I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly have no idea how (or why) I made it through this book, but here I am.

major trigger warnings for several suicide attempts and at least one suicide, frequent self-harm, and alcohol addiction.

I requested Crimson Ash on NetGalley months ago because the blurb sounded interesting - I love stories with sibling relationships, especially sisters, and I used to love dystopias. Then I kept putting off reading this book, and by the time I finally got around to it, I've fallen in love with solarpunk and hopeful futures, and out of love with gritty dystopias.

So, I was already a little wary of Crimson Ash when I started, but I figured I could still enjoy it in a "it's not for me, but it can still be good" way. Yeah, that didn't happen.

There were so many suicides, suicide attempts, self-harm, manipulation, friends killing friends and happiness/hope being ripped away at the last minute that it honestly blended together. Some of these may be standard for dystopias, but it was way too much for one book in one opinion.

Note: the book actually has a trigger warning note at the beginning that warns for "self-injurious behaviour and mentions of suicide", but I don't think that suffices. There weren't just mentions, and it wasn't just one or two - there were at least three different graphic suicides or suicide attempts, and many more self-harm scenes or carving flesh. At the very least the trigger warning could have been more visible, e.g. bolded, larger letters, or on a separate page, because it's very easy to miss.

There are only two reasons why I gave this book 2 stars instead of 1:
- one of the main girls has a girlfriend, and by some miracle they actually both survive the book
- the author herself struggled with depression and the darkest parts of the book were apparently inspired by this, although I'm not sure if this makes the frequent and (in my opinion) careless use of suicides and self-harm better or worse

I guess some people might still find this book interesting, but personally it was too gritty for me, and while I'm grateful there was a trigger warning at all, 1) I didn't even notice it at first because it's with normal letters at the bottom of the publishing info (seriously, no offense, but who reads that?), 2) I don't think it adequately warns for the triggering content.

I also thought the writing was often rushed and there was a lot of telling-not-showing, but honestly that's a minor problem compared to the rest.

edit: I forgot to mention the part where the main villain was evil because he got sick and "went crazy".