dbguide2's Reviews (863)

I have… an issue with books being comped as Six of Crows just because they feature a group pulling off a heist. Which I know is mostly trivial because it is a very popular book so if you use it as a comp – you’re almost guaranteed readers. But it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.

So while I understand the comparison to Six of Crows, I also… don’t. But I tried to not let it affect how I read the book. I chose to do a hybrid read, not because I wasn’t enjoying the ebook; but because the audio narrator (Robbie Daymond) also narrated The Trials of Apollo, which I really enjoyed. 
 

It was quite interesting to see an issue/difference between the two editions. So, an earlier version of the e-arc had a hearing aid turned into a listening device. DeWitt changed it and there was a new version on NetGalley (I had to remove my version from Kindle and re-download, but no problem). 

The original arc had a scene where they used an old hearing aid and turned it into a listening device. Hearing aids are expensive? And they sort of.. treated it like a spy toy. I also thought it was weird/bad to only bring in mentions of the sister Kerry (whose hearing aid it was) when they could use her old hearing aid (I do believe she didn’t even know they were using it?). Especially as Kerry barely had a personality. The audio still had the hearing aid, but a later scene the hearing aid was changed to an AirPod turned communicator. 

I liked the characters and then there were times where they annoyed me (Gabriel and Morgan, I’m looking at you). The plot was okay, given that it was definitely a character-driven story. I think because DeWitt focused more on the characters (not a bad thing) the plot fell to the side a bit so the whole “heist” plot line wasn’t as clean or well-written as it could have been. It also felt… very Gossip Girl – the whole thing of teens running around and doing everything that they wanted to do.

I liked Jack for the most part. I did find him annoying but I like Daymond’s voice helped with that as he’s used to narrating another annoying character (Apollo/Lester). I think Jack and Remy were probably my favourites of the group and I liked their relationship a lot. It was sweet and well-written. 

I basically immediately loved it. It was like it was written for me, honestly. I’ve said this a lot all over my blog but I really like good sibling relationships and I liked this one in here. Even though it did feel at times like they weren’t so close – because their interactions were told to us in flashbacks – but it was still done really well. I didn’t feel like they weren’t good sisters just because they didn’t see each other.

I liked Sophia and Arthur’s relationship – I liked seeing that progress and I thought they worked well together. I can see them staying together for a while. But also I felt like the story/plot, even Sophia (as a character – her development), would’ve stayed the same without the romantic subplot.

The plot worked well. I liked the flashbacks paired with the present. It reminded me of a favourite movie of mine (Oculus). Some books or writers aren’t able to successfully shift between the past and the present. But de Becerra did it well. There wasn’t too much of the past and they tied in well to the present scenes. 
 

I loved the spookiness. Something I always like in books is the feeling of something’s wrong/off and then seeing things happen in your environment. I love haunted houses in media because it gives that to me – weird things start to happen and then piles up until really bad things happen. 

I liked the little bit of mixed media that we got – a forum relating to the film – of course I would’ve liked to see even more but that’s because I love mixed media. I thought the angle of Sophia going back to the house to film a follow-up sort of project interesting. It reminded me of another movie called The Veil. I would’ve liked some more behind the scenes showing of the film – maybe “this is how we would do this” but I understand they wanted to keep Sophia in the dark.

]Most sequels I read don’t seem like they follow the ‘sequel slump’ feeling (or whatever it’s called) but I felt that this one did. I know this is a series so I hope the third/next book (no idea if it’ll be a trilogy or more). I still enjoyed this but not as much as the first book. It didn’t have the same energy as the previous one. I did like where we went with the characters. How they changed, how they looked at things, because of what they went through in the previous book.

I really enjoyed how Jacques approached the characters this time around. Last book they were getting to know each other and this book it’s more like they’ve been together for a long time (longer than the brief time that they actually are). I liked how easy they fit together, but they still had their differences.

I liked parts of the plot but not really the entire plot overall. I liked seeing the Estate but I also expected there to be more creatures there and we only saw two new characters (and others though they were antagonists). Even though about ¾ of the book is set in the Estate, I didn’t feel like we really knew the two characters we meet there.

The pacing for this book was slow, slower than the first book’s. I don’t mind slow-paced books, but I don’t want to take a long time to read a book because it’s a slow-paced book. It did pick up after the 50% mark and I was able to read a bunch in one sitting. 

This was a hard book to read because it features a difficult subject matter. But Sass handled it well. I have another Sass book that I definitely want to get to quicker now that I’ve read one of his books (because now I know his writing).

I think Connor Major being the main character was a great choice because Sass brought some lightheartedness in his narration and humour that I thought worked well. They’re also teenagers, and teens are funny. I think it’s a good thing to keep humour/make some jokes even when you’re not having the best time (South Africans make jokes about, literally everything, so I know that well).

The plot and pacing was quick and that fit the vibe of the book very well. Maybe it’s the author’s writing as well and I’ll know it when I read another of his books. I thought I would mind that the plot and pacing were so quick but I didn’t – which I’m also glad about.

I really liked the other teens we meet at the camp. Especially as they became close and then found family – it is one of my favourite tropes so I was glad to see it. Found family in any book, in any genre, is always something I’m happy to read about – but I think it works particularly best in an LGBTQ+ book. Plus they’ve all been through a terrible experience so being able to stand together and stay friends is great. 

 I really enjoyed this a ton! I finished this in one sitting because I didn’t want to stop reading! It was thrilling, excellent, really well done all over.

The artwork was stunning. I liked seeing ASL and the one character has a leg brace when she rides her broom – so cool. There were a lot of blues and cool tones in the panels which I liked. But there were also warm colours as well, which was great to see.

I definitely need to make a note of the illustrator because I would love to see this type of artwork soon again. I connected to the characters quickly, not just because of the story and dialogue, but because of how they were drawn. I could tell their personalities, if they were friendly, if they would even make you a cup of tea if you were down – just from what they looked like on the page (screen).

It’s a quick read and it felt like that – which I do always like. Sometimes you have those short books that feel like they take forever. Unfortunately it also felt like Colgin was trying to squeeze too much plot into a small book. Which made it harder to read and made me take longer to finish the book. I could tell Colgin focused more on the characters than the plot. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and at least the characters were good. I liked the action and the magic system was good. The short plot/very quick pacing worked for the book and Colgin’s writing – even if I didn’t like that the plot to pages ratio.

The focus of the book was Remy and Laurence and their relationship. As they’re in close proximity to each other (Laurence protecting Remy because he (Remy) becomes a target) and sharing thoughts/details to one another – they become closer. That felt very natural and I liked how Colgin wrote it. They were an easy couple – they fit together well and it was a natural relationship. I didn’t have a favourite – I liked Remy and Laurence about the same amount. Which I liked – a lot of the times I prefer the one character (in a relationship) over the other, but I do like it when I like everyone!