dbguide2's Reviews (863)

As you can see by my percentage, I did really try with this one. But as you can see that it’s here, it didn’t really matter. Even though my Kindle told me it would take roughly another half hour to finish the book, I wasn’t up for finishing it. I like Hades and Persephone retellings – which is why I requested this – but it didn’t work out. My liking for Persephone went up and down as the book carried on. Some scenes I liked her, other times I felt like she didn’t have a solid personality. I liked Hades, I thought he had quite a solid personality – but that wouldn’t have been enough for me to carry on. 

The writing was a big reason why I chose not to finish the book. It wasn’t capturing my attention as much as I would like. Around the time I stopped there was suddenly a trial about to happen? And Persephone was meant to partake for some reason? If that had happened either at the start of the book or have been the main plot point, I probably would’ve carried on as I really like trials. I noticed the dialogue wasn’t flowing neatly and unfortunately that tends to make or break a novel for me. 

I almost immediately noticed the ableism in the book and I wasn’t a fan. The one main character has a cleft palate and it’s constantly being referred to as a “deformity”. There’s another character named Simon, but the whole town calls him “Simple Simon” because he’s… mentally disabled? And apparently later on he wields a chainsaw? I was reaching close to the dnf button but decided to carry on.

I had dnfed this author’s other book so I was interested in seeing if my feelings would change in this one – I think I lasted longer in the other book. The plot wasn’t much to write about and according to spoiler reviews, it carries on being confusing until the end of the book, ending on a sort of a cliffhanger and not much being explained.

I’ve said this multiple times but I’ll say it again – I don’t mind long sentences. What I mind is when they’re too long and they don’t work as long sentences, that’s where I have an issue. Mister Lullaby doesn’t have well-written long sentences, unfortunately.