read if you like: ♡ second-chance romance (very unconventional) ♡ rich family history ♡ magical realism ♡ small town mysteries
(discla˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥3.5/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ second-chance romance (very unconventional) ♡ rich family history ♡ magical realism ♡ small town mysteries
(disclaimer: i'm writing this with a fever so if it makes no sense i'll come back and make it make sense in like a week when i'm off my deathbed)
➸adrienne young’s first wander into the magical realism genre spells for forgetting made it abundantly clear that young had stumbled upon a genre which fit her writing like a well-tailored outfit. with the release of the unmaking of june farrow, it’s beyond a shadow of a doubt that this niche concoction of magical realism, mystery and moody small communities is precisely where she excels.
➸ curling up with this novel splayed open in your lap you can feel each stalk of tobacco whisper against your skin, smell the farrow women’s biscuits pressed between the pages and see every beautiful, indelible image young conjures up with intensely musical prose as if each passage were an excerpt from a spell book. as an immersive experience, the languid grace and rich rural atmosphere of the unmaking of june farrow is in a league of its own; it’s a sleepy quiet magic with the exception of the tense murder mystery knifing through the windblown fields of jasper and the stifling shadow cast by june’s downward spiral into madness. my dreamy-eyed attention was utterly arrested.
➸ as the ending loomed however, and stray threads were coaxed together in an attempt at neatly packaging and serving a conclusion - i felt myself being physically pulled away from the story. there was something so contrived in the final act, as if it were a puppet show i had lost myself in and now i could see the strings young was pulling and the magic had withered. perhaps some of this sense of contrivance could be attributed to the romance between june and eamon which never once felt very sincere to my mind - but there is more to it which i still can’t quite put my finger on…
➸ conclusion: certain more fussy takes notwithstanding, young has once again cursed me to be forever enamoured of her jewel-toned words with her twisty, transportive tale, the unmaking of june farrow. perfect for those of us looking for our own doors to the impossible from the comfort of home.
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ friends-to-enemies-to-lovers ♡ cinnamon-roll boyfriend & attack dog girlfriend ♡ perfect for house of˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 3.5/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ friends-to-enemies-to-lovers ♡ cinnamon-roll boyfriend & attack dog girlfriend ♡ perfect for house of hollow lovers ♡ folk horror
➸ 18-year-old spitfire wilhelmina greene’s mom has been missing for a year and everyone in pine point think she’s just skipped town. but wil knows with every fibre of her being that her former best friend elwood clarke’s fervently religious family is behind her mother’s disappearance. even if she can’t prove it yet and the police refuse to take her seriously. while wil is trying to dredge up evidence for her case, the dutiful and shy elwood comes home one night after breaking his parents' rules for the first time in his life to party and later overhears his father’s sinister plans for him - elwood is to be sacrificed for their church, the garden of adam. as he flees, he comes upon wil and the two of them decide to join forces to unearth what’s really happening in pine point.
➸ a spellbinding debut from skyla arndt, together we rot is a meld of paranormal horror and gothic ya romance, bewitching you into the depths of pine point's eerie forest as you turn each page compulsively as if in a fever dream. through her cut-throat prose, arndt transports the reader to a world possessed by a cult and eldritch horrors, its grittiness soothed by sensitive explorations of abuse, sacrifice and family bonds. this story bristled down my spine, drawing goosebumps before driving a knife in with arndt's artfully-rendered characters and their more than unconventional love-story.
➸ that said, i do have some quibbles with this novel, namely with its brevity which meant that the pacing was propulsive and too hurried to allow for the kind of careful attention which was called for here. for this reason, the more interesting elements such as the mythos surrounding the town and the forest were not given the space that was due them to really bloom. it’s this unrealised potential which niggled at me the most when reading - a weakness which is in many senses conceivable and perhaps defensible for a debut work.
➸ conclusion : a haunting and vulnerable love-story barbed with cultism and body horror, together we rot is what happens when you bind romance with a forest straight out of folk horror imaginings. i'll be keeping an eye trained on arndt from here on out with such an auspicious start!
read if you like: ♡ nutcracker retelling ♡ gothic fairy tales ♡ twisted, imperfect characters ♡ perfect for christina henry, tim burton˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ nutcracker retelling ♡ gothic fairy tales ♡ twisted, imperfect characters ♡ perfect for christina henry, tim burton and erin a. craig lovers
➸ cursed from birth by their godfather, the cunning sorceror drosselmeyer, twins clara and natasha have been leading entirely different lives. clara, who was blessed with light, has floated through life with an ease only the beautiful can ever know while plain natasha, the dark twin, has been relegated to the shadow cast by her sister. all this changes when on christmas eve a nutcracker gifted to them by drosselmeyer whips the two of them away to the kingdom of sweets. a sugar-frosted land where not even all the sugar in the world can conceal its terrible air of decay.
➸the kingdom of sweets is not nearly as sweet as its title would have you believe. rather, erika johansen’s nutcracker retelling echoes all the pretty frosted sugar plum trappings of the holiday classic and recasts them for a macabre, gothic fairy tale riddled with twisted, viciously imperfect characters. it is a reckoning between two sisters whose relationship pulses with the aching wounds of jealousy, betrayal, love, hate and vengeance. the complexity and moral failings of natasha and clara render them no damsels or fairytale heroines. they are women working within the stifling confines of what they’ve been born into, trying to resist desires which hang like forbidden fruit in their line of sight.
➸ conclusion : a dark perversion of a beloved childhood story, johansen’s hauntingly lyrical prose promises that just as too much sugar decays your teeth, so too do long-held dreams, once realised, turn to rot and disappointment. this fairytale is enchantingly bitter, tangy and grim and i’m still finding my feet after being feverishly swept away in its wintery landscape.
read if you like: ♡ creepy-pasta ♡ abstract, existentialist horror
➸ reading kiersten white’s new horror novel mister magic feels so ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ creepy-pasta ♡ abstract, existentialist horror
➸ reading kiersten white’s new horror novel mister magic feels so jarringly anachronistic - as if you are once again bleary-eyed in the dead of night, scrolling through creepy-pasta and trying not to stare too hard at the shadows around you which may or may not be resolving into monstrous forms. it’s a nostalgic throwback to when the creepier corners of the internet crawled into the light with those chain-emails promising your violent evisceration if you didn’t forward them onto x amount of people. mister magic is dizzyingly psychedelic and the plot is a two-way mirror designed to throw you off the scent of what’s really going on. your eyes will glance off the true face of the story until the final hour in a way which is not unlike the nature of childhood memory and nostalgia. in here, nostalgia and memory itself are nothing more than a pernicious sleight of hand.
➸ when production abruptly stopped on kids’ tv programme mister magic and everything about it was wiped from existence, its cult-like followers were bereft. what's perhaps even more unsettling is how no one remembers the show the same or with much detail - and that’s only if they somehow happen to remember it at all. now, 30 years later, its child stars are brought back together for a reunion podcast where all is not what it seems.
➸ i’ve always been of the opinion that, in many cases, for a writer - or really any artist - their most personal work is their magnum opus. white’s latest work follows this precedent. an examination of religious trauma and cult communities, it is not a condemnation of mormonism for those who are aware of white's religious history and therefore leery of any religion shaming. this novel is an exercise in catharsis and it yields an intimate glimpse at white’s own experience as a child growing up beneath the stifling fist of indoctrination. her suitability for telling this particular story is beyond dispute.
➸white ingeniously plays up her conjuration of old-school internet by strewing transcripts from cultish fan forums. these embattled online conspiracy theorists attempt to cling onto their memories of mister magic whilst working around a bizarre mandela effect which somehow made it possible for that once cult-classic show to have been reduced to a slippery-eel of a memory. this ambiguity is extended to the events of the novel itself, needling you with a sense of skin-crawling wrongness and snarling your comprehension of whatever is on the page.
➸ personally, my only serious issue with how this novel unfolded lies in the dialogue. it rings far too juvenile and ya for what is purportedly a group of people pushing 40. you can technically defend this point by saying it’s very much in-line with the characters’ stunted emotional growth but i’d be reluctant to concur with that. ultimately, it almost came off a little as if they were mouthpieces for teenagers. despite this, the rest of the novel is brilliant enough to dazzle you away from dwelling on that shortcoming for very long.
➸ conclusion : prepare to be bug-eyed with mister magic in a remarkable and trippy pop-culture merry-go-round which refuses to let you off this thrilling ride or give you a chance to figure out what’s going on until it suits white in her author’s notes.
read if you like: ♡ footnotes & charts dotted throughout ♡ family drama ♡ biracial rep (korean-american) ♡ disability rep (autism & a˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ footnotes & charts dotted throughout ♡ family drama ♡ biracial rep (korean-american) ♡ disability rep (autism & angelman syndrome)
➸ if you had told me happiness falls was a work of non-fiction i would have readily believed you. a sublimely introspective and highly academic appropriation of the mystery thriller genre, angie kim does more than just set your blood pumping with a missing person story. here, kim’s inquiries into a meld of thought-provoking subjects ripple through the carefully plotted mystery.
➸ when acerbic and analytically-minded mia notices that her father, adam parson, has failed to return with her younger brother eugene from their walk, mia barely bats an eye and assumes there’s some explanation for it. for eugene is non-verbal with a dual diagnosis of autism and a rare genetic disorder, angelman syndrome, so there’s no one to ring the alarm bells. even if he does seem more harried than usual and there are crescents of blood beneath his fingernails... when it becomes apparent that something terribly wrong has taken place - the clock has already begun ticking. with eugene the only witness and unable to provide any answers, suspicion may fall on him so it’s up to mia and the rest of her biracial korean-american family to protect him and find their missing father. as they comb through the secrets adam left in his wake, they might even find a way to finally communicate with eugene.
➸ to engage with this novel solely as a mystery thriller is to qualify its nuance, for it is flush with concerns pertaining to philosophy (adam’s studies looking into the “happiness quotient”), neurodiversity, race and linguistics - even going so far as to arch a brow in challenge to the metrics we use to gauge intelligence. bear in mind that in spite of these deeply curious examinations (supplemented by a surfeit of mia’s footnotes), the more gut-knotting depiction of family dynamics effortlessly saves the narrative from being too cerebral and flat in its delivery. to really foster this emotional impact, kim has the charmingly loquatious mia treat the novel as if it were a confessional of sorts for her, therefore making it all the more impossible not to be drawn to her and her tight-knit family whose support of eugene is done with such grace that it inspired the utmost admiration in me. and if a few tears were shed along the way i doubt anyone could hold me liable for them after reading this.
➸ incidentally, the mystery itself, whilst propulsive and a constant source of intrigue, at times looks a little anaemic in comparison. that’s not to say that there is any absence of thrill, for any family drama is inherently the literary equivalent of raking claws along a blackboard. after all, there is little else as discordant as suspecting that those who share your own blood may be capable of doing you mortal harm. in a high-stakes environment, eugene’s linguistic alienation from others is brought to the fore, urging us to recalibrate how we accomodate others in his shoes.
➸ conclusion : diving beneath the shallower waters of a classic missing person case, happiness falls ambitiously reaches out to sift through the sea-floor and unearth what’s beneath in these new depths - to undeniable success.
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ horror movies ♡ cinema history ♡ occultism ♡ messy bisexuals
➸ a hair-raising and hypnotic evocation of ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ horror movies ♡ cinema history ♡ occultism ♡ messy bisexuals
➸ a hair-raising and hypnotic evocation of the silver screen, silver nitrate tumbles down a rabbit hole of cinema history, mexican horror and nazi occultism to deliver a mesmeric prayer at the altar of moviemaking. this novel noir is a love-letter to cinemaphiles, movie buffs and devotees of classic horror. silvia moreno-garcia gloriously transcends the written word with a slowly creeping story which incarnates all the immersive magic of a film.
➸silver nitrate records the hardships of two flailing childhood friends - washed up, has-been actor tristán abascal, and gifted but overlooked part-time audio engineer, montserrat curiel. each of them beset with their own plights and struggling to suture the wounds of their lives, they happen upon a stroke of good fortune in the form of tristan’s new neighbour, legendary filmmaker abel urueta. he promises to completely overhaul their sorry lives so long as they help him shoot the remaining scenes of an unfinished film of his which he’s adamant has been cursed. little do they know, abel is extending them not so much a helping hand but rather a monkey’s paw as the two of them become embroiled within a world where silver nitrate stock is a tool for magic and the dark arts roam the streets.
➸ further review incoming as i just want to catch my breath after being so completely and viscerally disturbed beyond measure.
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ very loose arthurian inspiration ♡ queer, medieval & knightly escapades ♡ lgbtqia+ rep
➸ you will never ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ very loose arthurian inspiration ♡ queer, medieval & knightly escapades ♡ lgbtqia+ rep
➸ you will never meet a more lovable pair of bickering beards than art and gwen. a ruthlessly hilarious and buoying coming of age rom-com, gwen & art are not in love grapples with themes of friendship, sexuality and self-acceptance in the face of external expectations - all cast in the melodrama of teenage angst.
➸ it would be a sisyphean task to try to find two individuals who get along more poorly than the ferocious princess of england, gwen, and the dissipated nobleman’s son/descendent of the fabled king arthur, art. and yet in a stroke of extraordinarily ill-luck, they have been shackled to an engagement between them since birth. locked in a frosty battle of wills with no detente in their foreseeable future, things come to a boil when they’re forced to spend time together for an entire summer at camelot until the day the wedding bells ring for them. not even a day has passed when art is caught in flagrante with another boy by gwen and it dawns on them that they might have more in common than they would like to believe.
➸ as a character-driven novel, it should come as no surprise that, sweepingly, every character figuring in it is unfailingly and ineffably worthy of adoration. not only that, but they are each of them so unlike one another that crouch virtually caters to every palate. don’t like abrasive and dagger-tongued gwen whose self-imposed social isolation forms the plate of her armour? well then why don’t you try your luck with the callous and rakish art, whose barbs and debauchery are no more than a front for a vulnerable young man compelled to hide the truth of his sexuality and thereby hide his all? still no? not to worry, there’s still gwen’s reticent and sweet brother, gabriel, mournfully peering out from the bars of his cage as future king. and if none of the above have secured your attention there is always the good-humored sidney pumping out jokes which will have you bent double ten ways from sunday. or the admirably brave and self-possessed bridget, or, failing all else - the lovely agnes. with a cast like this one, suffused with the chemistry of popping candy, lively and well-timed verbal jousting is therefore a foregone conclusion.
➸crouch’s debut ya novel is absolutely overflowing with sugar-spun prose and a thoughtful mix of era-appropriate lexicon as well as more facetious modern-day idiom. this is not a historical fiction work nor a retelling and in skirting the limitations of such, crouch is given more room to play around with the story and keep it all fairly light-hearted/unpretentious. that is, until we enter the last third of the novel wherein the tone assumes a darker pitch. this variation of the novel’s character stumbled on so suddenly i experienced a tremendous degree of whip-lash and not for the better. by the end however, i came to a slightly begrudged acceptance of this new direction for the plot and the ending was beautiful albeit tempered with bittersweetness.
➸ conclusion : a divinely soft and alternately heart-wrenching tale of awkwardly coming into one’s own, i will cherish gwen & art are not in love with every particle of my being.
read if you like: ♡ multiple pov ♡ dual timeline ♡ southern gothic thriller laden with rich people drama
➸ blisteringly quick, the hei˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ multiple pov ♡ dual timeline ♡ southern gothic thriller laden with rich people drama
➸ blisteringly quick, the heiress is a tantalising family drama, veined with mysteries, betrayals and pliable truths. periodically framed with newspaper clippings, correspondences, emails and the like, rachel hawkins invites us to do a little sleuthing of our own for a more heightened engagement with the novel.
➸ it’s been years since prodigal son and heir to the exorbitant mctavish family wealth, camden mctavish, cut ties with the rest of the mctavishes and turned away from his inheritance. an inheritance left to him by the matriarch and his adopted mother ruby mctavish whose name was once, and still is, on everyone’s lips in north carolina. so when camden is contacted by his estranged cousin following camden’s uncle’s death, requesting his return and offering him an olive branch - he and his wife jules resolve to return to his childhood estate, ashby manor. finally reunited with his family, secrets which refuse to remain in the deceased matriarch’s grave will bring about a day of reckoning for every last mctavish.
➸ by punctuating the present with these references to the past, wherein each event is related through the lens of whomever is writing it, hawkins viciously wrong-foots the reader every step of the way. therein also lies the heiress’ greatest achievement as a thriller as we are offered this unprecedentedly intimate, voyeuristic look into this rich family’s dirty laundry. besides shards of the pasts glinting through the present storyline, povs flit between the deceased and infamous, ruby, the rags-to-riches tale that is the adopted camden and his loving wife jules - all these dizzying diversions further enshrouding us in confusion as we strain to navigate this cobweb of stories. happily, my attempts to force my way out of the plot’s labyrinthine architecture and predict the ending proved embarrassingly fruitless and i only expelled my held breath when all was said and done.
➸ conclusion : secrets slink through every page of the heiress in a binge-worthy and unputdownable puzzle, which, if solved, will open doors to this family’s sinister skeletons.
read if you like: ♡ multiple povs ♡ subplots upon subplots ♡ emotional thrillers
➸ with a name like just another missing person, you l˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ multiple povs ♡ subplots upon subplots ♡ emotional thrillers
➸ with a name like just another missing person, you likewise anticipate just another mystery novel - gillian mcallister is here to break the mould once again with this irresistible emotional thriller. much more than an investigation into a missing person case, this is an audacious inquisition of motherhood and the lengths to which a mother may go in the hour of her child’s need.
➸ as 22 year old olivia is captured on cctv footage inexplicably vanishing into thin air, detective julia day is called upon to helm the investigation. with years of experience under her belt and a peerless work ethic, she’s more than equipped for the task. that is, until a secret julia’s been harbouring of her own is suddenly in danger of being revealed and the case gets all too personal for her and those she’s protecting.
➸ it is dark, morally compromising thrillers like these which place the nature of motherhood in sharp display and in turn, prompt the question of what-would-you-do. we read julia’s morally abject actions with a mixture of dread, empathy and a sort of fierce condescension at times. for we would never acquit ourselves in such an unscrupulous fashion… would we? and yet, in having julia be otherwise such an upstanding, morally inflexible and by the book character, it does compel a re-examination of ourselves. it is in some self-contained way a defensible path which julia embarks upon - an arguably moral one - for her motivation is simply to protect her daughter, genevieve, and sacrifices, even those of our our own ethics, are an expedient of motherhood. flecked with these razor-edged examinations of goodness and rightness, every minute in which the case remains unsolved is weighted down with a sense of foreboding for julia’s soul.
➸ a slow-burn whydunnit potholed with a plethora of misdirections and red-herrings which will cleverly trip the reader up, the final reveal swept the rug out from beneath me. leading us down blind-alley turns in a plot plagued by outwardly disparate puzzle pieces which obstinately rebuff any attempts to solve them, mcallister succeeds in pulling a fast one on seasoned mystery enthusiasts with a jaw-dropping conclusion.
➸ conclusion : as a mother goes against the grain to save the future of her child every trickle of sand slipping down the hourglass counts in the one-of-a-kind just another missing person - and the inevitable downfall yanks us in as collateral.
➸ racked with nail-biting twists, hemlock island is a claustrophobic thriller scored by scenes ripped straight out of a nightmare.˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 2/5 stars
➸ racked with nail-biting twists, hemlock island is a claustrophobic thriller scored by scenes ripped straight out of a nightmare.
➸ following a divorce from her now ex-husband, laney kilpatrick has been begrudgingly renting out her vacation home on hemlock island now that owning said island has become financially untenable on her own. as a result, laney finds herself at the mercy of countless panic attacks as she struggles to deal with this decision of allowing perfect strangers into her most jealously treasured home. not only that, but laney’s still reeling from the death of her sister which brought her teenaged niece to her door and under her care. much to her horror, she's also been having to field complaints from renters who report all manner of horrifying and almost ritualistic tableaus on the island. when laney receives a call from horror-stricken renters who’ve run for the hills after making a gruesome discovery in one of the guest rooms - she decides to head down there herself and investigate. with her niece insisting on sticking at her side, the two of them bump into some strained former friends and laney’s ex-husband kit. veiled in tension and secrets of their own, their motley crew arrive at the isolated island and things quickly take a dark turn from there.
➸ the plot itself is fairly simple - disregarding the many plot twists (the plausibility of which are another issue unto themselves). it’s an eerie atmospheric blend of horror and mystery which draws heavily on the innate ambience of an isolated island and occultist imagery. the relationships are underlined with furtive tension and for the most part appear to be pulled so taut they’re on the precipice of snapping. i'd even go so far as to posit that this fraught tenor percolating through these interpersonal connections contributes more substantively towards the ‘thrill’ of the novel. for while the atmosphere is effectively constructed by way of the ostensibly haunted island setting, there is nothing new or exciting in its presentation. having been inoculated by now to similar storylines, none of this held much interest to me and my attention zeroed in more so on the character relations.
➸ in saying this, however, the characters themselves - beyond their veneers of secrecy and the more titillating plot twists - offered little in the way of depth. their secretive behaviour provided a sort of cosmetic interest to them, which, when the makeup remover of the plot barrelled onwards, revealed them to be rather shallow iterations of typical mystery characters. i’d level this accusation most particularly in laney’s direction as the flighty, anxious novelist who specialises in mystery herself. not only does her vocation do her a disservice in making her seem kind of derivative on the whole, but it also lends her an air of stupidity. for someone who is allegedly well-informed within the realm of what not to do when one finds oneself in the midst of a murder mystery, she seems to pride herself on doing just that. as an aside, i’d also argue against labelling this an adult work as the dialogue and the surface level scope is far more befitting of ya.
➸ conclusion : taking into account that this is kelley armstrong’s first foray into horror, hemlock island succeeds in what it is - a gripping and compacted unraveling of tightly-spun secrets.
♡ alternative history ♡ forced proximity ♡ political intrigue ♡ biracial rep ♡ bloodthank you netgalley for the arc !
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars
read if you like:
♡ alternative history ♡ forced proximity ♡ political intrigue ♡ biracial rep ♡ bloodthirsty gf & her cinnamon-roll bf
⁀➷ performing her own feat of alchemy, kylie lee baker transforms tang dynasty history as we know it with the scarlet alchemist, reimagining the world as if chinese alchemists had succeeded in their toils to create an elixir of immortality. bladed with cut-throat political intrigue, the requisite alchemy, necromancy and a cast of morally grey characters - this fantasy infused alternative history will sink its claws into your bookish psyche.
⁀➷ zilan blows so many of her fellow fantasy heroines out of the water with her ruthlessness and consummate pragmatism - a trait of hers, which, when it rears its head, means no holds barred on her part. this unscrupulousness then fringed with the more sanded-down, likeable edges of her - evinced predominantly when in proximity to her family - makes zilan an inimitable main character cut from a multifaceted gem. the filigreed detail to her is beyond what one would associate with ya fantasy. bearing in mind the force of her character, i’d wager there is little in the way of surprise that the other members of the cast are then effectively overshadowed by her presence. this is never more unequivocal than with her more diffident love interest, li hong, who, although personable and inspiring an uncomplicated affection in me, offered little else besides that.
⁀➷ the pacing is alacritous - there is never a dull moment with seamless transitions from the onset. i had the wind knocked out of me in certain scenes utterly fraught with danger, all but spasming with anxiety for the hapless zilan. with every page i was turning a blind-corner in breathless anticipation. the plot twists forevermore seem to be courting death and no one is safe for long in this viscerally painted, gore-drenched world of monsters plucked from any reader’s nightmare. suffice to say, that the villain succeeds still in inducing more goose-bumps in view of such horrors is ample proof of baker’s artistry. more impressive however, is the cleverly-hewn magic system - often carried out by means of gemstones - which we are introduced to through an ideal blend of telling and showing.
➸ conclusion : a viciously unique transmutation of history, the scarlet alchemist promises the perfect literary sojourn in a world of violence and decadent alchemy - hitching your breath until the end tableau....more
read if you like: ♡ slow-burn sapphic enemies to lovers romance ♡ grumpy x sunshine ♡ dark acadethank you netgalley for the arc !
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 3/5 stars ✩࿐
read if you like: ♡ slow-burn sapphic enemies to lovers romance ♡ grumpy x sunshine ♡ dark academia ♡ dual pov ♡ dr. jekyll and mr. hyde retelling ♡ feminine rage
⁀➷ a knife-sharp sapphic dr. jekyll and mr. hyde retelling, the society for soulless girls worries at the wound of feminine trauma and unleashes its rage with blood dripping from every page. as laura steven wittily divines in the dedication, this one is “for the girls who were born angry”.
⁀➷ after a string of four unsolved murders in its north tower resulted in the closure of illustrious carvell college of arts - now, ten years later, the doors are once again open for enrolment. affable lottie with her field-hockey scholarship and sharp-edged alice are thrust together as roommates, with neither of them too happy with this arrangement. with both of them holding their cards close to their chest as to why they’ve come to carvell, the ever-widening distance between the two of them is all but unbridgeable. when the cycle of deaths is once again set into motion, alice and lottie will have to set aside their differences before it’s too late.
⁀➷ with the extreme marketability for feminine rage in media right now this book is more than timely. that, and how perfectly its contents slot it into the dark academia sub-genre raises flags as to why it’s not a huge hit as of yet. indeed, despite a raft of positive reviews and a warm enough reception, the response seems a little underwhelming, all told. whilst i may have my own misgivings regarding the slightly unmoored plot, the society for soulless girls is well and truly a strong contribution to the dark academia body of work. the nods to the secret history were tasteful without being derivative and the transfiguration of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde was inspired rather than parroted. the writing itself was clean and tidy, albeit struck occasionally by a few instances of overwrought mfa-adulterated prose. i found myself utterly caught up in futile attempts to uncover the secrets infused within the walls of carvell more than once to no effect - to my surprise. i enjoy a good plot twist as much as the next person, if not more. safe to say i was caught off guard more than once with the sinister mysteries scoring every page and with all those character blackouts.
⁀➷ in having alice and lottie be essentially two sides of the same coin, the characterization made manifest the different symptoms of feminine rage. their extreme dissimilarity and the head-butting it then necessitated contributed significantly towards the tension thrumming throughout the plot. not to mention that this core struggle then inevitably compensated for when scenes seemed to be taking on a desultory pace and really picked up the slack. a testament to steven’s writing, the dual pov seamlessly circumvented the all too common pitfall of the characters' voices ever bleeding into one another. alice with her cigarette pants, litanies of famous philosophers she’d name-drop apropos of nothing and her air of affected meanness that was fooling no one, could not have been further from her elle woods coded, effervescent counterpart, the indomitably cheerful lottie. if you haven’t gathered from my slightly derisive description, i found alice to be grating a little too frequently for my taste and therefore really strained to care much for the romance between herself and lottie - much as i felt an affinity for the latter.
➸ conclusion : a meandering but otherwise pulsing with sinister fun read, the society for soulless girls is a grimoire in female anger....more
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ lies upon lies upon lies ♡ jewish rep ♡ edgar allen poe
⁀➷ dear reathank you netgalley for the arc !
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 3/5 stars ✩࿐
read if you like: ♡ dual pov ♡ lies upon lies upon lies ♡ jewish rep ♡ edgar allen poe
⁀➷ dear reader, you’re cordially invited to a bloody and gothic masquerade, seething with intrigue, skin-crawling discoveries and leering, shadowy twists and turns. location: a multitude of dreams. length: 384 pages
⁀➷princess imogen of goslind kingdom has been dancing in one endless masquerade ball since coming to eldridge hall. for should the dance end and her mask fall, her doom will be writ in stone. the real princess imogen died four years ago of mori roja, the same plague which ravaged and pillaged the kingdom. only a privileged few in her midst know that beneath the mask is jewish commoner seraphina blum. but within the shadowy walls of the palace she is by no means the only dancer in this game of pretend. with a mad king who has locked them all up in the palace and makes impossible demands of them, everyone has been bullied into two-stepping around this ballroom of charade. now that the food supplies are petering out, it’s looking like the masquerading is about to forcefully come to a long-overdue end. meanwhile, elsewhere in goslind, plague survivor nicodemus mott resides in crane manor thanks to the benevolence of lord crane, who granted tenancy to nico and other immunes. with the plague ostensibly having burned itself out, nico’s been tasked by the same man who saved him to get the lay of the land, as well as scour for survivors. when he ends up at eldridge hall, nico and seraphina’s paths and their manifold lies weave together.
⁀➷ as a retelling of edgar allan poe’s the masque of the red death, a multitude of dreams already has a weighty mantle to bear. it’s no easy feat to honour such eerily lush material and yet, with the conceit of a masquerade, unsettling imagery dripping with blood and gothic notes ringing in the mysterious passages of eldridge hall - rutherford has exceptionally paid her due to the original over and over. thumbing through each page you’ll feel the horrors within breathing down your neck and continuing down the shadowy path of the story to see where it leads to will seem almost involuntary.
⁀➷ unfortunately, here comes the universally dreaded caveat of but… in determining to embrace an element of historical fiction by virtue of having jews represented and in turn scapegoated by the people of goslind for the plague outbreak, the story takes on an even heavier load (before anyone attacks me for this - i’m jewish myself…). by itself this was not an unwise authorial choice and very well could have even enriched what is otherwise a story more concerned with thrill than perhaps some sort of moral discourse. it’s only when you juxtapose it with the more gauche, over the top supernatural ingredients going into the mixing bowl that you’re then left with everything feeling a bit cheapened all around. the load carried on this plot’s shoulders is far too cumbersome and in effect, the masterful execution of the gothic genre is rendered a little ungainly.
⁀➷ i found nico as a character to be a little one-note although sweet in his bashfulness. his chivalric tendencies were endearing if not a bit trite at times. seraphina i wanted desperately to like what with her eschewing her opulent room in favour of a drafty abandoned tower - i mean, the girl has principles!! but it was not to be for us. the humbleness swiftly turned into a bit of a martyred routine and her insistence on being not like other girls was pretty on the nose. that said, in the company of one another i did find them both to be far more enjoyable as the youthfulness of their romance warmed the cockles of my heart.
⁀➷ conclusion : as a gothic fairytale, a multitude of dreams will seize your attention and hold it captive till the end with its shadowy vaults of secrecy. disregarding my sentiments towards the jewish subplot, the twisting, foreboding sentences and pages cobwebbed with lies will leave you breathless until the final act....more
read if you like: ♡ enemies to lovers ♡ grumpy x sunshine ♡ bridgerton, regency inspired setting ♡ fthank you netgalley for the arc !
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 5/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ enemies to lovers ♡ grumpy x sunshine ♡ bridgerton, regency inspired setting ♡ forbidden love ♡ an anonymous scandal sheet à la lady whistledown & gossip girl
➸ swathed in sparkling magic, stitched with lulling prose and a darling romance unspooling through its filaments, allison saft has outdone herself with the very fabric of a fragile enchantment, so nimbly tailored to a regency inspired setting. for any bridgerton lovers who have a thirst for something in that vein, look no further and slake yourselves here.
➸ in a stroke of good fortune and thanks to her growing prestige as a magical dressmaker, niamh ó conchobhair has been summoned to the neighbouring kingdom avaland’s court to assemble a wardrobe for a royal wedding. needing no encouragement whatsoever, niamh summarily sets off to better the lives of her loved ones - for soon she will no longer be in a position to do so. the same magic coursing through her veins with which she creates these impossible articles of clothing is slowly eating away at her life-force and her time is limited. now, as she arrives on the shores of avaland, it’s become more than clear to her that for all her imaginings, it is not the romantic oasis she had in mind. she’s even disenchanted with the man of the hour himself, the groom and second prince kit carmine, who regards her as disdainfully as he does the impending wedding. as the two of them chafe against one another only to then draw together against all odds - it's only a matter of time before they start drawing the notice of those around them.
➸ sensitive, inexhaustibly sweet niamh feels beholden to her family who suffered through a genocide and then rose up in rebellion to secure a future for posterity. in the face of such wholesale trauma, she feels that her own strife is a mere trifle, thus enduring everything with a grateful, indebted smile on her face. and yet, in spite of niamh’s even-temperedness, the truculent kit brings out a feistier side to her as the two of them exchange words as heated as a house-fire. little wonder then, that beneath it all the two of them do get on like a house on fire. as a fierce romantic, niamh’s gaze affords us a cozy prospect of the story to look out upon. her mind was such an uplifting place to take up residence in.
