Dnfed all 7 books that were included. None of them kept me engaged. 

I thought I was going to like it and then I just couldn’t get into it. The one time I thought they were talking about one character and it turned out to be a whole ‘nother character. While a lot of times that’s happened before, I just knew this wasn’t a special case (where I would like it if I just carried on).

Some likened it to Stranger Things, which I would’ve really liked to have seen. But ultimately I saw i was forcing myself to carry on and I’m really trying to not do that anymore. 

 This was a new cover for an older title – and I could tell (that it was an older title). The writing let me quickly know I wasn’t going to make it further into the book. When I say that I could tell it was an older title; I mean the characters were so stereotypical. Like I can deal with a mean girl but only if she’s interesting other than just being mean. There was also too much world-building and it wasn’t done in a good way – just, pushed onto the page. I want to be interested enough to learn more about the world, not wanting to just skim read because there’s too much info dumping going on. I have the sequel (as an arc) but won’t pick it up. 

Realised very quickly on that I wasn’t going to carry on with it. I didn’t like the writing style and even though it’s a short book; it’s hard to want to carry on when you already know you won’t like the writing style.

Another issue I had was the amount of world-building I got in the very little I read. This was also the issue with the next dnf. Now, as a big fantasy reader, I’m very used to a lot of world-building. It’s the bread and butter of fantasy worlds. It has to be done in a good way. Which was not the case here, as you can see. 

Even if I didn’t know beforehand I could’ve easily picked up that this was written by a man. It’s the way he talks about everything, how he narrated through the main character’s eye. Though I dnfed this it did help me to see what I like and don’t like in adult thriller/horror novels. The fact that this had nearly nothing of what I like – says a lot, I think. I have this author’s new arc as well so I hope it’s better.

The main character was an edgy cop and I watch a lot of crime shows – I watched a lot of CSI as a kid, rewatch the older seasons of Criminal Minds because I love them. So I understand the whole ‘edgy cop’ vibe that writers like to go for (even though it’s much overdone and therefore very stereotypical). Markert didn’t write it well. Tried too hard to make the Detective Mills edgy. I just skim read when he spoke about something that I knew would make him more edgy – because I didn’t care!

The other main character was a writer and I actually preferred when the chapter focused on Mills instead of the author. Nothing really wrong with how Ben Bookman was written, I just didn’t like him at all.

The horror aspect was okay – I didn’t understand any of it, unfortunately. The plot was very confusing and was another reason for me to dnf. Even when I skipped ahead and read around I still didn’t understand anything. Actually, in my opinion, it read like it went on downhill in terms of quality. I was sad because in the beginning it felt a bit like Sinister and I love that movie so I wanted to see that type of thing here. 

 I was interested by the synopsis because it genuinely sounded like something I’d want to read but it wasn’t enough to keep me going. I really tried to push through and finish the book because it’s under 300 pages but when something happened in the book and I was like “Oh I’m supposed to be all shocked” and instead I was just.. skim reading and paging with a blank face. I liked how the author wrote for the most part – the ‘old’ sounding narration. Unfortunately then modern dialogue came in and too much of that threw me off and I couldn’t get into the book fully.

The characters were the tiniest bit interesting but it also wasn’t enough. Gris, especially, was dramatic with his words when it didn’t call for it and his figures of speech were unnecessarily dramatic as well. I’d understand and maybe like it if it were part of the character’s personality – but it didn’t seem like that. I liked Thanatos more than Gris but (once again) not enough to keep me reading. 

Just… no. Awfully cringey and boring

I finally decided to stop reading at 60%. I really should’ve stopped at like 15 or 20%. I wasn’t taking in anything and when I stopped reading I basically forgot about everything that was in the book – names, whatever the plot was. What I do remember is a very, very confusing plot – that even after looking at spoilery reviews – I don’t understand.

The cover and the synopsis made me see it as a simple YA mystery/thriller book. I got something very more confusing and because I wasn’t interested in any of it I didn’t want to take the time to properly try to understand the book. I don’t remember any of the characters? None were memorable at all – I only remember some names because I looked at the synopsis when I started this review.

Further on than not just remembering anything, I didn’t want to know more about them or read their dialogue with each other. That also made me decide to stop reading it because you shouldn’t really try to force yourself to care about characters, you know? 

I got to about 33 or so percent when I realised I wasn’t taking anything in and I wasn’t really interested. Not the characters, plot, world-building, anything could really get me into the book. Unfortunately, skimming ahead didn’t really do anything for me, so dnf it is.

I don’t have much to say about the characters because I didn’t feel like I knew them. The writing’s partially at fault. It’s also due to the pacing. It was incredibly fast at the beginning and then slowed down, then went fast and back and forth. That didn’t give me the time I needed to figure out the characters’ personalities or the world-building because I kept trying to catch up with the pace.

I think I can tell you like two things about Kiera (well, three if you include her name). One, that she has a father. I have no idea if she talks to him after she goes to the palace. Or if she ever sees him again. And two that she’s able to wield some type of healing magic that was probably explained as she grew more experienced.

I also don’t really have a lot to say about Dorian because he wasn’t exactly memorable to me. He didn’t feel like he was a Fae character. He felt more like a character who simply happened to have pointed ears and could use magic. I know I’m fairly new to the Fae genre but I don’t think that’s how it should be? 

Unfortunately the cover and synopsis deceived me. I thought it would be a high fantasy because it had the dragons and quests so my first thought with those are usually high fantasy books. And then when modern words and ideas appeared – trains, the word underwear (which can be used but sort of isn’t) I was fine because “oh it’s just a modern fantasy world”. I then grew more confused because formal words were used for family and then the grandmother… gets a granny? And on and on it went. If you want your fantasy world to be a modern one, that’s all good and well, but make it consistent?

The writing style was very difficult – both from a writer’s perspective and a reader’s. It also made it more confusing to figure out what kind of a fantasy it was because the way it was written would change regularly. The sentences, way the characters looked and spoke about things – went from a modern way to a “normal” fantasy way constantly. That sort of back and forth is difficult for readers to receive.

Ultimately, I think the author should’ve spent more time writing the book and working on improving his writing. I could see Dickson’s passionate about writing and the story he wanted to tell but unfortunately it was hard to see. Also, while I’m very fine with issues – real world ones – being in books but there’s… almost an acceptable amount and then there was what is included in this book? Which can either help or hinder a book – depending on the author and how they manage to write it/write it into the book.