dbguide2's Reviews (863)

Just to clarify – what I mean by the ‘rep’ portion in the description is that one characters has OCD, another depression, another chronic pain but no one believes him. But just forget about all of that, because they get powers! And then their “issues” vanish when they get their powers! Clearly my first big reason to dnf.

Either you have bad representation or you don‘t have any rep and this book… managed to have both in a really bad way. Plus in the bit that I read they had all the stereotypes of The Breakfast Club. I also really didn’t like the dialogue.

Just like the previous book, we’re not given a time jump, which I was happy about. It was, however, slower-paced than the previous book and I did think some times the chapters could’ve been condensed. I still liked it. which I’m happy about. I want to keep reading this series and from the author. There were a couple of plot twists and turns throughout the book, I didn’t catch all of them before they revealed themselves. 

This book is very much a study on Morgan and her power, Fae and otherwise. I liked that it showed that even if you’re not wielding magic, you can definitely still be powerful. The events in this book definitely tested her strength and will and I’m glad to say she came out strong as I knew she would. Although her and Draven are physically separated for most of the book, you could see they loved each other and I liked how Draven kept saying “I’ll find her anywhere” and lines like that.

This has patches of action here and there but it is largely more of a quieter book and focuses on politics more than the previous books did (though Court of Claws did have a good amount of politics in). I don’t mind fantasy politics, so I liked that.

 I was entranced through most of my reading this. Joan He really knows how to pull the reader in and keep them there. I’m not a big fan of sci-fi so I did go in expecting not to understand stuff. I actually did understand so that’s good! I loved the writing so much. It flowed between the sisters’ chapters so well and that’s all due to the author. 

The plot is not easily explainable or understandable but surprisingly that didn’t confuse me! A reason why I don’t often read sci-fi books is because the plots tend to be harder for me to understand than other books. It’s also a testament to He’s writing; because it could’ve easily been too confusing and I would’ve dnfed.

Kasey and Cee were both very interesting characters. I think I liked Cee more at the start and then Kasey later on. I liked their sibling relationship, even if they weren’t right by each other. I think I do prefer it when siblings aren’t together physically as it tests their relationship. 

I thought the ecological theme was very interesting and well handled. It’s a constant topic in reality and something that should be looked at more. I think He brought it down to a YA level but didn’t look down on it so much. 

I have (thankfully) pushed most of this book out of my mind but here I am, reminding myself, so I hope you appreciate it. I’ve read mixed media books before – like Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall – but this is the first book (that I’ve read) with no normal narration/dialogue. The story is told solely through Whatsapp messages, emails, and text messages. It’s like a musical where they sing all the lines – even the dialogue to each other is lightly singing. Either you like it or you don’t. With this one I didn’t but that was more the characters.

The book follows two true crime authors, Amanda and Oliver, as they try to work together and against each other to solve the titular case. I was immediately drawn to the book because it mentioned a cult and I love cults (they fascinate me). Both of them annoyed me so much. It’s fine that they were rude to each other (though I didn’t really get why), I just had no interest in it. It’s true that it would be difficult to create/learn their personalities through this type of medium; but it’s not impossible. It just wasn’t the case here. They had no personality (in my opinion) and I didn’t care about anything they did or said.

I then hoped that if I didn’t like the authors, I might like the case – it is mysterious, cults, possibly paranormal? It wasn’t so mysterious as just utterly confusing. I don’t mind mysteries where you have to think but I also want to enjoy them. I couldn’t make heads or tails of this and I could definitely tell that I didn’t want to try to understand and possibly solve it.

The cult members also didn’t seem like they had any personalities; which is sad because cult leaders are basically always charismatic and charming – that’s how they lure people in. This cult leader wasn’t at all charming. I was so annoyed that there wasn’t a paranormal twist to it. It would’ve improved the book, if only a bit. Perhaps explained why they were drawn to the cult leader even if he had no personality.