Scan barcode
rachelmerrie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
“Are you sure it wasn’t an illusion” “I’m POSITIVE” was repeated over and over again 🤦🏻♀️
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexual harassment
melodyramirez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism and Sexual harassment
freckles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual harassment
mayaism_01's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
This leads me to this novel's biggest shortcoming - the characters. I did not care at all for a single character in this story, Scarlett is foolish (and fell in love in 4 days - oy vey) and Donetella is barely given time to be fleshed out (despite being the more interesting sister), the most compelling thing about either of them was their relationship as sisters but even that doesn't seem fully realized. Julian seems like a halfway-decent character because he's been given the most interesting motivations and backstory by far but everything else falls flat. The main villain began as something that could've been interesting only to end up being cartoonish.
The ending has me intrigued though so I'm tempted to try the next one and hope for more improvement on Garber's end with the characters, considering it's seemingly following Donatella I feel like this could get very interesting.
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Blood and Sexual harassment
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.25
There was enough mystery and world building to keep me interested in reading more, though the characters were a bit one dimensional they managed to hold my attention.
Other books I've read with this vibe did not have strong enough characters to keep me engaged and since this was a debut novel it has a lot of promise for what comes next.
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
kcmg710's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I really loved this book so much, the writing as a whole was so beautiful it was like a feast for my eyes and some of the descriptions/metaphors I re-read over and over again because they were so beautiful.
Loved the characters and the development (well Scarlett’s - I’m assuming we will see the others in the rest of the trilogy).
Like in the beginning Scarlett really bugged me
Even though I loved this book and it didn’t really have many faults but it’s just not quite 5*for me and I can’t figure out why ☹️
As you can tell from my rambling I am not a writer but I hope my review was helpful
(I also don’t know if I’ve used the spoiler tags properly so sorry in advance)
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
skeptic_hecate's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
"I should do 'x', but if I do 'x' then I cannot do 'y', but perhaps people will expect me to do 'y' so I shouldn't do 'y', unless when two dimensional and pointless side character hinted that doing 'x' is better..." and so on.
The only character I liked was Donatella, and she was in a few pages of the book. The decisions taken by the characters are very stupid to the point of being random, and the clues are designed to be solved by something that happens to appear out of thin air rather than forshadowed.
The climax is meh, there are no real consequences to the actions of the characters. I had to force myself to finish this book. The outfits and setting are nice.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual harassment
tenshiwing07's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Physical abuse and Blood
Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
eeread247's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Physical abuse and Murder
Minor: Kidnapping and Sexual harassment
helloimjacq's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Abandonment and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcohol