Definitely the best book in the series, but WOW I am glad to finally be finished with these books and never have to think about them again

4.5 stars

YEEES this is exactly what I was in the mood for, and EXACTLY what I was hoping this book would be!

Was the plot a little predictable? Yeah sure, but not at all in a bad way. What I wanted was a creepy ghost story that felt familiar, like opening up the dusty pages of a long forgotten book and coming home to a story I used to love. That's exactly what this book gave me, with some added bonuses in there too; a mute main character (which I'd never read before and wasn't sure how it would work, but I liked the execution), a feisty main character who was full of surprises, and maybe this is just me being thirsty for monsters but the image I conjured of Death and the audiobook narrator's voice for him was hot af.

I do wish we had gotten to spend more time with Hannah and Edgar. While we got to know them a little bit, enough to get a taste for who they are, I feel like they didn't have enough of a role for me to really feel for them. I could feel how much Matthew cared for them, and how much Olivia would grow to care for them, but I didn't have enough time to grow my own feelings towards them. But this is only a minor detail.

This was overall a fantastic book and I really really enjoyed it! The feeling of longing for home that filled every fibre of Olivia's character, her desperation for family and to feel wanted and like she belonged somewhere was so strong throughout this entire book. Her character felt so alive among all the death and decay that surrounded her. I loved the way Schwab played with colour in here too, it was such a visual book the whole way through. The atmosphere really shone, it was deliciously spooky and I loved every second of it. All the creepy moments of things hiding in shadows and flitting away once you turn to look left me shivering, and the constant feeling of foreboding was incredibly well done.

I can't get over how much I enjoyed this book, I seriously couldn't put it down! This is the perfect book for a rainy fall day, I'm so glad I waited until the end of summer to pick it up

Not my favourite book ever, but it was a fun story that I definitely enjoyed! I found it dragged a bit with the plot, but the characters and relationships were fantastic. Loved all the Greek mythology and how that came together with the plot. Overall this was fun, but not something that will stick with me for a long time

Not my favourite from this author but still a good book! I wasn't as interested in the plot as her other books, and I found all of the characters flair for the dramatics to be a bit much. I know the dramatics were intentional and I enjoyed it at first, but after a while I got a little sick of it. Also, I know this book takes place in France, but the way would characters would decide to say random words in French at random points throughout their sentences was driving me nuts lol, it was unnecessary and annoying. But on the positive side, Popovic's writing is spectacular as always. Her flowery prose feels very dreamlike and really suits gothic fantasy, especially when it comes to creating atmosphere. This was wonderfully dark, and the imagery of all the finery of the nobles combined with the satanic machinations of the main characters made for excellent choice for a spooky season read

Way better than the first book! I liked the couple a lot more, their chemistry worked a lot better for me, and their banter was fantastic. The plot was more interesting, and obviously the talking cat was a huge selling point

3.5 stars

A little confused by the last little bit of the epilogue but otherwise I really liked the conclusion to this story! The angst was fun, I liked all the characters, things wrapped up in a mostly satisfying way for me. The plot was fine, not my favourite but I was mostly just in it for the characters anyways. It absolutely did not need to be this long though, it could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter. Whole lot of filler in here. The mermaids made everything worth it though lol

Oh my god that was a MISSION to get through

RTC!

Feb. 11th 2020 update

Ok so it's been like 2 months since I finished this and I fully intended to leave a review, BUT I've completely forgotten everything that I was going to say (and most of what happened in this book tbh) aside from the fact that I found most of it to be incredibly boring. If I weren't so invested in like 2 of the characters, and also determined to read all the books in this world for some ungodly reason, I would have DNF'd this so fast. Huge snooze fest. I do remember there being some exciting moments but I honestly can't even remember what they are anymore. I do know that my main gripe with QOAAD was that it was waaaay too politics heavy. I literally fell asleep ON this book multiple times. Oops

Such a fun sci fi! This is exactly the kind of sci fi I love the most; a ragtag group of outlaws who have become each other’s family going on epic space adventures together. Never gets old for me, and this one was excellent. The plot was extremely predictable but there was enough going on that I didn’t mind too much