 3.5 stars
Obviously I enjoyed this, it’s an Ali Hazelwood novel. But I really wish she’d step out of her comfort zone and write a different pairing of character types... The flaws of those stereotypes were really highlighted in this young adult variant of her classic vibe. Concept: ★★★★ Romantic drama element: ★★ Characters: ★★★ So this review is going to be an odd one. Because I had an extremely good time reading this novel....But it's a three-star, and probably an easily forgettable blip on my reading journey. Welcome to Check and Mate, the young adult debut for romance titan Ali Hazelwood. If you're a YA reader who has not yet read Hazelwood, then welcome!! I think you are in for a fantastic reading experience with this story. But if you're a frequent Hazelwood reader who likes her adult work, I think you're in for a bit of a lighthearted-yet-regrettably-bland experience. This is the story of Mallory Greenleaf. She's a recent high school graduate who is stalling out with no prospects due to a series of life circumstances that leave her as the sole breadwinner of her family (mom and younger sisters). She can't afford college, and she can't afford to leave her family stranded. She's an extremely talented and intelligent woman eeking away as an under-the-table mechanic at the local garage. Oh, and fun fact: Mallory is a former childhood chess prodigy. So when a series of events sees Mallory attending a local charity chess competition with her friend, Mallory quickly rises to the top and ends up across the board from the bad-boy of chess stardom: Nolan Sawyer. The man who has never been beaten at chess. And Mallory...beats him. While Mallory might think this chess event is a one-time occurrence, the universe has other plans. Nolan has other plans. And the chess community, rocked for the first time in years by an unknown player—and a WOMAN player, no less— has other plans. Can Mallory dive into the world of chess and confront her past demons? Check and Mate is the kind of YA novel that I generally enjoy reading. It's not dumbed down for a younger audience, but it's also not aged up inappropriately in the odd "new adult" class that some YA romances are. It's also not a complex or overly traumatic time. It's here for a fun time, not a long time, and I can respect the heck out of that. Not every novel has to be deep, you know? But for all of those reasons that I enjoyed this reading experience...those are also the reasons why I found this latest Hazelwood to be forgettable. It was cute, but it wasn't earthshattering. My largest complaint actually comes from the author's favorite tropes themselves. Hazelwood LOVES an intelligent-yet-obscenely-oblivious/obtuse female main character. And she LOVES a large, taciturn, easily-misunderstood-by-female-character type of man with a heart of gold and an easily misreading/misleading lack of facial expression. I ate that UP in The Love Hypothesis. I ate that UPPPP in Love on the Brain. I thought those same architypes were....really kind of dumb and cheesy in this young adult context, though. Mallory was too obtuse to be believed—especially given her experience with sex/dating and complex relationships with family and friends. As a parentified child myself, you can't afford to be that socially obtuse. You get REAL good at reading the room emotionally. I couldn't buy her not seeing the truth of Nolan Sawyer much earlier. And even if I could buy that obtuseness for her interactions with Nolan, I couldn't buy her not seeing the dynamics of her family panning out the way that they did. (I know this is a personal bias of mine as a reader, but still, highlighting it for others who might feel the same.) I also couldn't quite get behind this otherworldly-mature adult atmosphere to Nolan Sawyer. Nolan read, to me, at the same level of maturity as Hazelwood's very adult male characters in her other romances. There was almost NO noticeable difference in maturity level between Nolan, the 21ish-year-old childhood chess prodigy who didn't have a normal socialized upbringing, and Adam Carlsen from The Love Hypothesis (who is at least in his 30s and a college professor, if I can remember correctly). There should have been a marked maturity difference between these two men in two very different written age groups. I should have been able to tell who was who if you removed the names. And I... could not. I see that as a problem for a book with a supposedly YA love interest? I don't know. It rubbed me wrong and made me question Hazelwood's versatility in this space. (I know she's pretty much one-note in her portrayals of characters, and that's fine with me as I love those traits in adult romances—but you've got to be able to write for different age groups if that's what you're doing.) Overall, a cute and fun read. But sadly, not a new favorite.
