Hannah

I read it so you don't have to. Seriously don't waste your time .

Okay so here's the thing. I read this because of a few reasons. 1. It is considered be a national treasure of France 2. It is constantly listed as one of the most horrifying books people have ever read

Yes this book is disgusting and made my skin crawl and made me hate humanity. Yes I understand this book is a rough draft and was written while the author was imprisoned at the Bastille. Yes it supposed to shed light on the darkest parts of the human mind.

Considering all of this, the book is still BAD. The writing doesn't make sense in most places and where is does make sense it is equally boring as it is disgusting.

C'mon France you can do better about picking your national treasures. Page after page of people eating shit and a terrible writing doesn't deserve all this attention. Be better.

Fairytale retellings have always been a soft spot of mine but dark retellings? And I'm already swooning. This book was such a fantastic retelling it was a new take on witches and the idea of good and evil and redemption. There was no insta-love which I had been prepared for instead the love story went through the proper steps to get where it ended. There were a few plot holes like the fact that Lira had until the winter solstice to take the princes heart it was mentioned once and then never again, as if the author just needed a reason to turn lira human. And he ending was rushed and while the Lois ends were tied up nicely it lacked he umpf I really wanted out of a story like this. All in all a great read!

I can't right now. Holy hell. This book was everything. Everything. Above the way it's written, it made me laugh and cry and fear and cheer and all the things a good book should. But it told an amazing tale of how the bad don't always turn good and the ones who save us aren't always heros. It tackled things like PTSD and addiction with grace and drew attention to them and showed how serious they are, but didn't take away from the story to do so, the problems of the characters was woven into the story with such perfection. I can't handle it. I will be rereading this book over and over and over again

Actual rating 3.5 stars. So this book is really lovely in so many ways, first and foremost I liked that it had an easy relaxed feel to it, the flow wasn't too rushed but I was drawn in all the same and the premise is just beautiful there were chapters that gave you backstory and mythology and those were my favorites. The romance is cute and very normal, it's just two boys who have found something special and they kiss sometimes. These are great things.

Here are the things I didn't like about it.

It's lacking.

The pace while relaxed and flowy does just that and about 3/4 of the way through the book it gets boring.

Climax? What climax?

The central plot of this book is that Danny's dad is stuck in a town that has “stopped” and he wants to get him back. But where's my conflict? Everything is more or less smooth sailing until the you reach the “plot twist” and even then because of how easy going the rest of the book is you don't feel the punch.

Character development was a little... bland? That's too harsh, they weren't boring, but I felt like they really didn't face any hard choices, nothing REALLY difficult was thrown their way, to make them evolve. They were too likable and their lives too easy.

Yes there is character death but it didn't impact me emotionally in any way, Danny never really has to choose between anything which makes the resolution at the end so flat, no heart flutters or grand cheers because the end was predictable.


So for a nice relaxing read in between more emotionally taxing books this is a good one.

So I actually finished this book forever ago. It really just... fine I'll say it. It was boring. And predictable. And the first few chapters were awesome, and then after the whole lab destruction scene, it just felt like an episode of TWD.