Phillip Abraham

"Be careful you don't scare him," I began but the unicorn beside me let out a snort which sounded annoyed before suddenly lurching towards me and turning into a boy with frosted tips in his hair and a huge grin on his face."

DNF @ 40%

i can acknowlege that i'm not the audience for this book, but even still, this is NOT well written in the slightest. i kept pointing out basic typos and clunky sentence construction, and usually i can tolerate subpar prose to a certain degree, but it was just not good here. did nobody read that sentence in the editing phase??? did they decide it made sense??

and the actual plot... at the very least, i hoped it would be a guilty pleasure sort of story that i can enjoy if i acknowledge its flaws, but no. i genuinely kept forgetting the love interests' names because they were all just the same brand of smirking hot male love interest. if you want to write about that, fine, but at least try to make them meaningfully different. i also don't understand this book's use of multiple POVs, since both tory and darcy sound like the exact same character.

the sole enjoyment i got out of this book was laughing about it with my friends, and sending screenshots every time something insane happened. if you have a high tolerance for bad writing AND just want something to laugh at, you could probably find enjoyment in this book, but otherwise, please don't read this.

it was fun! a bit too short to really build on its subject matter, but i liked what we got to see!

the main character and her internal struggles were compelling, and i liked seeing her growth throughout. the ending did feel a bit too convenient and abrupt for my liking, but i think it made sense within the context of the book. i'd also like to shout out the very cool illustrations at the start of each chapter - they kept me engaged!

overall, a pretty interesting usage of the magical girl trope! i probably won't think about this much after finishing it, but i did have a good time reading it.

truthfully, i didn't love this book like i thought i would. i think the characters in this book are the strongest aspect, and i think the general whimsical fairytale-like atmosphere of the story was very well done. it felt very cozy and comforting to read!

the reason why i say i say i didn't love this is because of how little i felt like i understood of the overarching plot. i think this is the kind of book i need to reread to fully understand - there was a surprising amount of depth to the story, but i think the way it was executed was a little confusing. i did find the ending very sweet though, even if a lot of the preceding chapters felt a bit muddled.

as some other reviews have said, i think i wouldn't have the same level of comittment to finish this if it weren't associated with the movie. i did enjoy reading and don't regret it at all though (i actually havent watched the ghibli movie so this is my gateway LOL) and i think with a revisit, i might like it more

not to be dramatic but this sounds amazing??? please let this be good so i can be annoying about it

i think this book was made in a lab specifically to appeal to me. this fulfilled my itch for a character driven book like emily wilde's encyclopedia of faeries so well, and i'm incredibly excited for the rest of this series. actual review to come but this was so good