Karolina

If Memento Mori was a book... A reminder to live fully and embrace our loved ones, told from a place of sorrow and horror. Grief portrayed not only for a person's death but also how we grieve opportunities lost or motherhood. A positive view on death though. 

Confusing af. Had to do a lot of research, which I don't mind, but I still felt befuddled.
The art cover is gorgeous though. 

I liked that Aurora was strong. The flirting was cute.
There's just something about alpha wolves fighting for you, you know?

I don't know how Madeline managed to write something so powerful in such few pages. 
The myth is always so talked about as romantic but when you really think about it, it's horror (un unfortunately real for too many women) 

If you like The VVitch movie you're going to like this book.Loved all the folklore and how strong Abitha is. Good and evil are not simple things. Living beings and their beliefs are grey, complicated and nuanced.Going on a vengeance rampage felt awesome, amazing, exhilarating!

The concept of siblings (instead of romantic partners) being soul mates is so nice. I enjoyed it. 

This is unique. The book is about storytelling and you get to witness a miserable life in the midst of it. 

Very interesting read. It's about identity and city life; and about how humans crave for routine and leadership even in the apocalypse. 

I admired Candace's self awareness.
 
Reading this after the pandemic felt a little too close to home. 

I'm sad. It started as a 5 star read and devolved half way through it. It started as a beautifully written gothic story of a young boy and his mysterious friend and then became an unhinged “love” story. I say love in parenthesis because they barely spoke to each other. I tried to rationalize it as Sebastian being his creator's feelings incarnate but still he never professed such love for Lilian as Sebastian did. It felt unrealistic and so, the whole Lilian and Sebastian part was weird. Truly unhinged.  I get that romance is part of Gothic Literature but it has to be well done and I'm afraid this was not. It would've been perfect if this love would've been professed to his creator instead of Lilian. They spent time and sufferings together. It would've made sense.  The initial part was deliciously good: it's well written, you don't know if Sebastian is an imaginary friend, a tulpa, or the devil. However, the second and third were like reading a different book. 

How is this tagged as romance? This is a horror story! Author make it seem like Wolf's just a entitled man but he's just a horrible stalker. Read this and you'll just watch a woman being treated like garbage for about 90% of the book and being gaslighted into thinking she's being naughty. Oh yes, the woman always submits, how clever 🙄 I did chuckle once when Brinley said Wolf was doing things with “grace”. Isn't that a stretch.  This was a nightmare to read. What an awful friend Layla is BTW. 

I was honestly disgusted for about 35% of the book. It took me some effort to continue and it picked up a bit later on.
The whole alien thing seems unnecessary so far so I'm waiting to see how it develops in the next books. 

It was so cool at the beginning but it became unnecessarily long. I'm still on the fence on Rhea. I get her being curious but sometimes she was just plain stupid. I did like that we were able to see their relationship grow. 

It was entertaining and funny. Love me some grumpy/sunshine trope. 

What a beautiful book. I'm so happy I read it.  Half the time I didn't know what was happening and to be honest I didn't guess the path the story would take but this is marvelous. I got to care for the protagonist and for the house and it left me with a lovely feeling of gratitude for our world and our minds. 

This was actually quite cute. 

It's a good horror story and it's well executed. The horror is in the little details.  I really liked all the literary references and I enjoyed Joe's train of thought regarding his faith and religion. The only thing I hate about this is cliffhangers. 

I enjoyed the Russian lore and folklore but I had other expectations for this. The atmosphere of it is gorgeous but the book as a whole was just nice, not outstanding as I see in other reviews. 
BTW so many years living in the cold and they can't prepare a bit better for winter? 

Best thing about this story was the book cover. It was kind of all over the place. 

The room is the most in-your-face symbol of the closet. Not only was David was a POS in denial but he didn't know how to love. I appreciate the commentary on money and exploitation and I understand the context of rejection of homosexuality in the 50s. What I don't care for is David's lack of communication and lack of accountability. I don't like people saying this is a love story either when it clearly isn't. There's no love here. 

Who knew there was so much drama involved in the study of dinosaurs? 🦕 

It captures every day life so beautifully. Every moment in the book is quiet but purposeful. Basically “nothing happens” but you feel like everything is happening. Loved it. 

Worst case of Stockholm Syndrome I've ever seen. I can't with idiotic protagonists. I can understand him being “new” in terms or being a monster but he had the 30-year-old man brain and experience to act a little less idiotic. 

I was not expecting to be so distressed by a book. Truly heart-wrenching all throughout.  It's Body horror & Paranormal horror very well done.  And fuck you, George. 

This is existential horror. So short but it makes you think about everything in life. What is the meaning of our lives? Is the way I'm living the best I can do? Do moments matter most than living a long time or are they distractions from our purpose?  I've seen people complain about the ending but they're just missing the point of the story. How could it end differently when the loss of hope is there the whole time?  BTW, the realest part of this is how humans worsen everything, even hell. 

I read the whole series just because I love Enzo.