Hali

reading some of the reviews makes me wonder if we read the same book. I shake my head at people saying “some scenes made no sense! Like, why the incest?!” Well, see, because they're insane, and they're all mentally unravelling, and to show how deep the fucked-up-ness runs in this friend group and also how fucked up they are after traumabonding like insane. Like, did you miss Camilla going on dates over the course of the book? Charles beating somebody up for her? Charles beating HER? 

Hated the first half of the book. The worldbuilding, imo, was all over the place and the translation is lacking. Its also just very unconvincing.. this world just doesnt feel real at all. Its not scary to me because of it. Its like an exaggerated parody that I couldnt take seriously.

The second half tho? Truly gruesome. Actual horror. I feel sick to my stomach. Im never reading this again, good horror

Short review: This book could've been better if it wasnt young adult.

Long story: I really wanted to like this book the longer I read it. The more I read the book itself and about the author I realized that this is also a deeply personal story about grief, falsely packaged as a young adult romance novel. YA implies its marketed towards teens too, but the author retains a writing style that is very reminiscent of dark romance and erotica (which she is an author of too). Not saying teens cant read this, but this book models multiple tragedies, some on accident: A codependent relationship, characters that dont exist outside of their romance, heavy miscommunication and the death of a character. The characters never act their age either. While the plot of this book explains that later on, I found myself very irritated and pulled out of my immersion by how inaccurately child characters were written. And while Im talking about immersion - the writing style is very flat, simple and wattpad. The author actually says that tongues duel at some point. Wattpad writing in combination with supposedly deep talks about life and death (that repeat themselves over and over again) just clash, and exactly that is why this book shouldntve been YA in my opinion. This couldve been a great emotional venture into grief and dealing with it. Instead its one book of a girl dying and leaving behind a boyfriend amongst many. 

short story: its literally mid

long: it started off strong and just kept getting weaker, especially near the end. things just kept happening over and over again and the characters are kinda insufferable and also they never actually know whats going on even though its pretty obvious

This book amazingly continues the story of the Whitesky family from the previous book, Moon of the crusted snow. Evan is still heavily featured in this book while his daughter Nanghoons takes up more of the spotlight, as the book is mainly written from her perspective. 
Many people critiqued the slow pace of the first book. This one is still kinda slow but a lot more tense all throughout. At one point, I actually leaned forward and my heart started beating faster in anticipation - this never happens for me. 
The story wraps up suddenly, but nicely. Its a fairly nice ending and fitting, considering the book is about the journey of our protagonists and the Whitesky family. Really loved this book. :)