➸ his character piercingly distilled in a description by sinclair quite early on, kit has been helming a campaign against himself and his own best interests for so long that those around him are casualties in the fog of war. despite his best efforts to lead niamh into believing he cares not a whit for her, his actions, bristling with affection for her, betray him relentlessly - to my great enjoyment. another detail in kit’s composition of note was his shorter stature and spare frame; i’m all for diversity and range in characters so this was a welcome addition!!! he’s like a chocolate cookie posturing as a raisin cookie.
➸ even though i’ve gone on and discussed kit and niamh ad nauseam - it’s not in any way a reflection of my being unenthused with any other facet of the story. on the contrary, it’s all so wonderful i’d probably drone on at such great length it would be suspect and someone might then fall under the misapprehension that i’ve been paid for this. no, the plot itself is equally as captivating as the characters inlaid within it, the pacing accommodates everything perfectly and the writing is finely tuned to the era.
➸ conclusion : awash with lingering hands, tender looks and charming banter laced with dandelion-seed soft affection, a fragile enchantment leaves me sighing wistfully until its release date when i’ll doubtless be reading it again....more
read if you like: ♡ gender-bent zorro retelling ♡ badass vigilante sorceress ♡ backdrop of 155thank you netgalley for the arc !
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 2.5/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚
read if you like: ♡ gender-bent zorro retelling ♡ badass vigilante sorceress ♡ backdrop of 1550’s mexico ♡ shape-shifting ♡ mesoamerican mythology
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ sun of blood and ruin is a sumptuous feast of mesoamercian mythology, set against a backdrop of mexico two decades post-spanish conquest and shot through with sorcery, political intrigue and romance. a debut ambitious in its compass, mariely lares is indubitably working within her wheelhouse with this historical fiction fantasy novel.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ tyranny rules with an iron fist in sixteenth-century new spain as indigenous religion is brutally overturned, a rich mythology dwindles into obscurity, and the people are accused of witchcraft without due process - a condemnation of death in all but name. into the fray enter masked vigilante sorceress pantera, who wields the outlawed sorcery tonalli and her sword in an act of defiance and to protect the innocents persecuted indomitably by the spanish powers that be. as for who is behind that mask? it is none other than the lady leonora de las casas tlazohtzin, the most unlikely suspect in the eyes of the world - a lady who can hardly countenance merely leaving the palace and who has only just entered into an engagement with the recently widowed heir to the spanish throne prince felipe. with a prophecy foretelling boundless destruction and a cruel curse of her own - pronounced during her baptism - to die young in a battle all cresting overhead, leonora will be swept away in the undertow no matter what. to her, this matters not. she will fight to the bitter end, even if that spells an untimely grave for herself.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ for all my commendations on the beauty of this book, wherein we traverse this tapestry of rich mesoamerican culture, history and myth, the likes of which fantasy has rarely, if ever, had within its purview - this failed to measure up to my expectations. the suspense, the characters, the pacing even, were all very tepid once you look past the brilliance of the aforementioned. in vain i struggled to connect to leonora who whilst being interesting in that she’s a gender-bent zorro, failed to appeal to me and her character, though a tried and true archetype of fantasy heroine - is just that. her thorny, lip-curl comments and badass sorcery/weapon toting are all deployed in the service of dissembling the fact that there’s nothing much to her. it’s a process not unlike covering a gushing mortal wound with a tiny hello kitty plaster. incidentally, inés bore more intrigue about her and left me with a deep appreciation for her character.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion: on a more positive note, lares’s admirably lush writing still succeeds in breathing life into such a gorgeous mythology and sun of blood and ruin absolutely does it justice. it’s only when you attempt to peel back this surface beauty that you recognize there is a hollowness in its construction, in a manner of speaking. nonetheless, i think it’s so vital and historic that writers such as lares are expanding the range of cultural influences within the realm of fantasy....more
read if you like: ♡ fairies and other magical creatures ♡ grumpy x sunshine (but she’s the grump & he’s the blonde beam of sunlight˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 5/5 stars
read if you like: ♡ fairies and other magical creatures ♡ grumpy x sunshine (but she’s the grump & he’s the blonde beam of sunlight) ♡ cozy fantasy ♡ slow burn ♡ epistolary (written in journal entries) ♡ howl & sophie coded
➸ deliciously whimsical and playful, heather fawcett has struck gold once more with her sequel, emily wilde’s map of the otherlands.
➸ emily wilde, prodigious professor of faeries along with her encyclopaedia brimming with its knowledge of faerie folklore and research are back. once again, she and her far more charming, if insouciant, fellow scholar wendell bambleby are united on an adventure. only this time they’re searching for a door back to his faerie realm, whence he was exiled. there’s a new cast which poor antisocial emily must begrudgingly navigate and more mysteries to solve, not the least of which are that of her feelings for wendell.
➸ ordinarily, it’s a rather rare author who pulls off a sequel on par with their first book in a series, especially when said first book is such a literary pearl. fawcett has done just that and with verve. reading the gorgeous, delicately selected words - an art unto themselves mind you - is akin to drinking a glass of bubbly (non-alcoholic will do too if you’d rather do without) and being absolutely buoyed up in this effervescent world. there is something so innately joyful in fawcett’s narrative voice which could perhaps be chalked up to her body of work having previously focused on middle grade/children’s works. there is crack in these books, which frankly, i’m not even sure i’m referring to the proverbial sort at this juncture. it’s everything studio ghibli and folk of the magic faraway tree brand of escapism. fawcett’s conception of fairies and other magical creatures continues to impress upon me a feeling of once again reading holly black’s imagined fairfolk, in that there is beauty and also a profound rich sort of ugliness and simmering if not untethered violence in many of these creatures.
➸ there was no divorcing from character, wendell and emily kept their hilariously singular dispositions here too. emily was just as resourceful and curmudgeonly as ever and wendell just as gloriously vainglorious as ever. the academic journal format continues to do wonders for this book and for the reader (as well as for the tremendously amused wendell).
➸ whilst there is finally more delving into and development of the romance between emily and wendell, it remains a more bashful slow-burn with a great deal else occurring at once. as far as i’m concerned this was the most logical outcome considering the first book, despite being furnished with their romance, does not align the whole story around it; rather it is simply one of many faces to this series. an overindulgence of their chemistry would have mauled this into a fanfiction. as always, their interactions and nature as being all but diametrical opposites had me kicking my feet like a schoolgirl and giggling from the hilarity.
➸ conclusion : as someone who is most adamantly not a cozy fantasy fan and a zealous worshipper of this series, i beseech you to come be transported in emily wilde’s map of the otherlands, regardless of whether or not you have a partiality for the genre. my hunger for fawcett’s prose in the interim will be insatiable again as i wait, thoroughly impatiently, for the next emily wilde’s instalment as it’s looking like we will be provided with further nourishment.
read if you like: ♡ witchcraft ♡ lush island atmosphere ♡ longing & angst ♡ forbidden love
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷thank you netgalley for the arc !
