Tonje
This is the second time I read a book by this author, the other time being in 2022 and ending in a 2 star rating because I found the main character insufferable, obsessed with her mother and selfish in the choices she made. The mc of this book suffers from a lot of the same symptoms. Selfish actions are being explained away or left as if me as a reader is supposed to think “oh yeah that makes perfect sense that you did that, it’s totally okay.” It doesn’t sit well with me. Also, didn’t like the ‘plot twist’ introduced waay out in the book. It felt like a cheap way to explain the skittish, non committed behaviour of the mc. We never get an explanation on the notes, how do they work? Who or what is sending them? If it was a family curse, or some sort of ‘gift’ bestowed upon her at birth or literally anything other than “it just happens” it would’ve made for a much more compelling story.
This is the second time I try reading a book by this author, and it’s the second time I’m drawn in by the premise of the story and gets left unsatisfied by it.
Now I dislike Tella more than I disliked Scarlett in the first one 😂
Things I didn't like about this book:
1) The book is basically like this: “Tella, don't do it! It's a bad idea!” And then Tella decides it's a good idea to go ahead and do it anyway. I swear these two sisters are horrible at decision making. Like I get creating a challenge for the main character, but does it always have to be a challenge that came about because the main character was stupid?
2) I didn't believe for a second that Tella was interested in Jacks, and not just because I had already read Once Upon a Broken Heart and had the next two books in the Caraval series spoiled for myself. Jacks was cold, insensitive and bordering on abusive at times. You expect me to believe a girl who's endured abuse from her father would see this man and go “... maybe I like him?” ??? To quote Raven; I could not believe it.
3) Again with the overly descriptive writing. Because I already knew where the plot was going thanks to two sentences in Once Upon a Broken Heart spoiling it for me I had no patience sitting through paragraphs, sometimes even half a page of descriptions of a room or a characters outfit. Please get to the point
Overall I liked this book more than Caraval, although it suffers from the same kind of repetitive internal conflict/monologue and descriptions of people and places taking up entire pages. Also I think I got spoilers for what happens next in the Caraval series? Which is kind of a bummer since I still have to read 2 books and like 800 pages and now I know where the story (most likely) ends. I didn't even realise it was the same universe before Scarlett and Donatella were mentioned 😅 Oh well my bad
Vet ikke om jeg kan gi denne boken en rating engang, fordi diktene var så vanskelig for meg å tolke. Jeg skjønner at dette sikkert regnes som poesi av øverste klasse i Norden, men for meg ga denne boken veldig lite substans å ta med videre. Jeg skjønte ikke hva forfatteren forsøkte hinte til i boken, så dens dypere mening var tapt på meg
I really liked Dark Rise and was excited to listen to the continuation of the series, but I'm left slightly disappointed by it. Over 50 chapters with several character's pov's (where I didn't care for most of them) made the book drag on forever and made it much harder to complete. Whereas I devoured the first book within days, a bunch of chapters in Dark Heir felt unnecessary to me and bored me so much I'd stop listening. The last ten chapters however, were so good it made drudging through the rest worth it, and now I need to know what happens next!
Couple things I didn't like about this book:
1) I found Scarlett as a main character to be annoying for most of the book. She was easily embarrassed, kept on second guessing every decision she made, constantly questioning her own reasonings for doing pretty much anything and, as a result; ended up in such unnecessary troubles that could've easily been avoided if she even had half the faith in herself that Julian seemed to have in her from the get go.
2) Right from the beginning I felt like I was following the wrong main character. At the start of the book Donatella seemed way more confident and interesting, before completely disappearing and staying gone for most of the book leaving me stuck with her sister.
3) Scarlett had one single motivation, which was to protect her sister and play mother hen. She needed to be the responsible one thinking of ways to secure their future, because all she cares about is her sister's safety. Or so we're told, but literally every. single. time she has options to either gather information or clues about her sister's whereabouts she's a mumbling wreck asking all the wrong questions, or being more preoccupied asking about herself. Like, it's okay to have a crush on a dude and wonder if he likes you back, and it's okay to worry about if you're going to be happy in your arranged marriage. It's the constant nagging of her feeling guilty for like three whole pages after doing something “selfish” for me 🫤
For the last like 30-40% of the book the stakes were changed and it felt like Scarlett's character became less annoying to follow and more determined to actually win and save her sister.
4) Sometimes the writing took too long getting to the point and I found myself skipping entire paragraphs because they were either over dramatic descriptions of a place, or endless rambling thoughts and internal monologue repeating itself
Overall I liked this book
Really mad at myself for only buying the first book in the series because I need to know what happens next. It was impossible to put it down, I've lost sleep two nights in a row because of it!
The only thing about this book I honestly didn't care for was the love “triangle” between Avery and two of the Hawthorne brothers. To me it wasn't even a triangle when one of them was showing obvious interest being charming and attentive; while the other was lurking in the background staring at her “with intense, grey eyes” every once in a while 😂 Also it felt like the brothers started caring about her too much too soon. Like I get starting to care about someone after a while, but declaring them as family and saying you'd die for them after a couple weeks? Seemed unlikely to me, especially given the circumstances of her being there.
