I'm sorry, I simply cannot finish this, DNF-ed it at 39% and I will explain why.
I actually think the narrative is very well done and I can see 1.5/5 ⭐
I'm sorry, I simply cannot finish this, DNF-ed it at 39% and I will explain why.
I actually think the narrative is very well done and I can see that Sayaka Murata is a very good writer, those things I really appreciated about her in the almost 100 pages I've read from this book, my first book of hers. And those aspects are enough for me to keep trying to read other books of hers. But for this one, I'm sorry but it is a hard no.
Even though I understand this is fiction and the themes presented in this book are definitely taboos, they're the kind of taboos I can't read about. This is a personal thing of mine, no need to generalise, but there are some tropes I simply cannot get past and here I found in 100 pages quite a few of them.
Trigger warnings? Emotional and physical abuse of a minor, manipulation of a minor, rape of a minor, incest and sex between minors
If these are your TW then for your emotional safety and in order to not have to buy bleach to rub your brain with it, do not read this book. But if you don't mind it that much, go ahead. As I said, I do believe that Sayaka Murata is a really good writer, in fact. Just the themes she writes about can be a bit...much.
Other than that, the story is eerie, with that Japanese vibe you'll find in all of the Japanese books, with elements that will give you shivers down your spine....more
Nu aş considera această carte ca fiind chiar un thriller, ar fi mult spus. Povestea a fost tărăgănată, lipsită de noimă pe alocuri, cruzimea l1.75/5 ⭐
Nu aş considera această carte ca fiind chiar un thriller, ar fi mult spus. Povestea a fost tărăgănată, lipsită de noimă pe alocuri, cruzimea lumii augmentată până intr-un punct care deranja. Plot-ul "thrilleresque" a părut puțin forțat. Însă un punct bonus pentru realizarea tabloului istoric al Madridului de secol XIX, un Madrid bântuit de holeră....more
Now I will say this because I know it needs to be said: I don't blame or throw hate towards the people who enjoyed this and got carried away w1.25/5 ⭐
Now I will say this because I know it needs to be said: I don't blame or throw hate towards the people who enjoyed this and got carried away with the whole thing. Good etiquette says that we don't discuss tastes and colours (de gustibus, you know). Each on their own. I'm just analysing the information that I have received from this book and get to conclusions that are strictly personal.
Yes, I do know everyone is crazy about this. No, I do not understand why. Yes, I did award it with a little star. No, I'm not taking it back. No take backsies here.
I mean, listen. Objectively speaking, I could see exactly where everyone was balling their eyes out because the scenes were made to be emotional and heartbreaking and to devastate the hearts of those who were caught up in the story...but I wasn't caught up in it. I was in complete sanity, actually.
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I rarely give this kind of low rating to books. Usually, when I simply can't enjoy a novel for various reasons, I'll award it 2 stars. When I get to the point where I give a book 1 star then this is a case of personal offence.
Yes, I've been offended by this book and I'll tell you why: because it is marketed as a romance and this is not the kind of romance we should be giving away freely like that. As an adult in a healthy relationship, this kind of thing might not affect me or you or anyone else that's in a good place, emotionally and romantically speaking. But because of this wrongly placed kind of advertisement, people (and especially teenagers) with not so much experience in this field or with a darker experience than it was fair of them to have, might think that this is how ravishing love should look like and, unconsciously, they wish for that in their lives (maybe, even though I hope not). They might relate to this and not have the right capacities to discern between what's good and what's toxic for them. Not everyone understands the meaning of something when it's disguised.
I couldn't see how and why the MCs fell in love. It simply didn't get to me. But honestly I'm more of a slow-burn kind of romance lover at this point.
They meet and make up a little excuse of a game of 'naked truths' where they say the stupidest things they were thinking or the stupidest things they have ever done in their lives. They don't see each other anymore for a long time. They meet again and fall in love so much their skulls crack and they stopped thinking logically. From there, everything in their relationship moves with a speed not even the newest model of Ferrari can keep up with. I don't buy this, sorry.
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On top of that, their whole relationship (yeah I know, dreamy as it is, shocking!) it's very toxic.
The fact that Lily Bloom (yes, that's her name for real) grew up in an abusive household and that her mum decided to bury the abuse, treating it like nothing, is one thing. But when Lily gets to be in a similar kind of relationship with Ryle, there's a whole other story. The worst part is that she realises that Ryle's anger issues are similar to her father's, but she (like her mum did) tries to convince herself it's nothing.
