dbguide2's Reviews (863)

Unfortunately I almost… immediately felt the dnf urge with this one. Which is sad because it has a team doing a heist! I love those things. It looked so good from the cover and synopsis, so I wanted to read it. It just didn’t work out for me. The characters seemed to all blend into one and by 20 or so percent I felt like I didn’t have a good grasp on anyone’s personality. That made it difficult to get into the book properly so I just stopped reading. 

Sometimes the paragraphs didn’t easily flow one after another. I find that when that happens it dampens my liking of the book. It slowly started to pick up but by Chapter 14/46, I decided it might be time to think about dnfing. Maybe I could have switched to the audio to really see but I don’t think that would’ve helped much. I found some of the sentences were giving that “look, I can write energy” which honestly was another reason to dnf for me. 

I think I’ve probably said this before but there’s something so nice about a YA mystery/thriller. Nearly always a quick read and will probably likely be a good one. And this was no exception! It’s almost an isolation horror since most of the plot is limited to one room – which upped my interest. I like isolation horror, I like knowing that, for whatever reason, the character/characters can’t leave the situation. In here it’s a bit different as it starts with our main character, Teresa, not being able to leave – as she’s agoraphobic. I think that and making the book be all about the Internet was an interesting take as I think it’s an evergreen issue. Plus influencers/streamers are always big in real life – I’d definitely like to see more. I love watching video gamers on YouTube so I was happy to see Teresa be one. Also I laughed at the game references – I think I got all of them.

Teresa was interesting and I liked her as a main character. I did want to see more mentions of her actually doing school work since I’m sure she does it online? It did feel like her parents barely did anything to help her but at the same time, we only saw it from her POV and they could be having multiple conversations about her in other parts of the house. I liked being part of her growing journey re her channel/followers, even though sometimes it was more about her getting more followers; she had the right heart about it. I’m always up for a good mystery and this delivered in here.

I got what I like in the horror genre – things starting to happen slowly and then it builds and builds until the characters can’t deny it anymore. In the case of Deadstream, it was even more interesting because there was always that “What if it’s all fake?” idea. Even I started to think it was fake and I knew it was a paranormal book and therefore wasn’t fake. It was spooky and I was reading it at and sleeping across from a door! Which, honestly, is exactly how I like to feel when reading a horror book. So I definitely recommend it if you’re into that spooky side. It’s also a very character-driven book and we’re almost always in Teresa’s mind, reading her thoughts (agoraphobic after the car accident), making it even more so (more character-driven).

I thought the mystery was well done and interesting. I had my own ideas, especially as I watch a bunch of horror movies – I was wrong but I was happy about it. I like being proven wrong. It kept me guessing for most of the book and I think it worked well here (sometimes it doesn’t). I probably would’ve liked more paranormal aspects but that’s just my opinion.

The issue I had were mostly with the characters. I liked Teresa but there was just something that held me back from rating it the full 5 stars or even 4.5. I couldn’t fully connect to Teresa like I wanted to. I liked the other side characters. but much like with Teresa, I wasn’t able to connect to them all. I did like that they mostly stuck together even though they were all physically apart. The relationship in this book (very late end) was sweet and I liked the other character.

I didn’t see the chemistry between the two main characters. I’m always up for a vampire but he just didn’t give that vampire vibe that I was looking for? Not that I wanted him (Casimir) to be the traditional night creature with a cape and fangs but I didn’t get his appeal. I think I did like Casimir a bit more than the female main character, Rowan. I could see her potential and I wanted her to reach it – but as I reached nearly 40% I could see I wasn’t going to get what I wanted – which is why I decided to leave it.

I found the pacing to be a bit non-existent. How much time did they travel before they professed their love for each other? I don’t mind instalove – when well written. Another dnf reason was that it was all flowery writing and unfortunately, as it so happens in this book, the (flowery) writing at times wasn’t working for me. 

I started this in January and finally decided to stop reading this month. I should’ve dnfed earlier but it was one of those where I thought it would get better and then… unfortunately it never did. So I eventually stopped at 51% because I really didn’t want to finish a book I was struggling to read.This book is only just over 400 pages and yet! It’s so slow-paced. As I’ve said before – when authors can’t do slow-paced books well enough it shows and I’m can’t unsee it. I just really thought I’d like this too! I think that was the issue here. As per usual, other people did really like it and that’s the great thing about dnfs!

There’s Fae in this and usually I like that – I found the Fae in here to not be interesting enough to keep me reading, you know? I think I liked the Prince the most of the three main characters although I can’t remember his name right now. I wasn’t exactly a fan of the main character, Auralie. I couldn’t get into her personality, didn’t feel for her, all those things. 

Yes, this is a long book – almost 600 pages. Normally I’d only pick this size up in audio or physical but I decided to try it out in ebook. I need to try to see if I can get back to thick ebooks! I liked the synopsis but it definitely gave me the feeling the action would start almost immediately. As in the heist plot would start within the first five or so percent. The characters only get told about the heist 20% into the book. That should’ve given me enough time to get to know the characters but that wasn’t the case for me. I see a lot of other people really enjoyed this and I’m glad!

Unfortunately I felt that the writing was clunky – it was trying to do far much and failed a lot. I find that often happens in a fantasy debut – I think it’s just that authors try to do so much because it’s their debut. It can sometimes work, and then doesn’t. Although please remember this is just my opinion. Some other issues were unnecessary sentences – like I would read them and ask why they needed to be there. There’s also almost fourth wall breaking which certainly didn’t fit in anywhere – I like fourth wall breaking but again, it has to done a certain way. You have to have a certain type of writing to have that work.