Wayward

EDIT:

As this author has begun using generative AI covers across many of her books, I'm updating my rating to 1* star and will be removing any books by this author that were on my TBR. I'll also be blacklisting R.A. Steffan in perpetuity. There's no excuse to use genAI slop for your covers, and I won't support authors who do so.

EDIT:

As this author has begun using generative AI covers across many of her books, I'm updating my rating to 1* star and will be removing any books by this author that were on my TBR. I'll also be blacklisting R.A. Steffan in perpetuity. There's no excuse to use genAI slop for your covers, and I won't support authors who do so.

EDIT:

As this author has begun using generative AI covers across many of her books, I'm updating my rating to 1* star and will be removing any books by this author that were on my TBR. I'll also be blacklisting R.A. Steffan in perpetuity. There's no excuse to use genAI slop for your covers, and I won't support authors who do so.

EDIT:

As this author has begun using generative AI covers across many of her books, I'm updating my rating to 1* star and will be removing any books by this author that were on my TBR. I'll also be blacklisting R.A. Steffan in perpetuity. There's no excuse to use genAI slop for your covers, and I won't support authors who do so.

70% of this book of this book was buildup that was extremely slow and dull with repetitive writing and monotonous thoughts and actions from the characters, intermingled with obnoxious, rebellious teen angst. The remaining 30% was rushed, skipped over most of what could have been interesting parts, and clarified the top goodreads review of this book to me, which merely states, "Well that was pointless."

I can't elaborate without spoiling, but let's just say that from the first three quarters, this experience went from a boring book that focused on its weaknesses instead of its strengths, that wasn't remotely scary, and that was carried along by uninteresting, annoying characters and was hovering around a two-star read for me, to a disappointing, highly implausible, and ridiculous one in the last quarter that rewarded stupidity and left me rolling my eyes while feeling like I'd wasted my time and dropped my rating to a rare-for-me abysmal one star.

Bird Box? Great, tense, paranoia-filled apocalypse horror survival story. Malorie? Coming of age teen drama. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Do not recommend.

The experience of reading Bird Box was like watching a thrilling, post-apocalypse tv show. It was punchy, intense, emotional, and suspenseful with a cast of characters stuck in a house together to survive and not always reaching a unanimous consensus on how to do that. It EMBRACED the horrifying idea of not knowing whether there was something in the room with you, maybe right in front of you silent, watching, something AWFUL right there - maybe? - but not knowing for sure one way or another no matter how carefully you check, not being able to see it and knowing if you're wrong, opening your eyes is the worst decision you could ever make. I felt the chills of this horror CONSTANTLY through the book, and I was hooked so fast. I love the whole CONCEPT of some unknown thing that makes you insane. This really feels like it feeds from the myth of Cthulhu but rather than one enormous entity seen by the few, this makes that danger more everyday, everyWHERE which is honestly brilliant. There's a LOT I like about this book and only a couple of things that could have been improved upon.

Malorie... was an okay character, which is my biggest critique. She has jusssst enough gumption to do what she has to do, but she was very much an everyday woman, with no particular skills or hobbies or abilities. We didn't see a lot of her history or what shaped her into who she was pre-apocalypse either, so she felt lacking to me. Gray. Little personality. Even boring if the story hadn't been forcing her to survive. She did some admirable things because she HAD to, yes, but otherwise wasn't an innovative or radical thinker. A decent character but one that I didn't have strong feelings about in either direction.

My second big critique is that there was no diversity, and two of the three women in the house (while there were five men) were pregnant. I really wish the author had developed at least the other woman, Cheryl, more. Perhaps had her be more of an innovator or one of the two who left the house for supplies, rather than it being two of the men. Instead, she's mostly a background character that doesn't have a lot of screentime. This book could have been improved instantly by making the cast a little more diverse and even.

Where this book excelled was the story and horror. It's edge-of-your-seat intense that focuses on its strengths with bingeable plotting. I looked forward to reading this when I knew I would later that day, and if I were a faster reader, I may very well have binged the whole thing the day I started it, I was so captivated. It did an amazing job of making a generally realistic house full of strangers with varying levels of morality that work together because there's little other choice but who don't always agree and only trust each other so far. Again, it FELT like I was watching a tv series, and with post-apocalypse being one of my favorite themes for shows and movies, I loved that feeling and how well this author and book built it.