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 5 stars
I’m sobbing, what a beautiful story and what beautiful words I can't-- Me (Moth) is a novel told in verse, and I picked it up in early 2024 at my local Black-owned bookstore because it spoke to me on the shelf and I just... needed it. I find it's always worth it to follow that kind of bookstore-browsing urge. (A small plug for that store—Socialight Society in Lansing, Michigan—because I love them and if you're looking for a shop to support with online sales or whatnot... Why not them!) Like the other few novels in verse that I've read, I devoured this story in one sitting. It was poignant. It was heartrending. It was truly hopeful and truly devastating in equal measure. It also shook me to my core in a way that very, very few novels do these days. I don't even want to summarize the book's blurb because I think the less you know, the better the reading experience. I encourage readers to go into this slim novel with a few expectations: 1) This novel is about grief, depression, death, and healing. Tread cautiously and know yourself. 2) This story is Emotional. I sobbed for a good 10 minutes after finishing it. 3) There is magic in these words. I hope more readers find solace and cathartic release in this tale. I didn't expect it to get this heavy—blame me, not the novel, as I always underestimate novels in verse—but it's the kind of story that needs to get heavy in order to showcase its true form. I won't forget Me (Moth) for some time.  3.5 stars
Strange the Dreamer feels like a party I've arrived at several years too late--the building's empty, the guests have left, and I can tell a good time was had by all but I'm just...late...and the balloons are sagging toward the ground. Which is okay, it happens. I'm a little sad I missed the hype wave but in a way, it's a good thing, because the reader I was in 2017 would not have appreciated this slow, lingering, mythical honey-sap tale of becoming. Lazlo Strange is an orphan-turned-librarian obsessed with fairytales and stories. All stories, really, but the magical ones appeal to him best. And the most magical tales come from the city of Weep. Well, the city's name isn't actually Weep. It was something else... but that name is gone now, and no one seems to remember that except for Lazlo, who coveted the real name in his mind like a jewel from the deep. Now it's just "Weep", and Lazlo feels like the lack like a sore tooth that never quite heals up. But then, like the beginnings of all great stories, a caravan of delegates from the lost city of Weep show up to Lazlo's town with a need for keen minds and hearts to solve a problem. Lazlo's just a librarian—he knows that this isn't is story, but Weep is the thing he loves most in all the world. So he shoots his shot, and miraculously he is accepted. When Lazlo lays eyes on Weep, he can feel the story of his life shifting, adapting, growing to accommodate several new truths. A storyline path unfolds in front of him like those tales of myth. Lazlo is about to become a part of something much bigger. And he can't wait to begin. This story surprised me. I don't know why I was so surprised--Laini Taylor's writing is undeniably gorgeous and all of her tales are lyrical masterpieces. But for some reason, I was still surprised at Strange the Dreamer. This tale was slow. Too slow, honestly, for me. It takes a LONG time to get off the ground--haha, a pun for those who have read the story--and even when the plot starts to take shape, I found myself aching for a faster plot, a thread of urgency to arise. There is literally no pressing urgency to this story at all, which is odd considering what happens. However, those gripes aside, there is definitely a charm in this story. It grows on you, slowly, from its beautiful writing to its wholly unique premise and beyond that to the characters we come to love and hate. I can see why this book is so beloved. (I wish I loved it as much as everyone else.)  4.5 stars
A teenager who can follow unseen paths into new realms, a magic academy filled with hidden passageways and secrets, a looming danger, and an angsty ex-best friend drama?? Y'all, I need you try this book. Concept: ★★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★ 1/2 Unique take on magic: ★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★ A Hundred Vicious Turns is the kind of young adult fantasy that I LOVE discovering in the bookstore. When I saw this cover in the stacks, I was intrigued. Then I read the blurb, and I was hooked. It's not often you find a queer YA fantasy with a dark academia atmosphere, multiple realms, and the concept of endless magical doors. (That last one is a particularly favorite trope of mine.) Rat Evans is the heir to two magical bloodlines in the Northeast United States. They are a relatively timid and nervous teenager who has Been Through Some Stuff. That stuff happened last summer, with their ex-best-friend, Harker, and involved some dark magic, a tower, and some truly terrifying things that Rat would rather forget. (Rat can never forget. They see the Tower in their dreams.) But the summer is over, and Rat is enrolled at Bellamy Arts, an exclusive boarding school for the magical bloodlines to hone their magic. Rat doesn't practice magic anymore and actively tries to suppress their affinity for maps and mapmaking, but they know that Bellamy Arts the safest place for them to be—they need an impenetrable home base with wards that keep everyone—and everything—out. So off to school they go, with the plan to ignore their magic and just survive their way through the experience. But Bellamy Arts and the scary things in Rat's past aren't going to let Rat coast through school unscathed. And neither is the unexpected appearance of Harker, whose hatred for Rat seeps from his pores. The clock tower is chiming, the walls are closing in, and Rat's seeing doors and passageways out of the corner of their eye that no one else is able to see... and the corners are beckoning. Don't open a door that you can't close... Ahhhhhh this was so much fun, folks. