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splitdice 's review for:
The Safekeep
by Yael van der Wouden
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
do you ever feel like youre reading a different book thats completely different from everyone else? i know so many people who gave this a 5 star and for a vast majority of the book i had 0 idea why (though to be fair i think its my distaste for the "forward" presenting genre in the book).
the first 2/3rds are honestly a typical historical romance but make it sapphic. the writing was short, and the dialog was... um... bad. seriously, the entire time when i was reading this book i kept thinking to myself that i literally could have written this. i know there is a lot of drama surrounding the em dash right now, and while i do really enjoy it this book basically replaced commas in the dialog.
"it- i mean- it amounts to.. something like this. yeah- the dialog looks like this" <- this genuinely looks like something i would write for an RP when i was like 15.
besides the dialog, the plot just read like someone wanted to publish their enemies-to-lovers fan fiction. seriously, everything here was dull and repetitive. if you like romance i think this would appeal to you, and probably is why there is such a high rating on this book, but it just personally is not a genre that i enjoy, especially in the way it was presented. i was bored and it was a slog to read through this part. i also want to say there was not a really convincing arc from going to enemies to lovers, it literally felt very black-and-white with no convincing arc as why theyd actually like each other
then the third part came...
and you know what? for a second i actually thought the structure was genius and everything that i found egregious above actually had a point. sure, the dialog and characters were still cringy and bad, but im fine with that because i saw something between the lines that i thought was actually going to be pretty good!! thinking what the house in this book represents, and what the characters stood for, and how they treated each other- it was great!
until the ending happened. seriously, i thinktrying to go for a happily ever after for isabel really ruined the Point of the book. not every toxic sapphic relationship needs to be happy
anyways if youre a big romance reader that likes a bit of a Literary Twist go ahead, i can see why this book as mass appeal, but this just was not for me (after i predicted a 5 star rating for myself... welp)
the first 2/3rds are honestly a typical historical romance but make it sapphic. the writing was short, and the dialog was... um... bad. seriously, the entire time when i was reading this book i kept thinking to myself that i literally could have written this. i know there is a lot of drama surrounding the em dash right now, and while i do really enjoy it this book basically replaced commas in the dialog.
"it- i mean- it amounts to.. something like this. yeah- the dialog looks like this" <- this genuinely looks like something i would write for an RP when i was like 15.
besides the dialog, the plot just read like someone wanted to publish their enemies-to-lovers fan fiction. seriously, everything here was dull and repetitive. if you like romance i think this would appeal to you, and probably is why there is such a high rating on this book, but it just personally is not a genre that i enjoy, especially in the way it was presented. i was bored and it was a slog to read through this part. i also want to say there was not a really convincing arc from going to enemies to lovers, it literally felt very black-and-white with no convincing arc as why theyd actually like each other
then the third part came...
and you know what? for a second i actually thought the structure was genius and everything that i found egregious above actually had a point. sure, the dialog and characters were still cringy and bad, but im fine with that because i saw something between the lines that i thought was actually going to be pretty good!! thinking what the house in this book represents, and what the characters stood for, and how they treated each other- it was great!
until the ending happened. seriously, i think
anyways if youre a big romance reader that likes a bit of a Literary Twist go ahead, i can see why this book as mass appeal, but this just was not for me (after i predicted a 5 star rating for myself... welp)