alex

Oh gosh this book. Amazing cover and premise, but just did not hit for me the way I was hoping it to.

I think this book is gross just to be gross and usually I don't mind a good gory book here and there, but they have to be good for me to justify it/like it. I made a lot of notes in this book while reading it and most of them were the same critique over and over again, because I found this book to be repetitive. I found the prose to be pretty bland even when it was supposed to be horrific and gory. There is a section about parasitic worms that made me feel bored and that seems wild to me. A lot of the actions/what was actually happening was shocking (I guess), but the writing around it was as if she was doing something mundane. Overall, just not my kind of book.

Thank you to netgallery for the ARC!

uhmmmm
i really loved her memoir but i feel like i was reading the same book only this time she has a relationship with her teacher. i don't think there's really any character development nor do i think it really says anything about the relationship she has with her teacher and all that comes with it. kinda disappointed especially with the ending.

i'm ngl i wasn't going into this book with high expectations especially when i discovered that the magic system involves carving magic onto skin basically and then naming the main character Rune... it's certainly a choice.... but that ending???? never saw it coming and honestly. credit where credit is due i find romantasy to be boring and filled with this tropes but this shit got me pumped.

that being said having two characters names gideon and harrow was also a choice and a very confusing one. is this author a secret the locked tomb fan??? what's going on with that i refuse to believe it to be a coincidence.

1/5⭐️
this book put me in a reading slump, but i hate dnfing things. i think the cover is so cool but so wasted on this book. i thought it was going to be gross and scary, but it's really really boring and also not really a horror novel. this book probably would've done numbers when books like my year of rest and relaxation were super trendy and everyone loved that kind of feral and unhinged main character. super bummed by this one

review to come!