This was a great sequel and I’m mad that it ended on a cliffhanger. It did drag in some parts and I wish there’s was a little bit less focus on the drama of the school (and tbh it could’ve been edited better) but this was a great follow-up to Threadneedle.

This very much was just a book on abusive relationships. The mc goes from a bad relationship where her ex blamed her for him losing feelings bc she stopped centering him entirely to an abusive codependent relationship w a witch. It wasn’t enjoyable to read, nor did I like any of the characters except Ralph and he was a spider so

Well. That was something. Not enjoyable, really weird, I didn’t see th point of the rape scene except to just keep proving over and over how horrible all these people were when there were plenty of other examples in the book. The horror aspects didn’t really drive the story, they were just there. Overall just a waste of time

This was a pretty good thriller overall. I saw the plot twist coming and I think there may have been translation issues in some places. I wasn’t a fan of the insta love the fmc felt for her rescuer nor how the tension felt flat in some places but it was enjoyable overall

This was another read that came highly recommended by oomfs, unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I think I’ve fully aged out of reading ya bc for all intents and purposes this is the type of book I loved as a teen. Preamble aside, I wanted to like this but it fell short for me.

To start, the pacing felt incredibly off, there was no sense of time for any events except for being told that the battle where

Qilin died

was seven weeks before Rin’s army came to her uncle’s lands. 

I also felt like there was just missing characterization of everyone except Zephyr, to the point where it felt like they were just background to whatever Zephyr was doing. It also made the “romance” fall flat.

I full heartedly believe that not every (ya) fantasy needs a romance subplot, even if it’s supposedly to help Qilin integrate herself with the enemy. It felt out of place and there was a lack of development for zephyrcrow that would allow me to see them as a couple, just like there was a lack of development in any of the relationships in the book. Were told that there’s some sort of bond between people but never shown it.

Now for the plot. It had the bones to be  great. I love political intrigue in a fantasy setting; however, the plot seemed to be hobbled together with plot twists that didn’t make sense and seemed to be more for shock factor than actual plot. Not to be a hater but there was no need for

Zephyr to be revealed as a god after dying.

There was no point and I think the story would’ve been more impactful without that thrown in. 

I do concede tho that the ending was the most interesting part of the book. I just wish there was more done for worldbuilding and characterization. It’s the same problem I had with The Predator. I hate being told over and over how smart the mc is but never getting shown how smart and clever they are.

This was an enjoyable locked room murder mystery. I don’t think I enjoyed the narration style and there was heavy foreshadowing but it was good regardless 

This was so weird. I wanted to like this, I was really looking forward to this read but it fell short for me. I think that not enough backstory was given for the motivations of Ji-won to make sense. I disliked how short the chapters were bc it made the book feel faster yet there were still pacing issues and things didn’t ramp up until the last 60-70%. I disliked that there was very little characterization for the women in this book while all the men were heavy handed stereotypes. I disliked the ending, I feel like it was a cop out for

Ji-won to have focused on eating eyes, specifically human eyes bc of a brain tumor.

I also think it was extremely predictable that

Ji-won used Geoffrey to take the blame for killing George. It got rid of 2/3 of the male stereotypes at one time.

Overall, this had the bones to be fantastic and I’m still excited to see what Monika Kim does next.

I wasn’t invested in this at all. I know it was a supernatural who dun it but the supernatural elements felt so out of place and just didn’t mesh well. I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, the big bad only shows up once and the demon-hunting society only met 2x. Also, the whole secondary plot about a murder her best friend did 20 years prior felt so irrelevant and lame. Ngl if my best friend killed her rich abusive husband, I’d help her fly to Mexico too, but that’s just me

I was looking forward to a gothic Appalachian horror and all I received was family trauma. This was just weird and I was hoping for so much more after reading the synopsis. The characters felt like plot devices instead of fleshed out characters and it felt like there was a whole lot of nothing happening until

the mom came out of the bog

. The ending felt so lackluster and was a huge letdown.

This would’ve been cute if it was executed properly, but the mmc was creepy and it felt like there was so much build up before anything crucial happened. Props for being super inclusive tho