DNF @ 12%


I had an ebook out from the library and it expired. I love myself enough to not borrow it again to read the rest, so here's just a few thoughts from the parts of the book that I did read. If you want more thoughts about the whole book, I would recommend FullofLit's review.

- This reads like a wattpad fic in the sense that there are so many unnecessary descriptions, especially when it comes to the protagonist getting ready in the morning. The first chapter is especially egregious.
- For a book where the main character starts partying and drinking almost immediately, it sure does love to shame every character for partying and drinking.
- There was a very confusing part where Tess doesn't want to go to a party while her roommate is trying to get her to go and what ends up convincing her is her laptop not turning on. The book acts like this means she can't watch a movie or do homework when she could just,, charge it.
- The slutshaming is almost constant in this and it gets very annoying after a while.
- We're really meant to root for a relationship where she says "you bring out the worst in me"?? mkay.
- TW for an attempted rape scene that's only there so Hardin can heroically save Tess.
- There's also so much cheating so fast.
- I burst out laughing when she says "As I put my fork into my mouth, the metal reminds me of Hardin's lip ring." Like, what the actual fuck.
- This protagonist is so fucking pretentious. There's a part where she's talking about how great her boyfriend is (the one she cheated on) and she goes "... the feelings only grew when I got to know him and learned he was an old soul like me." They met when they were kids btw.
- Man, I love me some unnecessary ableism (context: Hardin asks if she has OCD and she goes "ofc not, i'm not crazy")

That's it. Don't read this guys, not unless you have a day with nothing to do.

DNF @ 36%

I'm sorry to the many, many, many, many, many people who love this book with their whole heart and soul, but I don't get it. Honestly, the only reason why I made it so far into this book was that the audiobook narrator, Jim Dale, was incredible and I'm quite excited to get my hands on his Harry Potter audiobooks at some point.

This book just didn't do it for me. The world was beautiful, and the descriptions were absolute magic, but the characters and the plot were very meh. I was expecting a lot more from the premise of opposing magicians but it was incredibly lackluster and the characters involved weren't interesting enough to hold my attention. The narrative jumps through time and shifts perspective a lot and it was hard for me to keep track of characters and events when it wasn't about the main warring magicians plot.

I was excited for this, but I just don't get it and I'm probably going to sell my physical copy of the book.