I know it's hard to break free, so damn hard. But how can you love an abuser so deeply after only 200 pages? Time lapses included.
The relationship is toxic. Ryle is abusive and manipulative. Oh but wait. He is a walking and talking romance novel cliche lover: handsome, hot, rich, one of the youngest neurosurgeons you'd ever meet in your life, wow yeah that man is sex-on-a-stick, seriously I'm shocked I wasn't expecting all this perfection, give me a lifetime to recover.
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He is an abusive man, in all his hot perfection, and the fact that abuse comes on the house is terrible enough but the way this whole abuse theme of the book is treated and overlooked makes me want to believe that even though romance is supposed to be the main theme here, it has been built on abuse in a manner that should've been emotional. However, the poor execution of the theme exposure and expansion made romance the lame excuse of the actual main theme of the book: overlooked abuse.
Abuse is a complex thing to write about. It's not a joke and it shouldn't be treated superficially. Yes, I know in the end the title makes sense because Lily Bloom is now as strong as a mamma bear protecting her little cubs from the Evil (trademark), but this only happens in the last few pages. This is not heartbreaking, this is just sad and a little bit infuriating that the book takes toxic relationships and makes them look like romance. And it's unfair that teenage girls believe this is what love should look like.
My lovely girls, love has a force of its own that no one can explain but it doesn't bring you pain. It doesn't hurt you, it doesn't mess up with you, and it doesn't make you question yourself. Love makes your heart feel fuzzy and warm like it's too big and too alive for your chest to hold it in anymore. Makes you turn red and shy and teary-eyed because you felt touched and seen in more ways than physically. It gives you the prophetic wings to fly. It makes you want to be better, safer, warmer, happier and healthier. Love is not about the money, the riches, the fame, the handsomeness and hotness. It is about that someone or those someones that make you feel invincible. In love, we only suffer from too many warm feelings, not from abuse, toxicity and cringe.
Because let me tell you, this book is all about these latter three ones, when in fact it should've been about all those others I've said before.
My honest opinion here comes to a conclusion: the excuse of abuse to build love became actually an overlooked and under-talked-about leitmotif of a book that could've easily been more balanced if, instead of giving Lily Bloom even the idea of a life with Ryle, the author would've just told the story of her first love directly as it was, and not through the childish excuse of a young Lily writing diary-style letters to Ellen DeGeneres and talking about her first love. Their love story was closer to what romance should look like and (bonus!!!) it was also tragic enough (for the drama lovers out there)....more
Sorry to those who enjoyed this, but I couldn't. I think this has been my sign to stop trying to read dark romance, it seems like 1.5/5 ⭐
DNF-ed at 33%
Sorry to those who enjoyed this, but I couldn't. I think this has been my sign to stop trying to read dark romance, it seems like it's simply not my cup of tea.
I feel like if Lore Olympus and Fifty Shades of Grey had a baby through some naughty, kinky ways, that would definitely be Neon Gods
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I actually quite enjoyed the initial part, but when things started getting sexier, I knew for sure that this was simply my queue to leave.
I'm sure the story would've gotten steamier and, unlike so many of the books of this genre, this one seemed to have an actual plot besides the BDSM smut. Sadly, I won't be able to witness that, I cringed way too hard at some point right before stopping reading it. Oops?...more
I wish I could've got into this but I simply couldn't feel the characters and even though I appreciated the idea of the plot (so many gooDNF-ed at 20%
I wish I could've got into this but I simply couldn't feel the characters and even though I appreciated the idea of the plot (so many good ideas!) I couldn't get over some verbal tics that slightly irritated me :(...more
Watch out, there comes an unpopular (personal) opinion! *sigh*
When I first read what Lore was all about, I was sold. A mix of Medusa (who i2.75/5 ⭐
Watch out, there comes an unpopular (personal) opinion! *sigh*
When I first read what Lore was all about, I was sold. A mix of Medusa (who is one of my faves, I must say) and The Hunger Games set in the present world?? Descendants of the OG heroes trying to kill the old gods to steal their powers of godhood?? That's nuts...and I loved it! But honestly, as I started the first chapter, then slowly made my way through the story, I realised that I am: 1) confused and 2) bored.