In summary–was this book perfect? No, but it was incredibly entertaining. If you're a fan of this type of setting and atmosphere for horror, you probably won't be disappointed by Bird Box. I enjoyed it so much I intend to pick up the sequel from CloudLibrary as my next read, and I'm definitely going to keep this author on my radar for future reads.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. This series, in many ways, embodies that quote, this book in particular, expressing that last part as we get to see Sasha BECOME everything she feared and hated the most.

To me, book one of this series feels like it can be read as a standalone, especially if you dwell on the ending or figure out what was intended with it. That whole book has all the mystery and edge-of-your-seat suspense you could want. If you read the sequels, then you should read both of them, as they're a complete journey as book one was its own journey. They are continuations of Sasha's story, but set in future/different timelines and far removed from book one. No more secrets or mind-bending revelations or metamorphoses. Just swimming through this world that Sasha has landed in/created and figuring out how to make it all work. It's still a weird and confusing and fascinating setting and world system but not nearly as haunting or evocative as the original Vita Nostra.

What I really liked about this book is that it diverted from the single point of view of Sasha and followed several relevant characters. The POV was switching so often as to be discombobulating at times, but it also kept it nicely fresh. We got to see some of that youthful horror at the unknown again while still following Sasha's journey at the same time. It was a change I appreciated and enjoyed.

At the end of the day, I had a good time with this story and series as a whole and the way it made my brain chemistry shift, and I'm not sorry I read the whole thing. That being said, I think I would recommend only the first book as a standalone. The sequels had such different feelings to them, such different vibes and themes, and I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as I did the first. They were good, but there was just something lacking for me. The authors, however, I'm definitely going to read more books by. The unique and mind-bending ways they seem to create their stories is something I find so rarely and desperately want more of.

This story felt like I was watching a game of DND unfold, which isn't in itself, a bad thing, but when characters are thrown together, don't mesh or even like each other the entire story, have no real chance to bond, and make decisions based on their alignment (good, neutral, evil, etc.) rather than on what's smart, it can be a bad thing. Worse, it felt like the plot was decided by a dungeon master trying to craft a tropey but "fun" tale and keep things interesting with monsters and mysteries thrown in between rests. The story was PREDICTABLE to the point I rolled my eyes a couple of times when the characters didn't see what was coming. In between that were small plot holes or things that happened that the purpose/reasoning behind were just never explained.

Besides all that, while the writing itself wasn't bad or unenjoyable to read, it dearly needed polish. The author would get caught on a word and use it repeatedly for a span, such as "incandescent" or "mosaic." There were also a lot of nitpicky things that were odd or awkward in phrasing that, had it been rarer, I would have shrugged off, but it happened SEVERAL times (such as "the champion plunged his helmet over his head"–plunged over?–or "his lips twisted beneath his bushy beard"–do you mean moustache?). It wasn't a terrible writing style, and I could get pulled into the story when I sat down to read it, but I think it needed more work.

Then there's Gerome, the main character. Some of this part is going to be a personal preference problem, but at the end of the day, I just didn't warm much to Gerome. I liked him a BIT more in the middle, but he lost me again as the story wore on. He felt like a "man" in a negative way. His humor almost never landed, and while that definitely has the potential to be a *me* problem more than a *book* problem, I absolutely found myself cringing more than once at his thoughts or commentary. He was also the type of person who has talent but not because he wanted to DO something with it. He was motivated literally by what would be most likely to get him laid and almost caused mass death and destruction trying to improve the size of his member. I'm sure some people would find this funny, but to me it's cringey "man" energy in some of the worst ways and was personally repulsive and unendearing. I ended up liking the epilogue that jumped from character to character better than most of the rest of the story that followed only Gerome.