This book progressed drudgingly through the same plot points for way too long. Seeing the pages thinning and the plot being nowhere near a conclusion made me think I surely must've missed that there was a fourth book. Katniss didn't even leave district 13 until I passed the 60% mark and the climax of the story was resolved within what, four or five chapters? It felt rushed and the series deserved a better ending. I agree with the sentiments of others saying it almost feit like this book should've been 200 pages longer, or even that there should've been a fourth book to wrap things up more smoothly.
This book feels very millennial coded. It's certainly easy to tell which time it's written in and which “feminism” it strives to represent. All the “jokes” about #failingtoadult and being #quirky and #different ✨🧚♀️🤪 did not age well in my opinion. Perhaps I just don't understand the humour in hyper-focusing on how different you are from other women?
The book is kind of implying that the unkempt, bloated belly version of a woman is the better version because she has a self deprecating sense of humour she disguises as self love and acceptance of her appearance. I don't know but something about constantly comparing yourself to other women and exaggerating what's (usually) viewed as flaws in women as your key traits that define you doesn't scream ‘I love myself' to me. It's more like a desperate attempt to differentiate yourself from those who adhere to beauty standards or social expectations of what a woman should be; because if you're a woman who looks like that and thinks like that your woman isn't womaning. Also it's just not that funny. It might've been in 2016 but in 2024 it seems very tone deaf to me.
The chapters were very repetitive. It didn't feel like the story actually started progressing until I passed the 70% mark. Also the writing felt a bit simplistic, it read more like a Y/A novel than adult fiction to me.
It was infuriating to read all the shame and guilt women buried themselves with in this book simply for giving birth to a girl instead of a boy; especially the stupidity of their misogyny blaming women for birthing girls when it's THE MAN'S sperm that determines the gender!
It's a very bleak look into the patriarchal views of religion, and how religion oppress women still to this day. This past week four women have been killed by their current or ex partner and it's been pointed out that statistics show 60% of all partner violence is committed by men of non western backgrounds. To me there's no doubt there is violence - especially towards women and girls -in religion and in culture, and this book explored this topic only by scratching the surface. I wished it would've approached it a bit differently; it's like there was so much oppression, sadness and violence throughout the book that the ultimate climax of the plot didn't have the impact I'm sure the author was trying to convey. Also the simplistic writing didn't help, it was like it downplayed the entire story. It was giving “Disney princess but make it more depressing and tune up the oppression a bit” to me 😐
If it's one thing I really dislike about young adult fiction it's when the main character constantly manages to make the wrong decision or puts off making one due to a guy/several guys. This book had a little bit of that energy, and I didn't like it. At one point it felt like it was becoming a “special and unique girl has the attention of every male in the story” moment, but luckily it didn't get as bad as I anticipated. The first half was action packed and fast paced like the first book, but the second half had to much diplomacy focused chapters and also a lot of unnecessary pining and worrying.
Another Lucy Foley book described as thrilling and suspenseful which I found to be neither. She's really good at creating unlikeable characters, I'll give her that, but they're also extremely uninteresting to follow. When most of the book consist of listening to their internal monologue or watching them interact with one another, it gets boring. I'd say the last 5 chapters were the only ones with any suspense, and at that point I was just ready to be done with the story.
I got this book for my birthday and I'm so glad I enjoyed it so I didn't have to tell them I absolutely hated it 😂 I understand the negative reviews, but in my opinion this book is a lot more enjoyable if you don't think of it as trying to be the most accurate representation of everything but as a bit of an exaggeration to prove a point on themes which are still very relevant today.
I've always found it weird how male authors sexualise almost everything with their writing. This man literally describes the road his characters are driving on as “curvy and seductive like a hip switched back and forth.” NO BUT
WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD SEE A ROAD AND THINK IT LOOKED SEXUAL?? I'm honestly speechless.
He uses a bunch of words to say absolutely nothing and most of the plot is the characters not liking each other and panicking without even trying to figure out what is going on. Then finally the open ending leaving everything unexplained 🫠
If only he spent as much time on the plot as he did trying to mention sex, penis, orgies or masturbation in every chapter, maybe then this book would've been interesting.
When I read this as a teenager it really resonated with who I was at the time and what I was going through. On Goodreads the top review is essentially someone complaining she didn't get the mystery novel she was expecting and therefore it's bad. I disagree.
Do I think it's as perfect as I did? No, but I still think it's a pretty good book. It touches upon the theme of suicide in a much better way than certain other popular books have done. The reality of it is that suicide isn't always explainable or understandable to those left behind. For the most part, only those who chose to end their life knows the ins and outs of what they were going through, and for that I think it's a much more realistic take to not make it a detective story with case closed in the end. Cause suicide is much more serious and complex than that. I honestly fault the reader for expecting that of a YA novel about this kind of topic.
I'm sorry but nothing interesting happened. Valentino's voice actor choosing to read every single chapter in this heartfelt, almost-about-to-cry voice really irked me on a whole new level. If I never have to hear someone say “everything is mad hazy” like it's the most poetic thing and like they're moving themselves to tears ever again I'm good. Also the clownery of saying that and hating on the word selfie literally in the next sentence ... 🤡 I cannot
No thanks to this one