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this debut and, as a testament to how much this novel gripped me, I stayed up way past my bed time to read it. The great: the concept, the setting, and the wholly unique take on magic structures and societies tied up in an interesting multiverse/realm concept that had me in a GRIP. I also loved the angsty drama between Rat and Harker, and the delicioussss slow burn friends-to-enemies-to-reluctant-partners-to-??? that they had going on. I came for the magic, I stayed for the relationship drama and the serious desire I had to discover what was going on at the heart of this story. The not-so-great: Ok, this debut had some struggles. The worst offender was the clumsy balance between the Big Plot (Rat's relationship to the tower, the antagonist, and the doors into realms) and the entire rest of the novel(the school, the side quests, the scene transitions, the "filler" for depth). There was so much to unpack with the Big Plot that the rest of the novel did suffer a lack of supplemental depth, explanations of the mundane, scene descriptions, and just soft content to pad the real-world attempts of the academy setting. To me as a reader, I didn't care overly much about the filler—it would have catapulted this review from a 4-star to a 5-star favorite, but I didn't need that to make or break my general enjoyment. I loved what I got with the unique magic + Rat's personal journey + the relationship drama. Overall, a very exciting YA debut from a queer writer to watch. Eagerly looking forward to the second book in this duology so that we can get some answers—I can't wait!  3.5 stars
This was better than the second book, but still… I don’t know. I have feelings. Plot/Pacing: ★★★ 1/2 Character development: ★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★ My review of book one, Kingdom of the Wicked. My review of book two, Kingdom of the Cursed. This entire review is a reaction review, NOT a book summary. It is also filled with spoilers for the entire series. Please don't read if you don't want spoilers. It's a few days after my read. I intentionally let it stew for a bit to see if I felt any other types of way about it. I still feel the same, which is... conflicted. My journey with this series was a rollercoaster. I absolutely LOVED the first book. I was obsessed. As an early ARC reader, I devoured it and then spent several months hyping it up to anyone that would listen. When book two came out, I bought it and its special editions immediately—and then waited for the release of book three, because I wanted to avoid cliffhangers and read the entire series in one chunk. I'm kind of glad I did that, because if I'd read book two (Kingdom of the Cursed) right away... I likely wouldn't even be here writing a review for book three. I hated book two that much. This third book was much better than Kingdom of the Cursed—more plot, a return to Maniscalco's clear plot strength (mysteries), and the character development felt authentic again. Kingdom of the Feared had a few notable plot twists that surprised me and I felt that the ending fit Emelia's journey given her particular set of character traits. I guess... I just wanted more from this series. I wanted Wrath to be a stronger character, in line with who I thought he'd have to be after being alive for hundreds of years. (He read so young.) I also continued to find Emelia's weird blend of naivety + adult content super weird to read as an adult woman. She's like a baby in terms of life experience, and yet the plot throws her into these very New Adult situations and I'll be honest, it squicked me out a bit. Her weird switch from immature teen to Grown Adult Woman vibes in between books two and three due to... plot reasons... was also super abrupt to me. I wanted that transition to either have more time to grow organically or have it occur earlier in the story so I had time to get used to it. The immediate flip was odd. Strengths in this series—even with my lackluster feelings—were still present in Kingdom of the Feared. I think this concept is super fun. I think the realm of Hell and its various kingdoms is worth exploring further, possibly with more intention spent on character depth and unique plot structure. I loved the gimick of the seven deadly sins represented in seven men. The romantasy element there is promising—I am planning on picking up her spinoff with Envy this fall, which should lean into that quite a bit. I think the storytelling is there. I'm worried I'm alone in this corner, as a lot of other people whose reviews I trust not only LOVED book two, but they also seemed to enjoy this last book more than I did. Oh well--I still will recommend this to older teens and adult readers who don't mind a weaker plot arc.  3.5 stars
