FINALLY, the family themes I had been waiting for really surfaced in this volume! Each sibling wrestles with the failures and abuses in their past, the question of their future, and how they relate to one another. But it's kind of too little too late. The book is still packed, more than ever, with whacky supervillains and the silliest of sci-fi (enough to give The Quantum Realm a run for its money). There is some intrigue as to what Hargreeves was really up to for all these years. And the second set of supers is an exciting cliffhanger! But there are a lot of gorey shootouts and explosions between background characters that take up WAY more space than the siblings' interactions, or the unraveling of the Hargreeves mystery. It's like how the Marvel universe takes 20 movies to Thanos. Sure, the crumbs are there. But it's a loooot of silly space lasers before you get to the heart-wrenching parts.

This was a MASTERFUL retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher!!! This book had everything I never knew I needed: Zombifying fungus; a crossover with Beatrix Potter's actual mycologist aunt (What if The March Hare and Peter Rabbit were the same mad bunny?!?! AHHH!!!); a non-binary protagonist to underscore the message about mis-categorizing someone because we don't even have the concept/language to understand them; a discussion of post-war PTSD and how it "haunts" the brain ("we're all mad here"). This book was SO clever! The metaphors were aptly chosen, like the many eyes of the house, or the hungover feeling of needing to shave one's tongue, all hinting at the hivemind fungus that's infecting the property. The book has a heaping helping of medical who-dunnit in trying to diagnose Madaleine, and another heaping helping of sci-fi horror in the recognition of a symbiotic, sentient lifeform here-to-for uninvestigated on Earth. And in delightfully, traditional Gothic fashion, you're not sure if you can trust the narrator near the end. I am so thankful that the author mentions Mexican Gothic in her acknowledgements, because I was definitely getting that vibe XD. Praaaaise!!! Cannot wait to see what this author does next.

Merged review:

This was a MASTERFUL retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher!!! This book had everything I never knew I needed: Zombifying fungus; a crossover with Beatrix Potter's actual mycologist aunt (What if The March Hare and Peter Rabbit were the same mad bunny?!?! AHHH!!!); a non-binary protagonist to underscore the message about mis-categorizing someone because we don't even have the concept/language to understand them; a discussion of post-war PTSD and how it "haunts" the brain ("we're all mad here"). This book was SO clever! The metaphors were aptly chosen, like the many eyes of the house, or the hungover feeling of needing to shave one's tongue, all hinting at the hivemind fungus that's infecting the property. The book has a heaping helping of medical who-dunnit in trying to diagnose Madaleine, and another heaping helping of sci-fi horror in the recognition of a symbiotic, sentient lifeform here-to-for uninvestigated on Earth. And in delightfully, traditional Gothic fashion, you're not sure if you can trust the narrator near the end. I am so thankful that the author mentions Mexican Gothic in her acknowledgements, because I was definitely getting that vibe XD. Praaaaise!!! Cannot wait to see what this author does next.

An incredible story!!! So much more than a haunted house. This was a book about intergenerational trauma, and the "lost" stories of black girls/abused women. Imagine if Encanto were a horror story. This book has that gothic horror energy: A house which has absorbed the predatory, manipulative, greedy, twisted nature of those who've lived there. A tale all around about hurting the ones we love, and growing by owning the truth, however ugly.

I cannot sing enough praises! I want to reread this book and dissect it line by line! I cannot wait to read more by Liselle Sambury.

Boring, a YA paint-by-numbers with no depth. This is allegedly a book about a secret society dedicated to eradicating violent mythical creatures (a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer)! Should be thrilling! But no, our "hero", Winnie (more like Whiny) spends ALL of her time obsessing over attire (my glasses are old-fashioned, wah) and needlessly carpooling around town, instead of solving mysteries in the spooky woods! Mostly, the story tries to be about Winnie, the ambitious nerdy outsider who both scorns and yearns for popular acceptance, and Jay, the hott lone wolf (eye roll) who gives her self-defense tutoring i.e. Physical Education wink wink nudge nudge. Give me a break! The moment Jay came up behind Winnie to improve her archery aim and she struck the dummy target's heart, I just about chucked the book at the wall. Tropes on troooopes!!!

This book tried to get participation points for being inclusive, but it's done in such a token way that I don't want to give credit. Here is a gay couple, a girl in a hijab, a teacher with a prosthetic leg...and that's their whole personality, that one trait. I mean, better than not having a diverse cast, buuuut.... (more eye rolling). Even the main characters are defined by constant ticks, rather than significant actions or conflicts. Here's Bubblegum Popper, those are The Dimple Twins, this is Flannel Wearing Burnout (why the shade on weed enthusiasts?), and over here is our main character: Glasses Adjustment McTeeth Grinder (seriously, the way the author writes Winnie as "clicking" her teeth faster and faster?...What is that about? Who chatters their teeth intentionally?)

