this majorly isn’t the story i was looking for, and i dont like the story that it is. marketing really failed on this one (its a dense literary fiction about an extremely messed up family/generational trauma saga, i’d expected a horror story about a girl accused of being a witch. the description and “horror” tag on here and goodreads are highly inaccurate)

not gonna lie, i’ve learned more about rabies from a ten minute youtube video than from this book ABOUT RABIES. it meanders an incredible amount (including an extremely long tangent about percy shelley and trying to connect vampires to rabies???)

dnf’ing cause this book is extremely dry
would’ve felt differently if there were threads between each essay or even just an explanation as to why the author chose to talk about these trees specifically.
despite the dnf, 1: gorgeous cover and illustrations of the trees inside, 2: i liked learning that Easter Island is also called Rapa Nui. didn’t know that at all previously

i wanted so badly to love this, and i did love it at first, but it honestly is just going so far downhill for me.
throughout this book i’ve been much more interested in the contemporary aspects of this book— as it is incredibly comforting to read about
a fellow southern queer person
than yet another queer YA set on the west or east coast of america— than the magical aspects (to me the magic system just doesn’t feel unique, it reminds me of every other ya book with gods out there).
but

when enzo was revealed to be the shade is where this book lost me. gem is defending him so hard and genuinely… for what??? i dont understand at all why they are defending the shade. also im sorry but willa mae has been a horrific guide since they first appeared on-page.
the point where i stopped reading was when marian basically tells gem that it wont be long until one of them finds the knife. that really frustrated me because: if red can download all of someones knowledge by touching them,,, and he punched gem,,, then he already knows everything about where the knife is. just in general very frustrating.

DNFing this because it’s not quite what i was looking for and i have a ton of ebook holds that have come in

I’ll try and find a physical copy of this at somepoint, but trying to read this on my phone is absolute hell due to the tiny print and highly detailed art

this was lovely at the start, but im struggling so hard with it and  i refuse to force myself to finish. cant connect with the love interests, dont care about baseball. im much more interested in what happens to vince, so i’ll just look up spoiler reviews for that.

this dnf is honestly my bad, i stopped reading this for like two weeks and by the time i returned to it, could not make myself care about it. might try it again another time but idk

a bit too dry of nonfiction for me

very much not in the headspace to read this rn