Kippa is the best and I will love her until the end of time 😭 The art in this series just continues to grow more beautiful.

Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this book. I have not read an ARC in quite some time, but saw this through BookSirens and it felt like it called to me, so I took a chance. I was not disappointed in the slightest. I was having such a good time reading this vampire novel, focusing uniquely on generational trauma, that I basically forgot there was a horror element to it. It felt like almost a slice of life, overcoming the odds, and healing with old and new loved ones kind of book. And typically I am not the biggest fan of slice of life type books, but I looooved this one. It was moody, emotional, queer, hopeful, and above all showcased a victim of abuse in such a painstaking, beautiful way. But when the other foot drops and you remember you are reading a horror book, boy does it drop. I literally screamed and continued to read with my jaw dropped until the end of the book.

Cat Rector's prose is beatiful, as are her characters. (Minus the bad folks, which I wish I could reach into the pages of this book and strangle. SCREW GREG UGH!) Laurel is lovely and complex, funny and relatable, and I love her so much and want to hold her and keep her safe from anything bad ever happening again. Spencer is so much like Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3, but if he actually held himself responsible for healing from his trauma rather than putting it on others and being manipulative. Meaning, he is the most supreme babygirl there is. But seriously, he is so freaking great and funny and queer and has a soft spot for cats. What's not to love? And the two of them together? Even better.

Penny Harbour being its own character as a setting is so unique and I enjoyed the path this took. Coal and a town being a vessel to portray generational trauma is perfect. I don't know much about coal mining towns, but Cat Rector makes you feel as if you lived in one your whole life. It was very visceral and imaginative.

I can't wait to continue the series to see where Spencer and Laurel's journey takes them (maybe she can explore her blossoming sexuality with Spencer by her side????? Please, yes, I'd kill for this), and I will be reading more Cat Rector from now on as a newfound instant-buy author.

Bonus: the most hilarious Twilight references

It took me too long to get around this 😭 Moody, gothic, vum-pire fun. The true feeling of reading a classic 🥰

Ophie is such an endearing character and I'm happy she got a great ending. There were a couple things that I wish had been addressed, but the ending was a little rushed trying to wrap up the mystery at the center of the book. Some ghosts and characters I was interested in got more lackluster endings, but I don't feel took away from the book overall. The setting was so beautifully established and there was so much life in this book that mainly focused on the dead.

I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this. It feels like reading a modern epic. Das expertly weaves history, mythology, and personal narrative into both modern and ancient worlds, making them feel like they very well could exist within our own. It's a vulgar and beautifully visceral experience. Showing how we are all part of a tapestry of collective stories, some even unknown to us, with space to write in our own chapter for the future of others. How identity is both inescapable, immoveable while also somehow being fluid and our own to mold. The story is queer and human to its core. Trance like and grounding. I'm shocked I haven't heard more about this, but I could see it not being everyone's cup of tea, but it's exactly the kind of story I never knew I needed and am now profoundly grateful for.

I think that there are a lot of great moments to learn in this book, but I feel like it ended up being to idealistic and painfully repetitive. I think the jist of this book could be gathered within the first 30 minutes to an hour of the audiobook. The author is very pleasant to listen to, but I feel like most people would be pleasant to listen to if they delivered a speech in a sermon-like, idealistic way. This is another major issue I had with this book. Everything is very Christian-centric, even though the author claims to want this message of rest to be delivered secularly. She also loses credibility on her message of secularism when she talks about accepting to let the chips fall where they will to regain rest, and have "faith" this will be good essentially. Also a lot of credibility is lost with such a Christian-centric narrative when Christianity in America is such a major proponent of capitalism that has robbed us of our ability to rest. I also was not a fan of the author creating this narrative that taking time to rest is not a privilege, while also talking about taking a 30 day sabbatical in the same book. Sure, she did provide ways to take short amounts of rest in our everyday, which I appreciated, but I feel overall she has a very unrealistic and inaccessible message for the modern world, as sad as that may be. Idk, maybe I'm too jaded by the state of the world, but I found this manifesto to be lacking any grounding in reality. But, again, there are some tidbits of learning and reflection to gain from this, I was just overall disappointed in what I thought would be a top read for me this year. Sadly, it may end up being one of my lower rated reads this year.

Anthologies are always hit or miss for me, because the stories themselves are hit or miss. There were definitely some stories that really stood out in this collection, lots of tears and emotions that are hard to pack a punch with in a short story. Other stories were confusing or easily forgettable. The scope of the collection was also a bit confusing. I know it says "dark fiction anthology" on the front, but I feel like this has been widely marketed as a horror collection, even the back of the book suggests so. So while there are many great stories in this collection, I feel like the collection as a whole felt a bit disjointed because you could go from something spooky to heartbreaking, closer to creative nonfiction vibes.

Overall, I did enjoy most of the stories and felt it has a lot to teach, but the expectations for it were quite a but different than the actual result. 

I was also a little bothered by the content warnings online. I was so excited to see they had individual content warnings for each story online. I was less excited to see quite a few stories missing some pretty heavy ones from their lists. It feels like a bit of a disservice to readers to list these online, which can create a sense of comfort for readers who depend on these content warnings, to throw in surprise themes of sexual assault and cannibalism, for example. I would just like to see more care put into this if it's to be included for readers in future collections (I believe another is being made?). ☺️

I'm only taking off half a star because I'm salty about the world map no longer being included with each volume (I think 5 & 6 didn't have it so far), because we're all over the place right now and I love referencing where without having to go grab past volumes. ☺️

This ending made me gasp. I'm trying to pace myself so I am not fully caught up too quickly, but I might have to grab the next one ASAP after that. 😭 I also really loved the Talk-Stories. It was so wonderful (and heartbreaking) to see Maika and Kippa in the past 🥺

So, so good! I may be biased in that a lot of the tropes and themes are some of my favorites, but even objectively it was so well done. The plot moved at a perfect place, the world-building painted a portrait that made you feel there yourself, while also leaving some mystery for part 2. The characters are all complex, Elsbai showcases flaws as much as their strengths to illustrate privilege and mistakes that do not glorify protagonists unrealistically. The ending is a big wtf. I can't wait to see what is in store for us next. 😍

I loved this so much! Such a beautifully-woven world. I found myself quickly invested and attached to the characters, both major and minor. This did make it hard at times when the characters just never seem to have any good luck, Mar especially. While I thought the romance was fun and I rooted for Mar and Bas, it wasn't particularly interesting, whereas I felt Mar and Dami had more interesting chemistry. 🫣 The pacing was pretty great and I never felt bored, but even so the ending seemed to come together a bit too quickly and perfectly. All in all, it was a very fun, heartwarming, and at times devastating read. I hope there is more to the series, perhaps seeing the younger characters navigating adulthood! 🥰