The book's attempts at artistry are unsubtle and sloppy. The metaphors don't match the context or tone, and don't evoke the intended feelings. I started keeping a list of the worst examples of how NOT to write:
- "Imagine a broken radio inside a car exhaust. Or a sledgehammer at the bottom of the sea. It sounded like that!"
- "It's like a supernova made of shotguns."
- "Winnie doesn't have time to let the leaches gathering in her stomach engorge."
- "The clouds have briefly abandoned their usual post, leaving the sun to sweep down."
So over the top, so awkward. I found myself skipping to the back jacket to read up on the author; maybe I could excuse the ridiculousness if this were a debut novel... NOPE! This author has written TWO other series, and now TEACHES writing!!! *Insert scream emoji here!* Nooooo!!!

I don't understand how this book was endorsed by so many authors I love and respect. This book is NOT fun or necessary. Go read something else! You can do better!!! Run!!!!!!

I was sucked into the first half of this book, I couldn't put it down, I needed to unravel the mystery... And then, a bit before the halfway mark, the book got political in a dumb way XD. Evil liberals? That's what this book is about? Evil hippies, who proselytize to boomer socialites about global warming, homeopathic remedies, veganism, and the dangers of Big Pharma? EVIL LIBERALS, who guilted and schemed the innocent rich people into donating ALL of their hard-won valuables to charity? And as a secondary antagonist, an EVIL, gay psycho, a predator, who turns to drugs and witchcraft?! The "good" people are all 25-40, single and hard-working, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps kind of folks?

I see Lisa Jewell has been having tea with J.K. Rowling. *Dramatic eye roll*.

I only gave 2 stars instead of 1 because there IS a story in here about surviving abuse, the cycle of abuse, and even the insanely long timeframe it can sometimes take for either outsiders or victims to become aware of the abuse. But the story wasn't really about how these survivors confronted their abuser, took their power back, and learned to survive. It was more about how they enabled or capitulated to their abuser in the hopes of lessening the pain, got out one night on a daring fluke (or because of the intercession of above-mentioned gay psycho), then sat around FOR 25 YEARS waiting for their inheritance to kick in. The cliffhanger chapters with leading phrases similar to, "That's why what happened next was so horrifying..." trick you into turning pages, but in the end, once the puzzle pieces are all aligned, you realize the author misled you into believing a darker story was on its way, and the sugary Happily Ever After does not fit. So, there's a story here... but it's not the deep story you're expecting. More of a tawdry thrill. Like rubbernecking: You want to feel like you're a part of a grim tale, but you also feel bad afterwards for stopping and looking at something traumatic for somebody else, and - ironically - you also feel annoyed and stupid when there's nothing to see and you've wasted your time.

*Shame bell*

There are not enough rating stars to express how much I LOOOOOOVE this book!!!!!! I laughed out loud, I cried, I ran to tell a friend what I'd just read, and I didn't put it down until I had devoured it from cover to cover. There is a passage in the book about how someone loves another so deeply, he wants to close the space between them, literally open their hearts to each other, and connect blood vessel for blood vessel, so that they become one. I truly feel that's what THIS book did for every 20+ year old, that it linked us heart to heart. This is a book for anyone who understood themselves in an academic setting, then got to the end and were unsure still of who they were or how to live their lives. This is a love story to any fledgling adulthood who's had their heart broken by failing their own expectations, and needs to take a breather before finding themselves again.

AND the Harry Potter subversions, holy Humdrum! The brilliant braiding of Chamber of Secrets and Deathly Hallows: What if, when our heroes were the least sure of themselves and in the direst of straights, they stole a car and went on a road trip, to save the day but also to find themselves. Of course Luna Lovegood is a wellness hippie from Cali, and OF COURSE Tom Riddle is a the leader of a wellness cult that's actually a boys club of Big Pharma baddies! OF COURSE The Chamber of Secrets is a laboratory! OF COURSE Lupin/Snape is a vampire mentor who may or may not betray our heroes (no spoilers here! ;)). OF COURSE the Muggle world has conspiracy theorists who go searching for proof of magic!!! Ugh, Shephard was the perfect Huffleclaw addition to the golden trio: His genuine kindness and interest in people was sooo refreshing! He was like the best of Colin Creevey, Neville Longbottom and Newt Scamander mashed together. UGH, the glimpse of what the Fantastic Beasts movies SHOULD HAVE been about: How magic is not limited to wizards, and Newt/Shephard knows/discovers all these other fantastic beasts/beings across America, as our heroes learn from them how to live well! AHHH!!!! The love, the LOVE I FEEL for this book, how it continues to be smarter than its predecessor, and speak truths from the heart that I/we needed to hear.

Being yourself is hard. Accepting love from other people when you don't yet love yourself, is hard. Redirecting your life at a crossroads is hard! But all the magic you need is inside you. Thank you Rainbow Rowell, for giving us this story, and for making us feel Seen.

