dapperreads's Reviews (1.29k)

This was an interesting read. Short chapters which I love and they are action packed!

The story starts with brothers finding a body on the outskirts of their town. They decide to take the body and burn it as they are supposed to. However, once close enough the body speaks. It says “help me”.

From there a whole bunch of stuff happens. It’s everything from betrayal, double lives, healing, mystery, action - even pregnant ladies. 

The concept here is so interesting. The world as we know it is no more - except for one class of human being pitted against another - which really resonates with current times. 

I enjoyed this book wholeheartedly!

DNF originally - picked it back up for the popsugar 2021 reading challenge because it’s my only DNF. 

The hype killed it - I’m not seeing what everyone else is with this book. I wanted to love it. The description was fantastic - it sounded amazing and everyone loved it - then I read it and it just wasn’t it. It’s over 400 pages and so many of them were just repeating the same thing over and over. 

There’s no reason for this story to get repetitive- it’s a solid story line and idea -then hearing this took 10 years to write? No one noticed the repetition in editing process???? If this was printed as the 300-350 page book it is without the repetition it would have been considerably more enjoyable. Or if instead of being just pure repetition, it took those chapters and made them into something else (like adding in some historical notes or other experiences - and more than just as a casual mention) I would have liked it better. I do get the premise requires some repetition but it’s the same story over and over with a different year slapped on it. So in 300 years nothing changed with Addie - even though she was watching the world change around her. 

Romancing the devil story? - no, she gets sassy with him and he’s shocked even after all these years. She literally hung around as long as she did out of spite. Which admittedly is something I would do but I don’t think that spite and romance are synonymous. 

According to the author, Addies curse (which is not a curse in my opinion but a pact with the devil) is to represent how women have historically been invisible and erased from history. While I can see that, if I hadn’t read the interview I wouldn’t have picked up on it. There are better ways this could have been portrayed. I’d have liked this idea better if she had joined one of the many women’s rights movements but she didn’t - she didn’t try to leave more than a selfish mark in history. It appeared that if her name wasn’t going to be attached she didn’t want to do it. Addie doesn’t even attempt to broaden her horizons in her 300 years. While it appears that way, all she did was travel to the various places in Europe and North America. There’s no mention of her feelings of everything she lived through - from wars to modernization (other than her not having a phone once Henry comes around). There’s also no mention of ANYTHING she does to help others. For example (not that it’s mentioned) the homeless population in NYC is high. If she can steal things for herself couldn’t she share food or clothing with others? After 300 years wouldn’t she develop some kind of empathy for others that go unnoticed by society? Of course not - that doesn’t benefit her. 

How about sexy time? It’s glossed over. Why even include it in an adult book if there isn’t at least mild description? The way it’s written is very YA, which is fine - but this book is also labeled Historical Fantasy and as previously mentioned - there really is no history. Yes she was born in the 1700s and the whole “females must marry because they are females” thing is mentioned but that’s the extent of the history. Just calling it a Fantasy would have changed my expectations but still not hit the mark. This feels Contemporary YA to me. Again, that’s fine - but not what I was expecting.

The last parts took this from a ⭐️⭐️ to a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ though. There’s something about Henry that really got to me. Those parts seemed to focus more on him and made the story considerably more enjoyable. 

I love slasher stories! The unfortunate thing is when I got halfway I realized that I’d already read the last chapter and knew how it ended! Even so, the ride to get to the end was a wild one!

Yay mythology!

Seriously though, I’m a huge fan of mythology in general and I loved this story of Circe! I don’t know what I was expecting but I really liked the way this story unfolded. It was almost a modern day retelling of classic mythology. I wouldn’t say retelling is the right word exactly, but it has the feel of the classic mythology story while at the same time being a different story.

This is a unique story. Honestly I’m not sure how to feel about it. I liked it. I really did. It’s definitely a bit historical along with some aspects of a thriller and horror story - which those genres together have me all confused. I do want to say that I listened to the audiobook and take my word for it that earbuds need to be used when in public! There is some inappropriate language in this book (one of the reasons for my rating honestly), and it’s doubly inappropriate at the park!

Overall this story is worth a read, but after all the hype I was expecting more.