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 3/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚
read if you like: ♡ witchcraft ♡ lush island atmosphere ♡ longing & angst ♡ forbidden love
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ cascading with witchery and breathtakingly atmospheric, bring me your midnight is a lyrical fairytale of duty - to ones self and those we love.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ to tana fairchild, her future is not her own. she is the governor’s son landon’s intended, a loveless engagement founded for the purpose of an alliance the likes of which the mainlanders and witches such as tana herself, who populate the island she calls home, have never before seen. for her fellow witches, this is a great stride towards a more peaceable existence between the two peoples as the mainlanders have never quite ceased in their fear and subsequent hostility towards them. in order to pacify the mainlanders further, in a midnight rite, the witches have been expelling most of their magic. when tana thinks she’s spotted a flower which is deadly to her kind, she rushes off to investigate only to collide with the mysterious and scowling wolfe hawthorne. detained by him she then misses the ritual and must find a way to release her power before it kills her. forced to turn to wolfe, who alleges himself to be from a coven of black magic wielders - long believed to have died out - tana will soon find herself in dangerous waters, questioning the nature of her magic, her duty and everything she knows…
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ as many other reviewers have already drawn attention to, the gorgeous and wild atmosphere evoked within every page is truly a testament to rachel griffin’s prowess as a writer. the premise itself is rather unadorned in its pretty simplicity, pivoting around a sweet if perhaps a little puerile at times romance, tana’s dragging her heels over her future as she is torn between personal desire and a fulfilment of duty, and darker, more ambitious/higher-hanging fruit themes of “othering” and xenophobia.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ i admire how griffin conveys the strength of sensitivity in a ya literary world where most fmc are all grr rawr and perpetually cool-girl sneering whereas we have tana who is both intrepid and a people-pleaser. these conflicting temperaments of hers create most of the intrigue and tension as the storyline moves forward. it’s her internal turmoil, mirrored often in the churning sea imagery and wildness of the island, which i hold in high esteem. apart from the use of the environment as conceit for introspection, there is alas, a marked lack in tension and intrigue. yes, there absolutely are complications and high-stake scenes, however there is a considerable flatness in tana’s voice which falls short of lending much real suspense and any conflict introduced is made short work of besides.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion: a cozy, lilting tale of witches, the ocean and a young woman’s negotiation of her responsibility to herself and to her people, bring me your midnight will immerse you in its ambience even if there is a certain lack of depth to its substance.
just as an addendum: this was very much reminiscent of spells for forgetting for me. a funny bit of coincidence as adrienne young actually blurbed this book. so if you enjoyed that i’d give this one a go....more
read if you like: ♡ second-chance romance ♡ lovers to enemies to lovers ♡ angsty hollywood lovethank you netgalley for the arc !
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 3/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚
read if you like: ♡ second-chance romance ♡ lovers to enemies to lovers ♡ angsty hollywood love-story ♡ dual pov and dual timeline ♡ forced proximity ♡ anxiety rep
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ fraught with off the charts sexual tension electrifying between two jilted former lovers, ava wilder’s sophomore romance novel will they or won’t they will whip you off your feet bridal-style… and dump you right into a vertiginous emotional rollercoaster!
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ years after saying goodbye to her role on hit paranormal tv show intangible, actress lilah hunter is doing the walk of shame back for the ninth season, following a failure to make it big on her own. but reprising her role also means being reunited with former onscreen love interest and off-screen sworn enemy shane mccarthy who she left on less than amiable terms with in her wake. forced into close-quarters, struggling to stop their work environment from becoming collateral damage and under pressure from fans to finally unite their characters for a happy-ending in the final season of the show, lilah and shane seem to be finding themselves rewriting their own bitter ending.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ in having lilah fill the office of the emotionally unavailable half of the couple, wilder opts for a more subversive and less moth-eaten spin on the right person wrong time trope. anxious, perfectionist and at her core, possessed of an implacable fear of abandonment, lilah keeps a stubbornly white-knuckled grip on the distance between herself and shane. through piecemeal references, we will later come to recognize her ‘prickly’ veneer and self-sabotage in her relationship with shane for what it is: a stirring symptom of an unhappy childhood. sure, she may very well drive you up the wall one too many times, but she is an unflinching, tough as nails, if veristic fmc. the barbed comments, the cool affectation are nothing more than a pretence for the sake of concealing a pitifully soft underbelly. and it’s not merely a troubled past which prevents lilah from being true to herself - the sad truth is as a woman in hollywood she cannot afford to be vulnerable or to be anything other than what the public eye would deem acceptable. whilst shane may get away with a co-star entanglement scot-free, she knows full well she could only dream to be so lucky. no, for an actress any relationship is indelible and comes with more than what you bargain for.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ shane himself proved equal to the task of being just as flawed as lilah, albeit in a less self-evident fashion at first glance. he is in many regards more riddled with insecurity than her, suffering from the looming shadow of his imposter syndrome. this in turn then muddies the waters of his and lilah’s relationship when he inevitably draws assumptions propelled by his insecurity. it’s a classic case of confirmation bias really and these negative conjectures and suspicions beget more rancorous offspring until you have one big miserable brood of misunderstandings. to add insult to lilah’s injury, shane of the past is part of a semi-fraternity group of dude-bros comprised of less than savoury misogynists who continuously bad-mouth and take disgusting tones with her. yet her golden retriever boy has his head so far up everyone’s ass he could wipe for them - thanks to a pathological need to be liked by everyone - that the most he does is offer a mild reproach in defense of her virtue.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ what is then truly masterful craftsmanship, is how in the face of all of these unlikable traits wilder still makes you fall head over heels for lilah and shane, to say nothing of then finding yourself shipping them so viscerally you groan and fight begrudged tears whenever they are at odds. still not over the angst and i’m normally a card-carrying member of the anti-second chance romance novels. when they are at their best they are tender and cotton-candy soft with chemistry like a nuclear power plant. shane redeems himself for his former indiscretions (i.e. not standing up for lilah when she’s being degraded by a sexist) by going on to take up arms for her whenever she’s at the receiving end of misogyny. he’s a total softy for her and i wound up with a huge incurable crush on him even when we got off on the wrong foot. also, they have stellar banter absolutely sizzling with electric currents!!! even when they’re at each other’s throats - on second thought, you know what it might be the better for that…
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ funnily enough, these same strengths in character were, perforce, what cauterised my rating… i was so embroiled in the drama and angst that in my darkest hours i kind of hoped they’d break up. there is a fine line between realistic angst and toxicity. i’d be the first to admit there were more than a few moments where i felt that shane in particular was a total schmuck.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ there was some lag in the pacing which became more palpable towards the end but overall it was a well-oiled machine. also the plot twist?!? despite seeing it coming it was mwah, chef’s kiss.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion: some writers just get it when it comes to understanding people and such is the case with wilder. will they or won’t they is pretty much a bespoke romance novel for those of us who enjoy our romance to be more faithful to real life with messy characters....more
read if you like: ♡ dark academia ♡ enemies to lovers ♡ slight bridgerton vibes
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ endowed thank you netgalley for the arc !