Don't get me wrong, the idea of the plot was really, really good and I was desperate to like it, but it just didn't do the trick for me.
Greek mythology generally confuses me so that's not this book's problem, it's mine. But even so, contributing to my confusion was the writing style of the author. Honestly, sometimes it felt like she wanted to give us little sneak peeks of what's going to happen with the action, but wait! Not too much! So she simply let us see glimpses of past actions while they were in the middle of happening.
I also had a problem with the characters. As I generally had no problem per se with either of them, I simply could care less about them because they felt (to me) a little bit flat. It was nothing there to get me emotionally invested in them. Which, I think, it's sad.
Overall, my experience with this book was the same as the action of sitting in a boat in the middle of a lake with no paddles and no wind to carry me anywhere. Nice and all, but after a while, you need to get somewhere.
Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
1.5/5 ⭐
I'm speaking for myself here, my own experThank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
1.5/5 ⭐
I'm speaking for myself here, my own experience with the book, everything is subjective when it comes to fiction. I'm honestly not pleased with this, I'm sorry to say it. I wanted to read something light and fun and nice. And maybe it was. For others. I did appreciate the try in making everything light and fun but at some point, it became too much and it got confusing. First of all, the characters were a bit childish, even though they were supposed to be funny and cute. Second, for the whole plot, I felt like every time two characters were having a conversation I was supposed to crack some sort of HTML code because...I had no idea what were they talking about. The dialogue was all over the place and sometimes (for me) it made no sense. Third, I think the whole book was a bit rushed at parts and also the whole 'mystery' thing - I didn't really have any of that. I really wanted to have more good things to say about it than bad but I just...couldn't. I promised honesty....more
I tried to give it a chance, I didn't want to put an end on it like that, but the whole action was not1.5/5 ⭐
DNF-ed it at 32% because it was pointless
I tried to give it a chance, I didn't want to put an end on it like that, but the whole action was not going anywhere so I had to end it. I was struggling with it like a fish struggles to find water on Mercury.
I didn't want to award this the honourable 1-star because that pretty little star is reserved only for the morally-outrageous, bland-as-all-bloody-hell, terribly-unliterary-written, super-offensive books so that's why I pushed that half star in there (even though I shouldn't have but oh well). I have principles that I want to follow, though this book was ugly-crying in its blandness.
I thought I might get over the fact that I didn't like any of the characters but sadly I didn't. And by any I mean any. Not even a single one.
They were all whiny, arrogant creatures, some rich kids going to boarding schools all over the world, all fussy and pretentious because daddy forgot to buy them their yearly luxury car limited edition with golden tyre caps and they had to go to school with the one from last year. *Ah, the shame! I could >never be seen poor like that, I would die!*
I am not really a fan of the only-first-world-problems-here characters, sorry.
Also, I disliked Princess Jaya Rao...wait no, pardon this stupid simple girl...is just Jaya. I could get over the fact that she was raised to be an heir to a symbolic throne and she had different visions than me, but she really really annoyed me with her 'humble' attitude. Like please, I know I am a princess and my dad is a maharajah but please, I'm being so modest and humbled and embarrassed for everyone to know that, just call me Jaya, I'm just a normal girl, I too drink water like all of you *wink wink*
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And the fact that it was supposed to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling was also beyond my power of understanding. My brain tends to be dumb more times than often but still did not acknowledge that information. True, I did not read enough of it to be entitled to have an opinion or whatever but in the first 32% there's nothing for me to work with. The closest> thing to that statement might be the fact that there is a curse thrown in there somewhere and that Grey (the male MC) was of course 6 feet plus and tons of pounds of pure muscle and looked 'like a feral beast' (okay, uh-huh, every beast wears sandals in its free time, duh, of course!). Oh and Jaya had a pretty little necklace gifted by her father the maharajah, in the shape of a rose with eighteen rubies on it...oops no wait, she tragically lost one ruby so only seventeen rubies now.
*All of us plebeians in the background now searching the whole damn Earth for that bloody ruby*
I did want to think that this book isn't bad and I did try to convince myself to believe that I'd probably enjoy it, and maybe I would've enjoyed it if I were to read it when I was younger (way younger), but for me now? No thanks, I'm not buying that, I love having my time well-spent. Sorry.
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