3.5 stars

Roseblood is one of those books that was so unique and different that I am still not convinced that it wasn’t straight up weird… but in a good way? This book took something we are all familiar with (or should be) - the Phantom of the Opera - and turned it on its head. Mixed with familiar fantasy tropes, Howard was able to blend the magical boarding school setting with the creeptastic and somehow sensual retelling elements with practised ease. I will admit that it felt a little too meta at times with the book and musical having been written/performed in this world as well as the fictional characters being… well, not so fictional. It got a tad confusing!

The writing was so lush and vibrant. Every element of the story - the characters, the setting, the music, especially the music - was described in such vivid and realistic detail that it felt like certain scenes played out in my mind in movie-quality pictures. However, this did limit the pace of the story. Howard obviously struggled to find the balance between her prose and the story’s action. This is going to annoy a lot of readers who don’t have infinite patience for dense, wordy descriptions but will certainly excite those readers who adore lush writing.

Character-wise, I did not connect to Rune that much but Thorne was absolutely adorable. My little cinnamon roll, I desperately wanted to give him a hug and never let him go.