that you leave her commentary feeling as though you’ve enhanced your understanding of the the story. At least that’s what it felt like to me. It felt like discussing/ analyzing a story with a friend after buddy reading it (granted, I couldn’t answer back but you know what I mean). That was a commentary done right.
You know what else was a commentary done right?
Jesse George’s ‘Dear Death’. This was beautiful and heartbreaking and filled with real, raw emotion that I’m sure a lot of us can relate to. And it intertwined with Victoria Schwab’s story beautifully. I think Jesse’s understanding of ‘Death’ both as a character in the story and as a real and frankly quite scary aspect of our lives really shines through in his addition to the book. The way he’d written it, I could almost see myself having written that letter/whatever you’d call it. It was heart wrenching and stunning.
Okay so that concludes my thoughts on this anthology, I think?
I don’t usually write reviews so my apologies if this seemed a tad scattered.
(Despite some of my issues with little bits of the book, I absolutely loved this anthology - one of the best I’ve ever read. And some of these stories will probably live in my heart for a long long time. Hence 5 stars. I would actually give it a 4.5 but I can’t figure out how to do that on goodreads. I actually don’t know if that’s even possible?)
Almost every story in here was done so well and honestly, I wouldn’t mind having some of them turned into an entire novel.
That said, there were a few misses for me (but I think the only reason I can even call them ‘misses’ is because the level of storytelling in this anthology was just phenomenal).
The blood of Imuriv and Julian breaks every rule were kinda ‘meh’ for me. They didn’t pack as much as a punch as the other stories and the Blood of Imuriv specifically mostly just went over my head. I didn’t feel connected to the characters or really understand how the world in which they lived in worked. (I feel like they could’ve started off the book with a stronger story - because I’m not sure I’d have continued reading if I’d been judging the anthology based off just that first story)
On the flip side, I absolutely LOVED the Sea Witch, Beautiful Venom, Death Knell (Sera was also a close to the top fave). The characters in each story were so vastly different but all so well crafted and the last page of each tale left me with so many questions and quite a few were directed towards myself which is EXACTLY what I’d want from an anthology that explores the concept of villainy and the line between good and evil.
Beautiful Venom is particular was amazing. It took an age old tale and told it in a way that brought out elements of the story that highlighted flaws in both ancient and modern society. I could seriously rant about this story all day but I’m going to leave it at that. It was just *chefs kiss*.
On to my thoughts on the commentaries provided by the booktubers/book bloggers in the anthology.
Being a lover and long time watcher of book tube myself, I really enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces scattered here and there throughout the book.
But I have to say, at times these additions unfortunately took away from the story for me?
To be fair, this only happened...twice I believe?
Actually scratch that.
The only time it somewhat significantly took away from my enjoyment of one of the stories was in the case of Nicola Yoon’s ‘Sera’ (this may be why it didn’t make my top faves list).
Don’t get me wrong, I think this story was BRILLIANT. It was haunting and morally grey and made me really re-examine my definition for what a villain is which was all great BUT.....
But then, I got to the little addition by Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy and it just totally took away from the depth and power of the story of Sera.
And I understand that the humor is to perhaps lighten the tone of the anthology a little and maybe add some of the bloggers/booktubers personalities to the book but damn, this commentary just took all the seriousness and deep discussion of morality and good and evil that was in the story and just threw it down the drain.
The commentary didn’t add any extra layers to the story, barely explored any themes discussed in it, no analysis, no nothing. It just seemed like a chapter from a cheap, how to book and it was such a weird shift from the seriousness of ‘Sera’ that it just totally threw me off.
And I’m not at all against humor in the commentaries. So many of the other influencers involved in this anthology used humor as a part of their additions to the book but you know what they also did?
Analyzed and added their actual thoughts about the story to their commentaries.
I think the best example of this would be ‘Evil Revealed’ by Regan Perusse (written about Marigold) - there was a lot of silly phrasing and humor in her commentary but she discusses the story and everything it stands for so well in it that you leave her commentary feeling as though you’ve enhanced your understanding of the the story. At least that’s what it felt like to me. It felt like discussing/ analyzing a story with a friend after buddy reading it (granted, I couldn’t answer back but you know what I mean). That was a commentary done right.
You know what else was a commentary done right?
Jesse George’s ‘Dear Death’. This was beautiful and heartbreaking and filled with real, raw emotion that I’m sure a lot of us can relate to. And it intertwined with Victoria Schwab’s story beautifully. I think Jesse’s understanding of ‘Death’ both as a character in the story and as a real and frankly quite scary aspect of our lives really shines through in his addition to the book. The way he’d written it, I could almost see myself having written that letter/whatever you’d call it. It was heart wrenching and stunning.
Okay so that concludes my thoughts on this anthology, I think?
I don’t usually write reviews so my apologies if this seemed a tad scattered.
(Despite some of my issues with little bits of the book, I absolutely loved this anthology - one of the best I’ve ever read. And some of these stories will probably live in my heart for a long long time. Hence 5 stars. I would actually give it a 4.5 but I can’t figure out how to do that on goodreads. I actually don’t know if that’s even possible?)