I picked this book up at half price books forever ago because it was cheap and the cover was gorgeous. I honestly don't think I even read the synopsis when I purchased it.

I picked it up today and read the synopsis and was immediately intrigued by the premise: a novel based on the poem/song Scarborough Fair.

Unfortunately, I had some serious issues with the execution of this novel.

***Trigger warnings for sexual assault***

Things I liked:

1. The concept. I just thought this was so unique. And reading the author's note after I finished the book and how the author went from a seedling of an idea to a full-blown novel was interesting.

2. The cover. 10/10


What I didn't like:

1. The writing. I just felt like it was a little all over the place. I didn't mind getting multiple perspectives, including the villain, but I wish it had been a little more cohesive and that the voices had been more distinct. It was very simplistic, to the point of feeling kind of stilted at times. I'm really surprised this author was a national book award finalist.

2. The pacing. While this book ended up being a quick read, I felt like it took quite awhile to get to the main action of the story. The author spent a lot of time setting up the plot.

3. The characters. I didn't hate any of these characters (except the villain, who you're SUPPOSED to hate) but I also didn't connect to any of them. I didn't feel like any of them were well-developed. I also didn't like that the author had characters act in ways that didn't make sense and they couldn't really explain, but ended up helping them...and then it was explained away as 'true love wins' and that's supposed to be enough. Magical realism doesn't have to explain everything, but a little would be niceZ

4. The ending. The story dragged along for most of the book and then in the last few pages everything just kind of flew by.

5. The author's use of sexual assault as a plot point. When the assault happened, I was shocked, to be honest. I didn't realize the book was going to go that dark. But that wasn't something that would make me DNF a book. However, I felt like the author didn't deal with the aftermath of the rape in a way that was realistic. The character who is assaulted gets over the assault so quickly. We hear an off-the-cuff remark about therapy...and that's it. We never actually see her in a session. We never see her struggle with the fact that she was utterly violated. It doesn't seem to bother her much, even in the beginning. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

At the end of the day, I felt like this had so much potential as it was really a unique kind of adaptation, but ultimately I wasn't impressed.