cielosiluminado's Reviews (443)

i’m so conflicted... major mixed feelings about this novel.

on one hand, i really enjoyed the writing style. the well-written foreshadowing and foreboding early on had me invested. on the other, i have never hated a main character wannabe-hero so badly than i have hated amir. not only that, so many things have not aged well in today’s climate and that does not sit right with me.

the pro-american bush-w@r-pr0p@g@nd@, the pro-1sNOTr3@l tangent and the hypocrisy from baba (amir’s father) made me furious and i almost dnf’d when the truth was revealed, the trying to make us feel bad for the privileged main character while so much wrongness was done to the lower-class side characters at the hand of the main character, the “redemption arc” in the third act that tried to garner sympathy and resolve our conflicted feelings when it came to amir... i don’t know. i understand why this novel is beloved by many, but for me it left me dumbfounded. and not in a positive way.

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i now understand why this is such a beloved classic. it’s heartbreakingly beautiful and life-changing. just read it, you won’t regret it.

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2nd read (2024):
it’s been 6 years since i read this and it just wasn’t for me this time around. sure, i felt bad that all the adults in holden’s life kept failing him, which led to his depressive breakdowns, but this was still a rambling book about a privileged white boy who thought he was better than everyone else. guess that makes me a phony.

thank god i only payed $0.99 for this copy at the thrift store and read along with the audiobook on 2x speed

1st read (2018):
the first time i read this was in my senior year english class and i liked it.

i never knew that the real story was so tragic or that the monster’s creature’s name wasn’t frankenstein, it was actually the creator’s name: victor frankenstein; the creature remained unnamed.

and you know what? justice for the nameless creature! victor had it coming!

reading, and enjoying, this book has made me more interested in mary shelley’s works.

i just love this story so much. i'm a sucker for grumpy man falling in love with a sunshine girl.

dante being italian was... like vivian, it also does unspeakable things to my insides.

also can we talk about dante's groveling? *chefs kiss*

i also loved vivian and seeing her grow to where she finally knows her worth and finally stood up for herself, even against family, was so inspiring.

even though this is the first classic i thoroughly enjoyed reading, i have to admit i was a little bit lost sometimes because there was a lot of monologues and tangents that made me lose focus and i had to reread the same thing repeatedly until it made sense. all that being said, i think this will be a classic i will reread for pleasure.

tldr: highkey wish i was smarter lmao to fully understand and appreciate this work of art

pure disabled joy ♡

so i finished this in a day. like this book may have been the shortest in the series, but it was also the darkest so far. so much fucked up shit happened that it left me feeling numb at the end.

after reading, i learned that the shadow man is a very controversial character to like in the dark verse fandom... and i loved him. like, a lot AKSCBHDHYVYHAV there’s just something about morally black, psychotic, unhinged boy-obsessed antihero’s that just do it for me tbh. and lyla? she was also so fucking strong i loved her so much.

runyx adds something into her books because the unexpected twists and turns this book took... i need the last book now.

what. the. fuck. this is the first book where i shed a tear. and that never happens.

p.s. enjoy my rambling review ~

this book was with completely new characters, featuring recurring ones, in a completely new city we’ve never seen before. i actually didn’t really know what i was expecting but i was excited to meet them all. i immediately loved them and read all of it in one day.

zephyr “rainbow” de la vega. i want to be her when i grow up. she was so incredibly happy, funny, smart, and compassionate. she wore her heart on her sleeve and didn’t give up on the people she loved.

alessandro “alpha” villanova. the man that he became despite everything that he lived... wow. he was a protector, and always had been. he also wears a literal eyepatch. that’s hot.

i also need to highlight all their cute pet names they gave each other because they were just so cute.

10 years had passed, and alpha had no memory of zephyr or their pre-existing relationship. she whirled into his life again like a tornado and a marriage of convenience finally brought them back together like she always wished for. sounds creepy and stalkerish, but it isn’t.

alpha loved zephyr once and their life together was stolen from them by an unknown source so she was going to do everything in her power to bring him happiness, love, and peace. patiently, with care, because she knew he had unknown traumas that she didn’t want to bring to the surface maliciously. even if he never remembered her, she’d still love and care for him, protecting his heart.

it just proved that despite alpha and zephyr being two complete opposites and living different lives, they were destined to be together. her pure love for him, time and time again, was so raw and honest. it was so, so beautiful, and the moment he finally accepted her love and didn’t shy away from his possessiveness? incredible storytelling followed.

runyx is incredible with her words, her story-building and her twists. like in this book, the amnesia, the second chance, the murder-mystery, the horror, everything in this book left me wanting more. the overarching plot that connects in this series was immaculately done. so much shit caught me off guard and i usually see shit from a mile away. the shit that was unraveled leading up to the end had me gasping out loud, a tear falling down my face, and freaking the fuck out.

she also gave us a pre-epilogue AND a bonus epilogue??? we got TWO of them!! AAAAAA this was a happy-for-now story for the couple and that makes me so nervous for what’s to come in the last book...

so, wrapping this nonsensical review up by saying that i’m excited to finally, officially meet the shadow man. i love a boy-obsessed trope. this may be a controversial opinion, but i think i’m going to love this dark, mysterious man...

i don’t think i’ll ever have the right words to describe this masterpiece. i loved every second of it and all i can truly, confidently say is that this story has my entire heart.

the first part of the book was so sweet. it focused on dante and amara as teenagers. it showed their friendship begin, the innocence of all of it. as more time passed, their life together, and apart, became so much more heartbreakingly beautiful. i loved how their romance didn’t flourish immediately, it grew with them in time and blossomed into something incredibly remarkable.

dante and amara’s love is pure, sweet, hot, and beautiful. they were both made for each other. one has to read their journey to truly understand them and how they came to be. the horrors they lived, demons they battled, and time they had to wait was truly devastating. with their love and patience, dante and amara healed each other. they were destined to rule this twisted kingdom. together, as king and queen. their love may have been forbidden, but it also created something so precious for both of them: tempest and her lost sister.

i loved seeing tristan and morana again, them meeting and embracing xander into their lives ( who is this little boy and how did the shadowman let him know to trust the “man with the blue eyes”? ). you cannot change my mind that tristan was born to be a father, especially with the huge heart that man has. he has so much love to give and morana and xander are so blessed. xander and morana coding together also creates the most adorable picture. i can truly see it.

i may be the only one who thinks this but i cannot even begin to say how much i worry for vin now that he’s gone underground. BUT! for some reason a part of me is also still suspicious of him... especially with that mysterious call he made. could it have been a coincidence? wrong timing? i don’t know... it’s a bad feeling i have that won’t go away. especially since my gut was right about a certain someone and who they were connected to. i just hope i’m wrong about vin and he’s truly a good guy, especially with how much he means to amara and dante.

the other recurring characters in this was so heartwarming to see, like amara’s mom and lulu. they are the best and should be protected all costs.

i also met alessandro “alpha” villanova. he’s hot. i cannot wait to learn his dark, twisted story. the little details he told dante intrigued me a lot.

this literally felt like a movie, with a perfect balance of action, mystery, thriller, and romance all wrapped up together. the overarching dark verse plot is incredible, and no matter how many questions and mysteries are solved, it still leaves you with so many enticing questions unanswered. here are some questions that kept repeating in my mind while i was reading:

1. is luna still alive?
2. how big is the syndicate? how far is their reach? who runs it? who are key players?
3. who is the shadowman? is he actually “airport guy/asshole”? is he actually a good guy? is he the guy in the extended epilogue?

it amazes me how runyx created this dark, convoluted world and i cannot wait to unravel more of it.