Having loved Winter's Orbit after devouring it within a day, I was very excited to read this book! This, of course, means that I delayed reading it until a year after its release date. 

There is a different tone to this novel compared to Winter's Orbit -- this is because they aren't sequels to each other but just take place in the same universe. There is much more of an anti-military tone here and there is a more magic-adjacent world here. 

The world building was extensive and immersive, I throughly enjoyed it. Despite the fact that it's all rather complex, you do not feel out of your depth for more than a few pages. The architect/reader system was fascinating and intricately constructed. 

The characters were well developed and flawed and it was easy to get invested in them as individuals and as a pair. Romance wise, Maxwell is at the top of their game as usual. I was, of course, emotionally destroyed.

This hasn't changed since the previous book but I just wanted to again emphasise how wonderful it is to read a book with a queer-normative world. The pin convention to emphasise pronouns, as well as the gender neutral use of Sir and such is just very welcoming to queer people so. I just wanted to comment on that again. 

Overall, a wonderful space opera-type novel! Honestly, I don't know how to categorise it as it's a genre hybrid but just trust me, it's great. Do check the trigger warnings though.

A story reminiscent of House Of Hollow and Natural Beauty about a disgraced idol, Sunny, who follows her ex-bandmate to a talent competition/training camp in a bid to find answers and get closure for a series of traumatic events that occurred two years prior.  

I found this book interesting -- the tension was well built, especially in the beginning and I read this book in one day as it got me invested. The author made an effort to pull the reader into the scene. The unreliable narration was most certainly unreliable, although it was done through my least favourite method. The interspersion of the two timelines was well crafted, both story lines were well developed. I really enjoyed the way everything played out. 

Here's the thing: I cannot discuss details but there was a lot of crossing moral boundaries that was never treated quite seriously enough on its own, if that makes sense? If you were to take the horror out of the book, the book would still be a thriller, is what I'm saying, but because of the horror aspect it feels like the gravity of some events was detracted from. 

However, that did not make the horror aspect any less horrifying. The world-building behind everything is painfully exhaustive, which is good. The way it interacted with the characters was inventive, although I felt it could have gone even further with certain aspects. 

The characters were well developed and I really liked some of them. The dialogue felt a bit stilted at times, but nonetheless the relationships that are present here are well structured. 

The rehearsals and all the technical industry elements seemed well written but I am not an expert. I do wish we'd seen more of the routine stuff but I understand that succinctness and pace were at stake.

Overall, a good YA horror/thriller that left me wanting just a little bit more than what we got, but well crafted and written nonetheless. I am definitely interested in the series.

This novel is what vampire romances are supposed to be like -- set in the Victorian era and plagued with an inevitable threat, full of well developed side characters as well as excruciating yearning.

Poppy (and Roisin) were beautifully constructed. They are characters that will stay with me for a long time. They are vibrant and distinctive, making you want more and more of them. They are also flawed in a frustratingly realistic way, hardheaded and afraid. I enjoyed them immensely. There is also a beautiful found family aspect of this book; The Brood is developed and makes it easy to care for the characters fates, while also impacting the story. I especially loved Carmen. 

The romance is immaculate -- the type that surpasses time, the only type of love that has ever passed as "true love" to me. Meticulously constructed, spanning large amounts of time; it's indescribable and you will have to read the book to find out more. This book also has a fair amount of explicit scenes. 

The world constructed within this book was of particular interest to me as it is always fascinating to see what authors do with vampiric lore -- this novel draws in parts from Dracula but has it's own twist on it which adds a visceral, additionally horrifying element to the fate the characters have to deal with. 

The writing was great -- a lot of historically relevant language which adds to the immersion we experience. The only drawback is, well. I'm not quite sure how to put it but you know how when you're reading a book and you notice that the author describes a certain innocuous body part in more detail than necessary. Or more often than necessary. This issue arose here. But that's the only drawback. 

Overall, a beautiful piece of historical vampiric fiction that is definitely worth a read. 

It took me longer than necessary to start this novel, a fact I regret. It is, most definitely, haunting. 

I do not know anything about cinematography but I would say that this book has a cold open in the sense that it does not give you any time to prepare for what is to come -- you are right in Alejandra's head as she struggles with her will to live. In fact, the book starts so viscerally that I had to put it down for a while because of how permeating her feelings were. The book continues to be this visceral for the duration of the story as it details Alejandra and her ancestors suffering. 

That is another thing I had not been prepared for: this is not a single POV book. It weaves between perspectives and times, which is something that felt necessary and worthwhile. I found the other perspectives fascinating as they provided a wealth of insight not only into history but also Alejandra's ancestry, giving the readers a much deeper glance into her as a character and making the theme feel incredibly fleshed out. 

The word building was effective, the horror that the hauntings induced nauseating to read but I would still argue that this book is more literary than horror. The supernatural aspects are more of a vehicle to explore the generational trauma Alejandra has as she works through it, which was marvellously executed. I admired the author for allowing Alejandra to get mental health aid, it should be more common in the genre and as a whole. So that was great.  

The writing felt a little bit too passive at certain moments, there was a lot of stating what the characters felt and what was happening, as well as them reciting things we hadn't seen. However, I think that's just the author's style and it is something that is easily accustomed to. Although I do wish we'd seen more emotion from some scenes.

The other thing is that sometimes it felt as though the story likened being a woman to being a mother. I think this is just because the story heavily focuses on the nature of motherhood in combination with generational trauma but nevertheless it was something that made me feel a bit uncomfortable. But maybe it's just me. 

Overall, a haunting story of resilience and the strength it takes to overcome generational trauma.