I didn't love this as a final sendoff to the Simon Snow series. It kind of felt like 600 pages of epilogue. Or like the worst parts of Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows, and Prisoner of Azkaban all mashed into one, long book: A lot of genealogy lessons, and a lot of questions with no answers. Sure, that's kind of the point: Life is about the living, not the ending, and it's ok to not have a fated path, but rather to figure it out one choice at a time. It was nice to finally see Simon and Baz beginning a healthy relationship. But Shephard became a bit of a tool once you realized what a serial liar he was. And Agatha and Naimh's whole thing was just weird and dissatisfying. It was kind of nice that the author took the whole trope about happily ever after and soulmates and such, and highlighted how actually - even between the deepest loving couples - relationships still have awkwardness, arguments, melancholy moments... What's important is not a fairytale fit, but the care to try and reach out/see from the other's perspective. But in the end, everyone still found a perfect romantic partner to make them feel empowered, and I thought that was disingenuous to the characters. The three couples arcs barely crossed paths, either, and I think they would have read better as 3 separate novellas, rather than one book. Or, as an omnibus with three parts, rather than alternating chapters.

I think the homages to The Series Which Shall Not Be Named were less obvious in this book, too. Except for one: Gilderoy Lockhart/ Smith Smith-Richards. And... of all the characters to put front and center as a villain, why him, why now? I mean sure, this is a book which highlights the idea of living authentically, rather than following a script, and Gilderoy/Smith's fakery is the obvious antithesis to living authentically. But he comes across as campy and unnecessary, and not in a fun way. He is very easily recognized as The Bad Guy, swiftly defeated, and doesn't really effect anyone's character arc (other than Simon for a hot minute).

Overall, I think the jacket summarized it best: This is a book "about catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us." It was good to see Simon, Baz, Penny and Agatha readjust, question their pasts, own their mistakes, and turn to the future renewed (in themselves and in their faith in one another) and hopeful. But it was somber, almost TOO real, that there was a lot of pillow talk and speculation over sandwiches, rather than adventure and fantasy. A cozy, sobering, sometimes tear-jerking finale.

TL;DR - Encanto did it better.

This review is going to be a little whip-lashy, and I'm sorry for that; I'm of two minds. I do see what the author was trying to do, but I'm largely disinterested in the final product. This sequel was cringey, and disappointing in almost every way. It was ambitious to try and write "Generational Trauma: The Book", props for that. I like that the stages of grief were represented by the different chunks of the book. And Bree's wrongful incarceration was toooo real, that left me shook. BUT, for hundreds of pages, Bree is either kidnapped and incapacitated, injured and incapacitated, willingly in hiding, or in hiding but brashly trying to leave her cone of safety... thus restarting the cycle. She is rarely the agent of her own story, needing rescue or witnessing others' heroics for most of the book. I use the term "story" loosely. For almost 500 pages, the conversation between Bree and her friends is cyclical: "We should go to Nick", "No we shouldn't", "Yes we should", "No we shouldn't." Other than reacting to chaos and waiting for the plot to catch them, our "heroes" don't do anything! I could forgive the book for feeling stuck on purpose, since it's trying to highlight trauma and grief, and the nature of being trapped by hurtful events beyond our control... BUT the characters almost get assassinated in service to the theme. The colorful variety of characters from the first book have been flattened. Every single character exists to either tell Bree she's magnificent, or to exposit lore like a walking wiki! And she's NOT, let's get that right! Book 1 Bree was shrewd, daring - defiant, yes, but capable of admitting her limitations and accepting help. Book 2 Bree is naive, reckless, and overly defensive - any criticism given she assumes comes from a place of disloyalty or racist intolerance. I can't tell if the author was too close to the subject matter, and doesn't see Bree's hypocrisy, OR if the reader is MEANT to read Bree as flawed but sympathize with her anyway. I don't. I don't sympathize with her just because she's in trouble, or is grieving, or has good intentions, or is a black girl in a violent world. I found her to be her own worst enemy. She IS untrained, and she IS outgunned, and she DOESN'T have time to fight the system's injustice because THE WAR is already happening, and for her sake and others she SHOULD take a step back to regroup, gain intel, make a plan... This whole series seems to frequently forget that - regardless of the racist overlords in charge of The Round Table today - there are LITERAL DEMONS on the loose, and the world doesn't have time to baby Bree! Yes obviously, trauma changes people and everyone grieves in different ways, and no one is expected to be more rational/less emotional. And, also yes, it's realistic that Bree wouldn't make time or headspace for everyone else's grief, or that they wouldn't necessarily dump more than their sympathies and praise on her knowing the state she's in.... BUUUUT, it is very frustrating to be a third party witnessing Bree's selfishness and the cost to her loved ones (whose safety she is totally willing to gamble!), and equally frustrating that they continue to coddle and enable her! ((OOF, I now understand the rage against Caps Locks Harry in Order of the Phoenix.))

