Lizard

Half the book is spent bulding up and all of the main excitment happens in the last like 70ish pages. The romance felt forced, it was talked about but never shown, like it didn't make sense for them to be into each other other than the author saying so. Also it's such a (personal) turn away when there's teenagers being written by adults and there's a weird sexual tension reference a little too many times. Idk it's fine for a fade to black or that, but ig for me the discussion of teenagers having heat of desire is weird.

first one was way better, kinda sad this one was using the cat as a side character for 70% of the book and he was much more passive than the first.

Very very boring and even more harder to follow. Yes it's Junji-Ito inspired art but it could have been a collection of art + short comics and it would have been a great read.

Have you ever read a book and gone 'man the MC is obviously a self insert and I'm going to assume based off the MC, the author is also an irritating person?' Yeah that's this book. Look if you like it great, but Evan is a literal piece of shit, the author uses tiktok speech (i.e. unalived) in a damn adult focused book, doesn't cuss (but can reference hot men in detail and porn), repeating everything like the reader is 8 years old, the author did two searches about witchcraft and called it a day, and the sentence structures are abhorrent. My final note is what do you mean she can unload furniture off a truck but she can't run 20 feet...

Oh no guys there's horror in a horror book! Anyways. I like that the author didn't shy away from the atrocities that happened in a way that didn't make it forgivable. He allowed her to get justice. I saw several people talk about Booka and that Abi should've exploded then and there. I think you have instant gratification issues; it was another realistic depiction of witch trials and her not exploding right there showed how broken she was. She fought for the entire book, but they wore her down so much, she just accepted it and let it fuel her sadness (into anger). Plus she literally couldn't do anything like did you guys not read the part where she was bound and Samson was sleeping? Honestly, I liked the slow pacing and the gradual increase in the fuckery that was happening. I often see books rush through the setup to get to the climax and then stumble into the middle of it, suddenly the whole plot is being thrown at you with the first punch. I think the opposite happened and the last part of the book wasn't long enough. I will also say, I did not care for the epilogue, it really wasn't needed in my opinion and for once I wanted to to be left up to the reader's decision/imagination. I do understand the negative outlook on how Natives were treated in this book, but I will say that I'm not Native so I can't give a full review on it, however it is interesting he did converse with an actual Native Pequot person! My last thing is guys check the trigger warnings before you read a book, stop negatively reviewing a book solely based on the fact you neglected to do so.

Chapter Count: 1-8 out of 168; Ongoing

Problematic BL Stereotypes Checklist

Are all love interests *clearly* adults (18+)?

• Yes

Are they gay purely for plot (‘typically straight’, ‘different from the rest’, ‘only gay for the lead(s)’)?

• No

Are all love interests enthusiastically consenting?

• Yes

Are all love interests able to effectively communicate?

• No

Are there any NSFW scenes? Are they as realistic as possible?

• Not in this volume/main storyline, N/A

Does someone get SA'd? Is it romanticized/brushed off/for comedy?

• No and, but there is mentions of SA

Is the anatomy unrealistic (barring style)?

• Yes, but barely

Is there homophobia? Transphobia?

• Yes, internalized and outer, jokes and in serious.
• Yes, jokes and remarks.

Is there fatphobia?

• Yes, by a main lead

Is there misogyny?

• Yes

Is there racism?

• Not that I can remember

Is there substance use?

• I believe alcohol is at least mentioned, review written awhile after reading

Is there a love triangle/unethical polyamory?

• No

Is there a seme/uke dynamic?

• Yes, it's not overtly done. Many comments about their dynamics are made.

Do one or more love interests have a tragic backstory?

• Yes, but pertains to parents not understanding being gay

Do one or more love interests have bad parents/guardians?

• Vaguely

Do one or more love interests break-up?

• A main love interest threatens it

Do one or more love interests die in the end?

• No

Is someone outed?

• Yes

Do one or more love interests abuse the other(s) in any way?

• No, but could also be construed at ambiguous

Does one or more love interests cheat on the other(s)?

• No, but accused due to simply knowing another gay man

Is there a good, established plot?

• No

Notes: I always feel like I'm missing three previous novels of lore to these 'slice of life' BLs. This felt more like an excuse to share recipes in a BL atmosphere but it wasn't at all well pulled off. The characters were also so flat and basic, I didn't really care about them and I don't have an interest in continuing this series.

Checklist is only applicable to: Volume 1 / Ch. 1-8