Madalina Mesrefoglu

It's been a couple of days since I finished this and I've been waiting on the rating ever since.
The book was fascinating to say the least. Heartbreaking at times, made me cry like I never cried before while reading a book. This is the story of a mother and what she will do to keep her family together as the world rapidly changes before her eyes.

It's a hard book to get into because it introduces a new style of writing: sentences are long, lyrical and descriptive; paragraphs are large blocks of text; and conversations are merged into the narrative without quotation marks or dialogue lines. I found this to be boring at times; the chapters seemed to go on forever. There would be big gaps in between them as you had to wait for important events to happen. This story fluctuations made the Prophet song a complicated read for me.

I can see why this is an award-winning book, the writing style is amazing, like I never read before. It was similar to reading a long and tragic poem. However, this also made it far too difficult to read, and now that I've finished, every other book feels so much more refreshing.
3.5/5 stars

Great audiobook. Fantastic world-building and characters that feel so fleshed out and real. The idea of taking revenge in the name of your family in a world where a corrupt government rules reminded me of Assassin's Creed. With death lurking around every corner, this had the feel of an intense action film. This is a new favorite book series and a 5 star read.

PS: I just discovered that this book is considered ‘controversial' because of the purple prose and the heavy footnote count. I have also heard that this series is great if you liked the “Shatter Me” series' writing style. Use this knowledge however you see fit.

A haunted house set in Mexico in the 1800s, what more could you want? But seriously, this is chillingly horrifying, and I loved it.

The fact that I finished this in just 3 days tells you how fast-paced it is. If you enjoy mystery stories where you're trying to figure out whodunit, with a twist that all clues lead to the same person—the main character—you should give this a try.

Buddy reading:) (this would take some time to finish)