If a book takes me 5 days or more to finish and it's not bc of its length, like being 500+, it sucks, no more to it lol. It got the .25 bc unbelievably I liked the last three chapters writing but this book was never-ending torture. Ultra bad and boring, and not just bc this style and type of book is incompatible with me. The writing for 94% of the book was so sluggish bc VES has a fascination with writing crammed sentences in the name of enigmatic lyricism and it's just not it. The story is not more ethereal or beautiful bc of repetition in this case. Or in VE Schwab's case 😬. There really was a reason I avoided this book bc of the hype and bc I can't stand VE Schwab's writing. If you've ever seen me like a book of two of hers, no you didn't. Also ALL the characters suck. I only tolerated Luc bc he gave off Saint Dane vibes, if you read or have read the Pendragon series you would know what I mean. Also also, please authors make your books shorter. This book wouldn't have benefitted from that though but I would have been done with it much sooner. But overall, books don't need to drag on in the 21st century.