This was DENSE. And a bit overdone on the dialogue, if I’m honest. But was it something that kept me propelled, interested and aware of its unique potential? Yes. I am very intrigued to see where this series could go in future books. Concept: ★★★★ Pacing: ★★★ Balance of action vs. dialogue: ★★ World building: ★★★★★ A fallen Fury, an alchemist, some Fae, a reaper, a few gods, and some other beings walk into a bar... Like the setup for a Dungeons & Dragons plot joke, A Dark and Hollow Star is one dense boy that feels almost comedic in its self-aware density. They thicc, in other words. If you, like me, appreciate a good mashup of concepts that weave together established fantastical elements into something new—keep reading. (This is a reaction review.) I'm not quite sure what I initially expected when I bought A Dark and Hollow Star in the bookstore. It's been a few years and the memory is hazy. I remember the word "Fae" piqued my interest—an eternal buzzword for me—and then the element of a murder mystery in the blurb kept my focus. It's not often you get the words "Fae" and "murder mystery" in the same setup for a YA book. So I bought it, and then it sat on my shelf being intimidatingly large for a YA debut (this thing is 500 pages-ish). And I wondered why I didn't see people talking about this book. Well, having traveled to the other side, I now REALLY understand why this book has existed on the edges of the YA scene. It's... a lot. And frankly, I kind of wish this had aged up its characters and been produced as an adult paranormal series—because I believe that adult audience would have understood more of this novel's quirks, whereas the action-based YA market might not have been the best. With its accessible paranormal fantasy-style snarky dialogue, modern-day setting, and immediately likeable characters, this book started out strong for me. I was intrigued and captivated by the clever mashup of paranormal fae + Greek mythology Furies + other semi-spoilery elements. The opening third of this novel was a slam-dunk, one-sit read. But then, I felt this novel buckle under the weight of its own structure and collapse a bit in the middle. Snarky dialogue and random, mundane character moments can only get you so far when the stakes are as high as they are in this book. And combining so many fantasy elements + character POVs... you've got to eventually let this story's action propel us into something bigger. And I felt like that was A Dark and Hollow Star's weakness. "Weakness" might be a bit harsh, however, because unlike many, MANY other fantasies in the saturated YA market these days, this novel brought some titans to the table in terms of its character development, unique world building set-up, and promise of future plot development. Even when I disliked the pacing and lack of momentum, I couldn't put this book down. (I've DNF'd dozens of books for much less, so my staying power to complete this book is, in itself, some of my highest praise.) I look forward to seeing where this story leads in future books. And I'm crossing my fingers that the jumping-off point at the end of book one leads to some adjusted pacing and development in the later books!  4 stars
Sometimes the creepiest tales are the ones meant for children… this is one of those, but with a soft enough edge to keep things light and cozy. Save this one for the fall season! Spooky vibes: ★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★★ Ollie's life is something she is deciding Not Thinking About. Things have happened. Ollie's of the opinion that if she doesn't look too closely at the details, things will be manageable. Or at least, more manageable. Then a weird woman by Ollie' favorite spot by the lake tries to throw away a book—one of Ollie's most favorite and precious types of items—and Ollie can't let her do it. She steals the book from the crying, upset woman and runs away with it. The fact that the woman's rambling about darkness and evil... Eh. Ollie's not looking too closely at the details. But maybe Ollie should have looked at the details. As she finds herself diving into the book's story about Beth, two brothers, and an unnatural series of events, Ollie's starting to see some odd parallels between the book's setting and her hometown. And the next day, Ollie's class takes a field trip to a local farm. Where things get terrifying. Fast. Now it's up to Ollie and a few friends to save the day and escape before it's too late... Small Spaces is a book that I have had on my radar for a longgggg time. Definitely since its debut in 2018. It's spooky? Check. It's about the fall time and involves scary scarecrows? Check. It's written by Katherine Arden? CHECK. Don't ask me why I waited so long to pick this one up. I have no answers, and now it's one of those books that I wish I'd read earlier. But hey, we're here now! And it was just as a good as I'd hoped it would be. This falls into that wonderful category of middle grade reads that feels like its meant for all ages. Both suitable for its age group (8-12 years old, I believe) and the rest of us older people, Small Spaces has that quality of atmosphere and timelessness that will likely make it a perennial classic in the realm of Halloween reading. I know I will be recommending it broadly! Make sure to leave room on your autumnal TBR pile for this one... and watch out for the smiling man :)  2.5 stars
