The first chapter of this book had me hooked! The writing intrigued me and I had to know what happened! But sadly, I had to DNF this book at 51%, I couldn’t continue. The story was so incredibly slow. Sometimes I was interested despite the slow nature of the novel and at other times I just didn’t care what was happening in the slightest. I knew going into the book that this will probably be a slow burn horror, but the story could’ve been condensed A LOT! There are a lot of unnecessary scenes and the writing is so descriptive that it’s boring. I don’t need to know every little detail of every little thing. The book is only 200+ pages, but I feel like I’ve read 400 pages of nothing. The first chapter interested me so much that I still want to know what happened, but not enough to get through another half of this glacially paced book…

Thank you Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW (up to 51% in): child death, death of a parent, snakes, animal death, self harm, pedophilia 

The story is interesting. I still want to know what’s going on, but not enough to deal with all these annoying characters. All the emphasis is put on them and they have such uninteresting personalities. Also there are a lot of characters and they all have code names and I can’t keep up with who is who. If the EMPHASIS wasn’t on the characters I could finish for the story, but I can’t do these characters.

This book called RECLAIMING Two Spirits is written by a cis white man. I prefer to get my Indigenous history from Indigenous people. I don’t understand why the author thinks that he is “reclaiming” anything.

The book is just too triggering to me. There is so much emphasis on adult/minor relationships and pedophiiia that it’s just so uncomfortable. It’s happening multiple times with multiple different people and I can’t take it. There was also a common theme of young girls “luring” grown men into having sex with them. I hope that there will be commentary later in the book about how only these grown men are to blame because children shouldn’t be able to “lure” you into doing anything with them, but I can’t finish to find out. Read with caution.

When I first started this book, I was incredibly excited for it. It’s one of my most anticipated releases of 2023! And the beginning of the book was great! It started off very creepy and mysterious! The character development was good. The exploration of grief in this story was very impactful. I loved the mixed media format and how photographs were included in the novel. And the chapters from the motel room’s point of view were so creepy, I was excited to find out what was going on! But sadly, I had to DNF at 55%.

After the first few chapters, most of the time this did not feel like a mystery or horror book. There was way too much emphasis on a romantic subplot and it really took me out of the story and bored me. There was more pining than mystery. I don’t usually mind if there’s a little romantic subplot in my spooky books, but the two main characters pining took over the whole story. It was interesting at first but it just got exhausting when the story wasn’t moving forward, it was just all about romantic thoughts. It also seems like these characters don’t really care about their lives! At one point they learn about all the deaths in the room, they know there’s something sinister going on,  and they still choose to stay there! That is very unrealistic to me. At about 49% into the story I decided to put it down for a week or so to focus on books that I was enjoying more. I eventually picked it back up to read more, got to 55%, and I just have no motivation to finish. I kind of care what happens at the end, but not enough to read 45% more pining instead of mystery. Maybe one day I’ll come back and try to finish, but not today.

Someone that knows going into the story that romantic thoughts are a heavy focus of this story and that it’s more character driven than plot driven might have a better time with it. I was just expecting paranormal mystery with little to no romance. But if you enjoy romantic plots in your spooky books, this could be a good read for you!

Thanks you Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: death of a family member, car accident, drowning, parental neglect 

I read Dawn earlier this year and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to continue the series! However, this book is slower than dial up Internet. I got almost halfway through and barely anything had happened. That 44% could’ve been reduced to the first 15% of the book. And I didn’t care about the main character at all. Like he’s interesting for a minute, but not interesting enough to carry a whole book. I missed Lilith. 

I will say that I still think Octavia E. Butler is a genius because her mind works like no other. I don’t know how she thought of the things she wrote about, but it’s pretty mind blowing that she had these ideas. The execution just wasn’t there for me in this novel. I just know that I can’t get through another 56% of this pacing with basically nothing happening. I hate to abandon the whole series, but I can’t force myself to read another word.

And don’t fight me because I know how you girls like to tussle😬

I put this down because I caught a cold and couldn’t concentrate on reading, and then I just never wanted to pick it back up.

Characters had no personality so I didn’t care about the romance and therefore didn’t care about the book.

This was so boring. Nothing was happening, and it wasn’t even intriguing. Like you know how sometimes a book is slow but it’s building suspense and intrigue? Not this one.

All she did was walk around high for 100 pages. No story at all. I heard that it gets better after Part 1, but I don’t care enough to read through all this slowness to get there. This is the kind of book that gives thick books a bad name!