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 1/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚
read if you like: ♡ dark academia ♡ enemies to lovers ♡ slight bridgerton vibes
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ endowed with a scintillating premise, promising magical secret societies throbbing with darkness and a boarding school setting à la hogwarts, house of marionne fluently draws the eye. for lovers of the dark academia subgenre this is the promised land of literary potential. regrettably, the operative word there is potential - which as you may have inferred by now, remains unfulfilled.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ quell and her mother have spent their lives in a constant state of flux having to flee from city to city. born with a dark and persecuted magic, nowhere is safe for quell. and now, on one ill-starred day, someone’s just found her out. in an attempt to evade her would-be killers - a deadly cadre of assassins who call themselves draguns - quell’s going back to her roots to live with her grandmother. a grandmother who belongs to an elitist magical society which would just as soon see someone with quell’s magic dead. in order to make it out unscathed, she’s going to have to navigate three rites of induction, hide her powers at all costs and keep her wits about her when it comes to her byronic mentor - who incidentally is associated with the assassins after her - jordan.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ in deference to an attempt at giving j. elle the benefit of the doubt, i’ll admit that had i not spent 80% of this book utterly bemused by the magic system and world, my rating would have been more middle-of-the-road (so the jury’s out on whether or not the blame lies with me for this). of all the shortcomings i’ll suffer least in a novel, it will always be lack of clarity. it’s frustrating and does such a disservice to any author who for all intents and purposes has potential - which it's plain as anything that elle does.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ as a self-proclaimed composite of bridgerton, harry potter, ninth house and allegedly even succession (someone definitely didn’t read this book in marketing for that one), the plot trended towards a strange centrifugal motion from any solid idea. with the storyline having to cover so much ground, my attention was simply stretched way too thin. there’s something to be said for being too ambitious in times such as these. veined with this absolute bulk of ideas, it’s no wonder that the pacing then struck me as being jolting. also, there were more than a few abrupt and opaque time jumps just interloping in the middle of pages. suffice it to say, my confusion did not benefit from that.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ however, giving credit where credit is due, the writing itself works well (if perhaps more geared towards middle grade than ya). what i could comprehend of the magic system was enticing and inspired and the ending itself was surprisingly very enjoyable. whilst i was indifferent to most of the characters, yagrin distinguished himself in my eyes. his moral ambiguity in particular - delineated within the chapters told from his vantage - consistently enthralled me. despite his lesser literal presence in view of, say, quell’s or jordan’s, he felt far more flesh and bone than they ever did.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion: i could wax some more lyrical on other aspects i took exception to but i’m not in the business of overdoing things. i think it’s apparent enough this just wasn’t the book for me. nevertheless, if you’ve an affinity for fast-paced dark academia books, house of marionne could still be for you!...more
read if you like: ♡ there is only one bed ♡ sid the sloth from zooptopia speed slow burn ♡ gruthank you netgalley for the arc !
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 3.5/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚
read if you like: ♡ there is only one bed ♡ sid the sloth from zooptopia speed slow burn ♡ grumpy x sunshine ♡ marriage of convenience ♡ “who did this to you”
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ the wall of winnipeg and me is the mother of all slow-burns and its pacing arguably makes or breaks it depending on who you ask. right off the bat and without ceremony we’re thrown into the dynamic between remarkably forbearing personal assistant vanessa mazur and her brusquely (all too often trespassing into the realm of rudely) taciturn employer, the uber-famous football player aiden graves. no sooner have we gotten a feel for the nature of their relationship (or lack thereof no thanks to aiden), mazur’s quitting to little reception from her thankless boss. vexed beyond measure, she heads off on her own, ready to finally trail-blaze her own career-path. but shock of all shocks, not much time passes before her former boss shows up on her doorstep all but pleading for her to return to him… and this time with a far more intimate job description than before.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ i’m a fierce proponent of the slow-burn dynamic so make of that what you will when reading my review; in my eyes, as a rule of thumb, it lends the most credence to fictional relationships. suspension of belief is absolutely paramount when it comes to a good read. for such a mulish and set-in-his-ways character as aiden, zapata apprehends clearly that she’d need to give him breathing space to grow as an individual before cementing him and vanessa as a unit. the aiden we’re confronted with from the first page would flounder in any kind of healthy relationship and as would vanessa herself, if not to the same degree. their interactions together bloom from a tentative fragile bud to a rose with thorns as they are not perfect by any metric and it is their ‘thorns’ and idiosyncrasies (at times grating to others around them as let’s be real, they’re not perfect) which whilst softening are never truly clipped off. aiden at the end is still a uniquely stubborn and to the point man, vanessa’s still going to be carrying the load of her childhood - but aiden is now giving expression to his affection for vanessa and it’s clear she herself is on her way to accepting her wounds if not licking them. zapata keeps their journey as a couple faithful to their characters and never falls into the death-trap of insta-love which always ekes out its pitiful existence by having the couples subsume one another like some kind of sexual canibalism. also, the light banter was tasteful and harmonious with the size of their personalities which were very modest; a nice change from so many larger than life romance characters.
p.s. honorary mention of the sexiest quote in existence:
“touch my wife again, and i’ll break every bone in your goddamn body”
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ in a very different vein, the grievances i have with this book stem from vanessa’s belaboured mentions of how ‘big’ aiden is. she harped on about it so much i started to fear i’d been swindled into reading a big foot fanfic. seriously, we get it. he’s the closest living relation of an ape and is so big and manly with bristles and grunts and a ‘big pipe’ and dinner-plate hands. it got to the point i docked off a whole star for it. the other wayward half star hitched a ride far away on the strength of my feeling that structurally there was no big climax or ‘aha’ moment. even in a more staid romance novel like this where there’s a scant amount of angst, you need a climactic moment. you can’t just kind of toddle along which is exactly what happened in the last couple of chapters.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion: although there are heavy themes contained within the wall of winnipeg and me, in particular, references to horrific familial abuse and neglect, zapata pens a light-hearted, steady-handed and sweet grump meets his beaming match which lives up to its hype....more
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