Honestly, there's more critiquing I could do, but I've touched, at least, on most of the problems I had with this one. A lot of it really needed more editing or a re-write or two and some polish to top it all off. I'm not sure that would have fixed everything, but it would have helped, and those that share the author's sense of humor would have enjoyed it, as a whole, more. That being said, I'm sure there's still an audience out there for this. Those that read for the action, don't look too closely at things, and who like this type of main character. While I didn't really like the story that much altogether, reading it wasn't a bad experience either. The author has something and just needs to work on it some more, in my humble opinion. All in all, I'm not mad I read The Demon of Elderstay, but I don't think this author is suited to me as a reader, so don't plan on picking up more books by her.

How to Survive This Fairytale managed to TUG on my heartstrings every which way. I went into this one barely knowing what it was about other than “queer fairytale.” For some reason, I didn’t actually think it was a romance, even while reading it, which may have been part of why some of the emotional nuance and sacrifices hit me as hard as they did. Or it could be some personal life stuff I unintentionally found myself correlating to these love interests on a symbolic level. That being said, even the non-romance elements were written in a very… heart-clenching way. I felt every single one of the beats of this story. For being a fairytale with magic and curses, the characters were EXTREMELY humanized. The pain and the longing and the fear and the hope and the SUFFERING they all felt and went through, especially the main character, Hans, I also felt on some level. I found myself tearing up several times, especially towards the end, which I rarely do while reading anyway, and I’m not even in my luteal phase, haha. This book will genuinely make you CRY, sometimes sad tears and sometimes happy ones, but with both, it will wreck you. At least, it did me.

You know, I’ve always been one to say, “I’ll read first person and third person all day long; it doesn’t matter which, just don’t give me second person.” So I looked at the writing askance when I started this book and realized it was in second person. A part of me was hoping and maybe even assuming that it would change once I read through the many-chaptered prologue, but the writing was so good that I got sucked right into the story during that prologue and didn’t even care that it was second person. It was… strange, but it didn’t detract anything. In fact, it may have played into why I found myself relating or empathizing or correlating my life so much with Hans’s. I don’t know. I’m not one to insert myself, and I still didn’t fully, but the author did an amazing job of making me FEEL, one way or another. At the end of the day, I think Hallow could have done it just as well from any person because it was the writing that was so… emotionally riveting and stark that both painted a picture and built a very human, very emotive, very sympathetic character. Characters. Honestly, the whole cast, especially on the “good” side were full of life and full of pain and full of hurt that I FELT. I love a book that uses not only good writing but builds good characters and not only does that but makes a story that’s INTERESTING.

The plot of this thing is so very interesting because yes, it merely follows closely Hans’s life, but it also breaks the fourth wall in a way because the Story is pushing and pulling Hans where it wants him to go until he eventually, finally, tells it no. I don’t want to spoil anything, but oh my gosh, it’s so good. Painful, dark, and timed perfectly. The story really doesn’t waste words. It’s UNIQUE, it’s fresh, and yet it’s familiar. Tales as old as time being retold from a deeply human perspective. It’s alive with every single feeling, and I felt every single one with Hans.

Honestly, this book is just objectively GOOD. In a world full of regurgitated pandering and lifeless slop, this story is richly human. Human made and human felt. It’s exactly why art NEEDS to exist, and it succeeds with every one of its purposes. I dunno. I’m getting pretty freaking dramatic, but the older I get and the more the world turns gray, the more I appreciate not only something as fresh as this but as human. As much as parts of this story—let’s be honest, MOST of it–hurt my heart, not normally an experience I seek as a reader, it felt good to feel alive. I can only ask the author to please keep writing exactly like this. And no, I don’t mean fairytales necessarily or second person stories necessarily. But characters with hearts that beat. Characters that yearn and that want and that suffer and that somehow find a way to stand up, to sacrifice, and to cut and claw and drag their ways to their version of a happy ending. Keep feeling and keep writing stories that make your readers FEEL. Really feel. There aren’t enough of those anymore, and I’m thrilled to have found this diamond amongst the rough.

This is a happy story, eventually, but there’s a lot of deep-seated pain you have to get through first. It’s a thrilling, fascinating, enchanted, and dark ride to get there, but if that’s something you’re open to, I strongly suggest you check this one out. It’s definitely worth the read.