Small towns filled with hunters, tasked with killing nightmarish monsters each night to keep the rest of the modern world safely unaware. A girl with a burning desire to belong. A boy with secrets. Welcome to the American branch of the Luminaries. Concept: ★★★★ Pacing: ★★★ Enjoyment: ★★ Hemlock Falls isn't like other towns. You won't find it on a map, your phone won't work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you. Winnie Wednesday is a teenager with a very abnormal life. For one thing, she lives in Hemlock Falls—a town filled with clans of hunters, all driven to fight the magical nightmares that plague their forests each night. Each day of the week has a clan, and each clan hunts the nightmares on their day of the week. Except for Winnie Wednesday and her family. Because while they might be "Wednesdays" in name, the truth of the matter is... they're outcasts. So Winnie spends her days ignored, slighted, and mocked. It's not a good living. Her exiled father's one mistake costed her family's entire happiness, and now it's up to Winnie to redeem their name in the only way she knows how: by succeeding in the Hunter trials during the month of her sixteenth birthday. But there's something stranger than usual afoot in the forests of Hemlock Falls... and Winnie's about to find herself right in the middle of it. (Oh, and so will her ex-friend, Jay. The mysteriously handsome and aloof boy whom Winnie can't forgive—and yet can't forget.) My thoughts: Alright.... So I think I'm going to take this book as a sign. A sign that I, for some reason, do not vibe with Susan Dennard's stories. (I love her as a person and will continue to enjoy her on Twitter/etc.) This entire review needs to be taken with a grain of salt because I really should have stopped reading Dennard after I tried and failed to read the Witchlands series after multiple attempts. But that's neither here nor there, so let's talk about this book specifically. Have you ever read a story that feels like you SHOULD totally love it, and yet it's like just outside of your reach in a frustrating manner? That was The Luminaries for me. I loved the concept. That hooked me in from the start and continued to compel me throughout the reading experience. Each weekday clan with a motto, a cause, and some shady secrets? Sign me up! How interesting! The atmosphere and general sense of setting was darkly whimsical in the best way. But... the story itself fell flat for me. The characters felt basic, like templates of the standard YA character tropes. The plot feel both too bogged down with weird details and yet so utterly vague on large concepts. I also have one major issue, but it is a spoiler so I will keep it vague here for the purposes of this review: the town's reactions to Winnie's family? Made no sense? Literal adults, acting like that? Even family members? I just could NOT get into the logic of that. Anyways, not one for me. Which is a bummer. HOWEVER, it seems like this author's logic flow and mine maybe are at odds, so it might just be me. Give this one a try if the description interests you!  4.5 stars
"Dreaming means waking up as your worst fear," you say? Let's also add in some "eh, might die, but I can't afford to be anywhere else" vibes and I'm sold. This was such a fascinating concept and a really fun read. Concept: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★ Man, I really wish I'd gotten around to my advanced reading copy sooner so that I could have been an AGGRESSIVE promoter of it during its release week. I have fallen down on my duties!! This book was such a good ride, y'all, and I am definitely paying attention now. Ness Near lives in the City of Nightmares. No wait, Gotham. No wait, it's not either of those places—it's Newham. Either way, the vibes are the same: this is not the kind of city you'd like to live in. Rampant crime and violent death. In-your-face political corruption. Unbelievable living conditions. And none of those things are the worst selling point--it's the Nightmares that you have to worry about. What if every time you dreamed, you rolled the dice on the chance that you woke up as your worst Nightmare? Ness is very aware of the tragedy and horror of that gamble. When she was younger, one night her older sister, Ruby, went to sleep and woke up as a giant, man-eating spider. Ruby was gone, and the spider in her place killed their father and others in town. Let's just say that Ness never quite got over that. Now a young adult living at the Friends of the Restless Soul compound—a charity (cough cough, cult) organization that provides "pay as you can afford" therapies to Nightmare trauma survivors—Ness is eeking away a frightened and barely there existence in the country's most dangerous city and surrounded on a daily basis by her worst fear: Nightmares. And then, to make matters worse, Ness ends up embroiled in an embroiled assassination attempt beyond her wildest imaginings and finds the little ground she's scraped and bled to assemble ripped out from under her. Oh, and then there's the Nightmare that ends up in (and on) the same boat she's in, who just might turn out to be her only friend. Yep. Things are about to get...interesting. (And that's saying something for the city of Newham, where the current Mayor keeps a Nightmared-pterodactyl on a leash to eat her political enemies.) Okay, so if you've made it this far into the review and are somehow NOT already interested, let me just say that City of Nightmares was such a fun and self-aware ride. As a reader who burned herself out on traditional young adult books, it's getting rarer and rarer these days for me to find a hook that invites me into a story. I'd like something new—that I haven't read before—and I'd like it to be done well and with the right amount of believable character traits. I'm ruthless with my reading tastes when I want to be, and for the past year the genre under the chopping block has been young adult fantasy. But not this one. This one, I devoured. Ness is the right kind of character for this story. In a world where fear itself is the commodity of choice, Ness is true scaredy cat. She's a self-professed coward, one who can barely handle the benign Nightmares that walk the streets harmlessly, not to mention the actually dangerous ones. Ness jumps from safe zone to safe zone under