Using CAWPILE this came out at a four star. Which surprised me a little as I thought a high three. But the character and atmosphere rating probably caused it to hit four.
After DNFing The Ten Thousand Doors of January I was a little worried going into this. However I definitely enjoyed this much more. I kind of want to give the other book a second chance.
Part one of this was slow paced. Which made me struggled a tiny bit. But once I got past that I flew through the rest of the book.
Despite flying through it I did find myself getting a little bored at times. Feeling like the story wasn’t progressing fast enough. The writing being so beautiful helped me here.
At its core the story is about sisterhood, protecting each other. Justice and fighting for women’s rights. Which I loved. Seeing how much the sisters care for each other. No matter what they believed about the past.
I didn’t think I was emotionally invested in any of the characters. However a death at the end got me a little emotional. Probably because the character sacrificed themselves to protect their family. How in that moment they showed no fear. Knowing their family would be safe.
The cast is deserve which going into this I didn’t know it had LGBTQ rep including a trans character. Although the trans character is briefly mentioned as being trans towards the end of the book.
The use of fairytale and children’s stories for the spells interested me. I’m not sure if that’s a normal witch story thing as I don’t read many. But I liked it anyway.
I will definitely pick up something else by Harrow in the future. I’d be interested to see her work in a series.
Trigger Warnings: (copied from Author’s answer on Goodreads)
Child abuse, both physical and psychological; parental death; arrest and imprisonment; mind control; pregnancy and childbirth, including forced hospitalization; racism; sexism; homophobia, both external and internalized; threat of sexual assault, averted; torture (mostly off-the-page, but alluded to); execution (attempted); child abandonment; major character death.

Going into this I had high expectations, seems a little too high. Sadly this was a disappointing read.
This started off strong. Jumping between 1998 and 2020. Giving hints about what happened in 1998.
But then the second quarter of the book started and it was downhill from there.
Suddenly it was all 1998. Showing the days leading up to the incident. Giving probably too much information that the rest of the book became obvious and somewhat predictable.
Let’s be honest a whole group of characters were utterly pointless and just there to attempt to throw you off. But other than one character out of the group acting suspicious about her IPad you wouldn’t have a single reason to suspect the others.
Then there is the “mystery” POV. That is obvious if you paid enough attention to the 1998 parts leading up to the incident. So that wasn’t that intriguing either.
The characters themselves were all unlikeable and annoying. I have nothing to expand on them. Just they were there.
The ending felt rushed. If there were a twist at the end I either missed it or it was so obvious it didn’t felt like a twist.
The last line made me cringe. It was so corny.
The only positive I have really is this was a quick fast paced read. I do feel some people especially ones who are newer to mystery thrillers will probably love this more than me.
Trigger Warnings: Rape, Suicide, Child Neglect, Domestic Violence? (Its hinted)

DNF 28%

DNF 71%