In the vein of hypocrisy... This book seems to contradict itself a lot on the subject of inclusion:
- Any time Bree sees a black person, she assumes there's a community between them. But Samira, a black Liege, first sends Bree to a safehouse that's compromised, then to a dive bar full of demons! And Valec, the black proprietor of said bar, tries to swindle Bree into killing Sel! Bree is even assaulted by a black bartender! At no point does Bree wrestle with the idea that shared trauma doesn't necessarily bond people, because everyone has their own way of grieving. And despite her ancestors telling her, repeatedly, that she has to make her own way forward, it never dawns on Bree that her found family might be more community to her than a black stranger. If anything, Bree doubles down on exclusivity, ignoring her friends' while she eats pecan pie at some rando's house, or has a vision quest on a plantation.
- Sometimes in the series, there is a similarity drawn between the minorities who have inherited a battle against racist judgment, and the children of the conservative, feudal secret society, who have also inherited battles and unfair expectations. All are fighting against a system of violence and ignorance for the right to exist freely... But, the author seems to consistently demonize the white children. William, Nick and Sel are treated like assailants, an arbitrary, unfair line drawn between Bree's desire to learn offensive magic, and William/Nick/Sel actually taking the offensive against a foe. Sel is literally turning into a white devil over the course of the book.
- Queer Baiting. William is gay, and is mentioned in relation to three potential shipping fodders: Dylan, his boyfriend; Whitty, his apprentice; and Lark, a co-worker with a crush on him. William breaks up with Dylan, Whitty dies, and Lark gets injured and removed from the party too early for anything to blossom between him and William. So... What was the point of mentioning William's orientation, or introducing any of these potential suitors, at all? Similarly, aside from the occasional joke, the reader could easily forget that Alice is a lesbian. And Sel spends SO MUCH of the series fighting with Nick and Bree, that the potentially budding throuple doesn't feel earned or sympathetic. An elderly lesbian couple is introduced to help Bree with her Rootcraft... but it all feels too little. None of the representation is central, or even commented upon sympathetically, even though the system obsessed with bloodlines and descendants would ABSOLUTELY have been as cruel to queer children as it was to non-white children.
- Alice is a double-whammy in this book: Not only is she an example of queer-baiting, she's a tropetastic example of race-baiting. The super witty Asian best friend? Seriously?! She was a little more palatable in the first book, having her own motivations, and calling Bree out on her self-sabotage. But in this book, she is completely unrecognizable, worry free and constantly bringing Bree accessories and treats like a freaking valet! She's dead weight, a completely empty character.

Aside from themes, I can't say that this book has much going for it. It's not fun to read. I know, that sounds harsh, that a book about trauma and grief isn't fun to read? But there is a way of approaching heavy subject matter and still making a STORY around it. There are very few quotable, artistic passages in this book. No witty banter between characters. No character growth. Very little adventure, or intrigue. I can think of many YA books which deal with grief (and especially grief turned rage), where the protagonist feels alone in their suffering and pursues a vendetta against a corrupt society, all of which did more with character, tone, voice, arc, metaphor, plot twists, etc. than Bloodmarked did. What I'm saying is that there's not enough BOOK in this honking book! Very few literary devices. An almost 600 page doorstop.

There is little plot to get excited about, a protagonist I'm not invested in, deuteragonists who don't get genuine character arcs, themes about inclusion that seem to contradict themselves, and a theme about grief that suffocates all the rest of the book's development. Very ambitious, but ultimately disappointing.

Beauuuuutifully written!!! Rochelle Hassan had an amazing knack for intimating complex emotions . The characters all felt rich and real. Diverse, morally grey, internally conflicted, and universally relatable.

I love that this story had a romantic element, but it wasn't the trope-tastic hormone fest that most YA delivers. In fact, the heart of this story was refreshingly platonic: The challenges and comforts from navigating familial relationships (both blood and found). There was a theme, a question throughout, of whether secrets were better kept to spare someone's feelings, or if buried truths had a way of outing themselves and binding generations with trauma. (Major Encanto vibes!!!) There is no clear right answer, and watching each character wrestle with the question was deeply moving. The feels, my friends!

The classic fairytale setting was *chef's kiss* for highlighting the themes and conflicts! The Fae in this book are deep, earthy, ancient. The ones who trade in pain, secrets, memories, and precious momentos. All the feelings we bury, all the important pieces of ourselves that time will obscure, are important and powerful magic. We are all bound to a vast web - our communities, our ancestors, our homes, nature - and personifying those invisible threads as a magical force fueled by heart, choices, grief and sacrifice was deeply profound.

This book resonated with me! Run and get a copy IMMEDIATELY!!!