the constant internalized threat of Death by Nightmare. She's a right mess, alright? And that really worked for me. While we all like to pretend we're relatable to the hero of a fantasy story, we're really...not. How many of us would sign up for that dangerous quest, or that big bad boss showdown, or that heist against the odds? I'm self-aware enough to admit that given the actual facts, I'd be like Ness. "How can I survive this experience and avoid personal damage to the best of my abilities, please?" Sign me up for that self-preservation track. Yup. So I thought that thread of character realism in this caricaturized, fictional version of our real world's dark side was awesome. It lent a dose of grounding to the sensational world building. And it made for a very good reading experience. Did the pacing lag a bit? Yeah. Did we also kind of rush things there at the end of this first book? Maybe. But honestly, I had such a good time that I don't really care about that. Book two, I'm waiting for you! Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.  3.5 stars
A girl, a boy, and realms beyond death. Doors to other places and whispering demons in the corner of your eye. This was a very interesting read. Concept: ★★★★ Execution: ★★★ Pacing: ★★★ Delaney is a girl with one foot in the world of the living and one foot in the world of the dead. Having gone Deaf when she was a young child experiencing a deadly illness and a near/actual-death experience, Lane's life has gone through some unexpected paths. Her latest unexpected path involves her mysterious enrollment in Godbole University. Lane's been inducted into a secretive program with unknown foundations and a distinctly macabre flair. What do the students learn? What exactly qualifies them for this invite-only degree? And what the heck is up with her hot and mysterious teaching assistant, Colton Price? (Yes, this is essentially a young adult romance told with a distinctly dark academia/speculative flair. You've been warned!) With a creeping sense that something is afoot, Lane finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a web of lies, alternate realms, and a worrying number of missing and dead students. Has Lane unexpectedly dropped herself in the middle of a dangerous game? I don't want to do this novel any disservice by talking about the magical elements within this book. Part of the enjoyment comes from allowing the book to reveal its steps in due course to Lane (and the reader) as they unfold. The Whispering Dark had a very cool premise. Lane's Deafness leading to a unique magical relationship with—you might have guessed—a whispering entity in the darkness was very unique and I enjoyed seeing that development unfold. This novel's unique blend of horror, portal fantasy, Romeo + Juliet vibes, and deathly gothic saturation was a heady combination to read. And yet... Agh, I am conflicted. Sometimes, there's a book that is overly mysterious and the ratio between the unknown and the revealed skews itself between "the reader has no clue what the F is going on" and "the reader knows too much about what is going on" in a satisfying way. And then other times... that ratio veers to far in one direction and loses its edge. I fear The Whispering Dark veered too far for me. This is a novel with a lot of mystery: What is going on with this academic program? Why are students disappearing and turning up dead? What is Colton Price's backstory, and why is is mysterious childhood experience with death linked so intrinsically with Lane? How does this magic system of disappearing into portals/realms work? And so on. There are a TON of questions, and The Whispering Dark prefers to leave you in the dark (pun intended) for a frustratingly long time instead of answering them. I wanted to have more of a concrete sense of understanding around this magic system and its mechanics: I didn't get it. I wanted to know more about the lore and the background for these other realms and/or why this entity cared about our realm and our characters so much: I didn't get that, either. And it's not just the magical elements of this novel that frustrated me... It was the characters and their antics too. We had some side characters who seemed under-utilized and under-described, and yet annoying present despite their two-dimensional aspects. We also had a very, VERY heady relationship between Lane and Colton that felt almost Twilight-esque in its gothic attraction/insta-love elements, and yet for 90% of the book I spent my time frustratedly waiting for the "reveal" to happen for Lane as we, the reader, know why their pairing is so significant and yet Lane is keep in the metaphorical dark to the point of ruining the emotional payoff of the reveal. (I know I sound heated about this last one, and I am. This was so frustrating to slog through and I don't think this book would have lost its edge if we'd allowed for their pairing to be more honest from the start.) However, despite my issues with this novel's lack of explanations, frustrating lack of coherency, and over-the-top gothic romance vibes, I did still enjoy this read. I think I might be in the minority for the elements I mention above, so if you're interested in The Whispering Dark's premise I do recommend it. |
Amy Imogene ReadsJust someone looking for her own door into Wonderland. Categories
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All reviews posted are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any other individual or entity. When applicable, reviewed titles sent to me by the publisher are noted at the bottom of each review.
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