DNF at 18%

What in the Wattpad did I just read??? Gothikana is one of the most poorly written books I’ve read in awhile (aside from this monstrosity). For how high the praise for this story is (I think I just need to stop listening to hype atp bc I always seem to hate all the hyped up books) I found nothing likeable, nor redeemable about the writing or story that I read. I’ve only read 18%, but already I can tell this book desperately needed an editor.

Gothikana is marketed as a gothic, dark academia, romance with a mystery plot and paranormal elements. It’s hilarious to me how this book is called Gothikana and nothing about the book is gothic—unless we’re counting the 5 hr long Spotify playlist in the beginning of the book…Our FMC, Corvina (made me think of this place LMAO), leaves her quiet home town to study at an elusive and mysterious university in the middle of nowhere. It’s there that she falls in forbidden love with her Professor, Vad…allegedly anyways (btw this is one of the worst MMC names I’ve ever encountered. Worse than any J name ever tbh).

While the start of this book was promising, Gothikana quickly falls into the forgettable and poorly written category of the indie, self-published, KU landfill. This book is obviously more focused on its (supposed) general aesthetics than the quality of its writing. The descriptions were mediocre at best, and very very poor at worst, the romance is already instalovey and giving me visceral ick, the telling instead of showing is absolutely infuriating, the amount of typos was driving me insane, and the dialogue is downright awful. I literally just DNF’ed after Vad (jesus christ) says to Corvina (rolls eyes):

”Steer clear of me, little crow,” he muttered, his eyes piercing, flaying her open. “You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be careful giving me those eyes.”

(Btw his corny ass is the English professor, so I just know he thought he did something…)

This book just kind of felt like if you gave a middle schooler Microsoft Word and told them to write anything they wanted. I hate to be so critical in my reviews, especially to indie authors, but I’m sorry, this was just really bad and I’m so glad I DNF’ed. I just really want to try what y’all 4 and 5 star readers are smoking because the hallucinations must have been