leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

What a beautiful story! From the art to the words on the page, these characters were brought to life in exceptional ways! 

Jake grew a lot in such few pages, and the only reason I couldn't give this a full 5 stars was just for the fact that the pacing caused some of this story to feel disjointed.

Loved this so much though!

Wowza!  This book was absolutely incredible!  It brought so many emotions out of me from start to finish.  Yadriel and Julian are two of my favorite characters of the year.  Hands down!  Along with Maritza of course! Sometimes stories with fantastic characters/character development have a weak point somewhere else.  Not this one!  

The writing was exceptional, the pacing was great, and it genuinely felt like every aspect of this story was needed.  I've seen so many readers hyping this book, and I'm just letting you all know, it's 100% worth every praise!  

I cannot wait to see what Aiden Thomas writes next!  He's officially on my auto-buy author list!  

What an incredible first book!  The world building and setting were fantastic, but the characters absolutely make this story.  Literally almost every single character felt so necessary here.  Of course, I have my favs: Tea, Likh, Fox and Mykaela.

I really loved the POVs here split between the past and present. This really made for a neat way to tell the story.

Definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this trilogy as soon as possible.

This was a really cute, fun read!  I really liked the characters, Jordan and Rex, but I didn't particularly love the plot.  Maybe it needed to be a little longer, but everything felt like it happened too quickly.  

Still, I'm definitely interested in checking out more of Jack Harbon's books, because his characters and character development is pretty freaking good!

TW: child abuse, death, domestic abuse

This has such an amazing premise, and I really loved the characters.  Every character felt needed which I always appreciate.  They each helped keep the plot moving.  Also, really liked the dual perspectives.  It kept the book moving quickly.

The religious aspects were a bit too much for my personal tastes, but the cult was fascinating (and super creepy).

This is a fantastic book. I loved the video game aspect of it so freaking much, and it was just a really unique take. This book deals with a lot of really important topics and the characters had their own voices.

I very rarely feel this way, but I wish this was about 30-50 pages longer.  I'd have loved to see a little more for the ending.

This was absolutely phenomenal! It was dark and horrific with just enough creepiness to keep me on edge throughout most of the book.  

TW: animal death/brutality, gore

TW/CW: gore, sexual assault, child abuse, spousal abuse

Holy bejeezus this was a ride.  These characters weren't exceptionally likeable and the plot got a little wonky here and there, but if you like horror and gore, I'd suggest picking it up.

There were parts that had chills going down my spine and me looking over my shoulder.  There were also really gross parts, and I've never been more grateful for having aphantasia 🤣.

A cute, fun MG that was also dark and spooky! Perfect for it being almost fall.  This premise was so interesting!

Lucely and Syd were great characters. Head strong best friends with plans that'd make the Scooby gang proud! But Babette stole the show for me (and I think I know why!)

Just an excellent book! Highly recommend!

All the stars, every last one. This book is an incredibly challenging read. NK Jemisin deals with so many different topics here, while weaving an incredible story.  It's so nuanced that I definitely recommend keeping a pad of paper next to you to jot down your thoughts as you follow this journey.

Highly recommend!