blewballoon's Reviews (763)

There's a lot of good stuff here, but I was also really frustrated. Starting with the good, I like the universe. I like the mix of magical races and a magical town. I liked that Mariel had friends and her friends seemed like decent people. I liked the plant magic Mariel specialized in. I liked Ozroth's descriptions of the demon plane and his upbringing. I thought the audiobook narrator did a good job with everything apart from the male character voices, I really think the book would have benefited from a male narrator for the sections from Ozroth's perspective. 

Unfortunately, I did spend most of the book feeling exasperated. The cartoonish portrayal of Mariel's family, her mother in particular, made the entire character journey

of standing up to her family

feel cheap and forced. The romance was okay most of the time, but became unstable in the later section of the book. The author seemed to condone

Mariel's complete lack of faith in Ozroth and immediate acceptance that he would betray her, despite him having never given any evidence that he would do so and having always been honest with her. The book treats the physical and emotional pain he faces afterwards as justified, even when the misunderstanding is cleared up.

I found most of the book predictable, but that doesn't tend to bother me unless things are so obvious that the characters look like idiots for not figuring it out themselves.

Excellent prose, Washington Irving creates some really great imagery which often times felt like visual gags in writing. The exaggerated tone of the descriptions made me want to watch the animated adaptation, I could so easily picture the scene in a Looney Tunes or Donald Duck cartoon. For my attention span, these descriptions sometimes caused me to lose focus and I had to backtrack to remember the actual bones of the story. 

Similarly to Dracula, this reads to me as more of a comedy than a scary story. Unlike with Dracula, the narrative voice came off as cynical and the characters are a not likable. Any adaptation that presents Ichabod as a good and sincere man is taking liberties. None of the other characters are better, they are just different caricatures.

Overall, somehow both a better and worse experience than I expected. The prose was fun to listen to on audiobook, but if it had been longer it probably would have worn out its welcome due to lack of captivating characters and plot.

This book was way better than it had any right to be with such a silly title. The cover on the audiobook version I had from Libby was also ridiculous. Despite the goofy tone on first impression, there was some depth here. The characters are quickly attracted to each other, and they have natural chemistry, but they had to work through internal and external obstacles to earn their friendship and romance. The power dynamic in the relationship shifts back and forth as the characters make choices about what vulnerabilities to share and what knowledge to keep hidden, and the decisions Vincent and Wesley make feel cohesive with their established goals and past experiences. There is also a bit of a mystery plot with the Vitalis-Barron Pharmaceutical company in addition to the romance plot. 

I was surprised that for how many allusions there were to spicy activities, the book is actually pretty tame and fades to black before anything explicit. 

My expectations were highly exceeded. It's got a good werewolf story, a good friendship story, a found family story AND a story about supportive biological families, and a story about living with chronic illness and the many forms that can take. In my opinion, all of the above were done well. I chuckled, and I almost cried a few times. I listened on audiobook, which was fine, but there are a lot of chat transcripts with usernames, so I might recommend reading the text version, since it will be easier to follow those visually I think. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but none of them felt flat and they were all distinct. I'd especially recommend this to readers who have been impacted by chronic illness, and anyone who wants a somewhat tame werewolf story about friendship. 

Checked the content warnings and other reviews, this does not sound like a book for me.

Marking this as read, but I got to 57% and then just skipped to the last chapter and the epilogue.

I was enjoying this book until the

angry sex scene. Violent/aggressive sex is not something I enjoy reading, even if it's consensual. I could have dealt with it if it wasn't immediately followed by Riley saying the meanest things she possibly could to Clark, and on purpose!

Up until that point I had been mostly enjoying the premise, the setting, and even had sympathy for both characters and felt like their respective screw ups were mostly accidental/misguided and they could work past them. Enemies to lovers isn't my favorite, but I was really trying to stay positive. After that scene, though, I knew that nothing could convince me these characters belonged together. I had already figured out where the plot was going and how the curse was going to be broken, but I had no interest in reading about these two anymore.

A cozy, sweet, easy romance between two lovely people who are passionate about their work and trying to do their best. I loved the steady support and positivity between the main couple. Maybe some people find that kind of natural, easygoing chemistry boring, but I enjoy it and I find it the most believable. The spicy scenes were well written, too.

I wouldn't have minded learning more about the cryptids and conspiracies that came up throughout the book, and I also wouldn't have minded if the book had gone ahead with

fully confirming that the crypids do exist rather than just a little tease.  I unfortunately might have found that easier to suspend my disbelief for than the toxic ex getting fired from the company when what he had done got reported.

 

I did sometimes struggle in each scene to figure out what was filmed and part of the web series and what was not, but I enjoyed the little snippets of the web series and the audiobook included a little musical cue for them as well. The audiobook narrator is fantastic, I thought their narration was exceptional in Ready or Not and they killed it again here. People who don't like their audiobook narrators to "act" might not like it, but I prefer that to more stiff and monotone narration.

I think people who like messy millennial girl lit and like their horror more gross and disturbing than spooky and scary might enjoy this. 

I knew I was taking a bit of a gamble on this author. I loved Such Sharp Teeth but I didn't love Cackle, and I wasn't sure where their Vampire horror would land. I found Cackle to be unhinged and sloppy, but still a page turner that had fun moments. I'm having no fun at all with So Thirsty. 

I was going to power through and finish it anyway, even though I am certain that there is nothing the book can do from here that would make me enjoy it more. I decided to DNF because I realized I'm actively avoiding reading it before bed because it puts me in a bad mood that makes it harder to fall asleep.  

My issues: The Vampires are gross. I understand the point of the uncomfortable sex party, but it made my skin crawl the whole time I had to read about it, and that's not the type of horror I'm personally looking for. The main character is a total bummer to be in the headspace of, she thinks about nothing but being jealous of her friend, her cheating husband, and obsessing about aging. The woman is 36, and when she washes her hands while trapped at an uncomfortable sex party she worries about her hands looking older because she's stripping the natural oils. Girl, stop. This should not be your concern. If I didn't like the Vampires and I didn't like the main character, what else was there for me to enjoy? The Friendship? This toxic push and pull between flat characters is not a friendship I want to read about. The Romance? Oh, the insta-love over a cliché mystery guy who seems like he's been living in a dumpster for 2 centuries? Actually a worse love story than Twilight. 

Seriously, Kyle?!

Just when you least expect it—Kyle strikes again! He's the real antagonist of this whole story.

I know I can always turn to Darcy Coates for a spooky-but-not-too-disturbing story with main characters who mean well but find themselves in a scary situation. There's also always been a cat. I did get a bit frustrated with Daniel when he

even considered listening to his garbage cousin Kyle. Kyle is the worst.

I still had an overall fun reading experience, nothing super groundbreaking or surprising, but perfectly scratched my itch for a Halloweenish book. 

Excellent! Spooky teen corn maze book! The power of friendship! Wow, I really enjoyed this. The audiobook narrator does seem to over-enunciate the dialogue and their range of voices was limited, but I was still quite immersed in the story. It was tense, mysterious, spooky, and funny in a balanced way. I appreciated the way it approached subjects like toxic relationships, neurodiversity, and fat phobia. The best part of the book for me was the pure friendship between Sadie and Logan.