TW: Self-harm, physical abuse

This book is such a mixed bag for me. My first inclination is to give it three stars, but the more I think about it, the more I don't like it. I guess we'll see where I'm at by the end of this review.

I loved...LOVED The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. It was so beautiful and whimsical and tragic all at the same time. Walton's prose was just amazing and the story itself felt like a modern fairy tale. When I heard about PGTTO, I immediately put it on hold at my local library.

Unfortunately, After a solid beginning and interesting set up, this book lost its way and I was very disappointed with the execution.

What I liked:

1. The premise. There was so much potential for this to be an amazing book. I haven't read many books recently about witches, but this was intriguing to me. The prologue was absolutely the high point of this story. Unfortunately, after the prologue was over there was still 260ish pages to go.


What I didn't like:

1. The writing. I almost put this in the 'liked' category, because there were some passages that were truly beautiful. Unfortunately, this lacked the magic that I was expecting from the person who captured my bookish heart with Ava Lavender, which is really disappointing. Maybe it's unfair to compare PGTTO to TSABSOAL, but the latter was so freaking beautiful on every page. It was so ethereal and dreamlike. I did not get that from Price Guide. There were some lovely turns of phrase, and the beginning was pretty strong, but after the initial set up it really fell off for me.

2. The plot. Really, there isn't much of a plot followed in this book. When I first started reading, I thought that it would revolve around the curse, which was intriguing to me. However, it quickly turned into a messy story about Nor's mother being a sadistic psychopath. The 'curse' was basically ignored after that.

3. The pacing. This book is only 270 pages. It felt like a 400 page book to me. For whatever reason, it just moves really slowly. I think part of that is that not much actually happens in this book. There is quite a bit of info-dumping that Walton isn't able to integrate into the story in an interesting way. At the end of the day, it was a bit of a struggle for me to keep going with this book. I had to make myself keep reading at some points.

4. The characters. I didn't connect with Nor at all. She was fine, but I didn't really feel any strong emotion about her. Even the passages where she is talking about the fact that she has been a cutter in the past. That should evoke some sort of emotion, right? And that's not to say that the psychology behind the writing wasn't accurate. But I just didn't feel anything. And I wanted to, so badly. Also, I didn’t like that Nor never actually deals with the fact that she has this urge, which I think could be harmful to readers who have similar urges.

None of the side characters are well-developed. I liked Judd, but not overly so. Most of the rest of the cast was pretty non-descript. And there were a lot of secondary characters. A lot of secondary characters with strange names. I kept forgetting who people were because they all kind of blended in together. Maybe if the story had been told in first person I would've been able to connect to Nor. Keeping the entire story in third person created a bit of a distance for me.

Also, Nor being this overpowered witch who doesn't really understand her powers but they manifest at exactly the right moment to save the day...convenient huh?

5. The villain. Yes, Fern is also a character, so I suppose this could've gone under characters, but Fern deserves her own entrance in the dislike category, that's how poorly executed she was. I still have no idea why she did what she did. At one point, we are given some lame attempt at an excuse about toxic love being her motivation, but that just doesn't do it for me. She wasn't given any depth whatsoever. In the beginning we're told that she's always been selfish and took what she wanted. THAT ISN'T PROPER MOTIVATION FOR KILLING HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND TERRORIZING YOUR DAUGHTER. Sorry, not sorry.

6. Romantic subplots. Insta-love, lack of tension, lack of chemistry, lack of development. And that's just her relationship with Reed. I never trusted Reed for some reason. Even now that the book is over, I still don't. This 'romance' was so lackluster. I would've preferred watching a dishmop make out with a garbage bag. Don't even get me started on Gage, who I actually felt had a bit of chemistry with Nor, but was completely underutilized. What is the point of introducing romantic elements to the story (indeed, as a major part of the curse she laid out for us at the beginning of the book) if she wasn't going to pay it off at all. All of those threads are completely dropped in favor of the Mommie Dearest storyline.

7. The ending. It was so rushed and anti-climactic. Also, since I had a difficult time connecting to any of the characters, the peril they did find themselves in didn't worry me at all. And

Nor killing her mother without even trying was just...no

8. The epilogue. Totally unnecessary. And who was the creepy guy? I'm not actually wanting more of this story, but to introduce some creeper in the last page of the book and expect me to give a shit is absolutely ridiculous. The more I write about the things I dislike, the more I dislike the book.

Other odds and ends:

1. What the heck was the significance of the claw Reed gave Nor? That is never paid off at all.

2. Why have a curse if you aren't going to pay it off in some way? Either have your characters break it or succumb to it. I would've much preferred if the book focused on the curse and Nor trying to break it.

I guess that was my biggest problem with this book. There are too many loose threads and things that are set up and never paid off.

I will still try Leslye Walton's next book and hope that this one was just a fluke somehow. This just didn't do it for me.