zombecrustacean's Reviews (189)

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I will be honest, I didn't really like this book. It was kind of a slog to get through. This was most definitely a young adult read in terms of the writing and content/themes.

I thought this book had a good concept: sapphic dark academia vibes with demonic/fae/eldritch terror. BUT this book focused heavily on what I believe is really unrealistic teen drama. 

A general complaint, I feel like this author had a really tough time describing the skin color of the individuals in the book without literally saying they were #white. Also, the cast seems to include token diversity but not actual diversity. I would have loved real diversity with less personality traits that I could relate to common stereotypes. 

A major sticking point that I had was how Finch was "chosen" by Nerosi because of the great desire she had inside her, specifically to attend Ululume. Which I thought was bullshit, I felt that Finch had a very casual want. Maybe that was a fault in the pacing and background at the beginning of the book. Either way, our "chosen one" felt average as hell. 

Back to my earlier comment about unrealistic teen drama. For seniors in an all-girl high school, there was BARELY any focus on schoolwork or going to classes. How on Earth are they getting the money to do things, who is selling them alcohol, where are they getting the energy to party in the tunnels, etc... I think this setting would have done better as maybe a private college, where it's a little more relatable to have kids partying and not focusing on classes. And I will be honest, I didn't give two shits about the homecoming project, it was a thinly veiled attempt to give the two characters a reason to spend time together. 

Overall, I thought the bisexuality and lesbian identity work was done decent enough. No queer complaints on my end. I really enjoyed that concept of having a girl best friend who you love and maybe could have <i> loved</i> be a toxic force in her life. Because a lot of girl groups especially those with bisexuals or lesbians end up in those toxic relationships.

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I feel that it is important to notate that I went into reading this book with two particular sets of bias. One is a love for the concept of final girls and the slasher trope in the horror genre, can you blame me? The other is a cautious attitude toward author Grady Hendrix. I have had many people DNF his various books for very valid reasons. In the end, I had already bought this book and wanted to give it a go anyway. 

I am weary to include this, but there are certain characteristics and behaviors of the women in this book that make me a little uneasy. And, if I’m being honest with myself, it is because the author is a cis white guy, and as a whole, I lean on the cautious side when they are writing about experiences that are not their own. None of these were major red flags to me personally, but it was worth mentioning. 

One thing that I didn’t love that was really pounded into me as a reader was that men are horrible. Like, a majority of moral conversations in the book are very man-hate dominated. I understand that it is commentary on how every man is capable of being incredibly dangerous, trust me, as a woman I understand that. But the way it is described in the book just feels like the author really wanted to emphasize that men are predators in a way that both glorifies the “danger” in men and panders towards surface level feminism. That all serial killers and slashers are men and could never be woman is both inaccurate and excludes trans and non-binary folk entirely. I love a good “throw the whole man” away joke, but this felt like something else. This felt like someone using satire incorrectly.

My last point of concern was that I both liked and disliked that the background of each final girl was ripped off from a major movie franchise that already exists in the real world. Except maybe that of the main character, I’m not familiar with her backstory as a real world series, but the others definitely were. On one hand, I liked the familiarity of those stories, on the other, I kind of just wish the author made entirely new slasher backstories. That would have been really engaging.

Anyway, after all is said and done, I give this three stars. It was fine and I didn’t find anything to be particularly offensive (to me), but some things were kind of done in bad taste. It gets three gaydar gators because one of the final girls IS a lesbian and we do meet their partner, but they aren’t front and center very often. Bonus for disability representation as one final girl is wheelchair bound, though she is not present through most of the book.

EDIT: Also, SPOILERS: I completely forgot about the relationship that Lynnette has with the cowboy, super gross, something bad should have happened to the cowboy. The fact that he's still seen in a positive light at the end of the book makes my skin kind of crawl.

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Perfect gay gator score because it is a romance book centered around two gay couples, which is what I like to see.

Only three stars because while it was a pretty good book, and did propel me forward to finish it, I didn't think it was anything super special. Three major notes that will some up my overall thoughts on the book.

Firstly, I do want to start off by saying that I really loved the dialogue. The way that the characters talked to each other really buoyed me through the reading and the characters were deeply flawed and relatable and interesting. Our two POV's are centered around Gwen and Arthur, obvious from the title, but I almost would have loved to see narration from all six of the core group. That is by no means a downfall in writing mind you, simply something I might have also enjoyed. Love me a found family trope and I truly would have enjoyed more scenes seeing this group interact because the interactions were my favorite part of the book and I think showcase the author's writing best.

Next, one of my two complaints. I absolutely hate it when a plot is propelled and a romance is mired through miscommunication. I have a person vendetta against fictional characters who won't just talk to each other and there is one really annoying instance of this in the book and another lesser instance.

My other complaint is that I want more coming down from the climax. This is a problem I have with most books in general, but after the intensity of the climax, we get only a little glimpse into the resolution and it is such a big undertaking in this fictional world, so I wanted more of those logistics spelled out at the end.

Overall, good read. Would recommend to those who are really into queer romances and especially those into period pieces.

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This book did what I wish so many others did. It describes love, loss, family conflict, and friendship in such an honest and realistic way. It is also an amazing insight into how belief can become destructive and how the line between being good and causing suffering can sometimes blur. Not to mention it has amazing, well-thought-out queer character (in my personal opinion, every book should.) 

When I finished this book (in just two days), I sat with the ending. It was satisfying and what I needed without being cut and dry. So many books end in a neat little bow or with an obvious cry for a sequel, but this book gave me an ending that felt real. A story was told and the climax is over, but this isn't the end for these characters. Just like real life, there is this overwhelming feeling that we merely got a glance into just a chapter of their lives. 

For a book about a dystopian future, I felt incredibly grounded while reading it.