Hali
Short review: This book could've been better if it wasnt young adult.
Long story: I really wanted to like this book the longer I read it. The more I read the book itself and about the author I realized that this is also a deeply personal story about grief, falsely packaged as a young adult romance novel. YA implies its marketed towards teens too, but the author retains a writing style that is very reminiscent of dark romance and erotica (which she is an author of too). Not saying teens cant read this, but this book models multiple tragedies, some on accident: A codependent relationship, characters that dont exist outside of their romance, heavy miscommunication and the death of a character. The characters never act their age either. While the plot of this book explains that later on, I found myself very irritated and pulled out of my immersion by how inaccurately child characters were written. And while Im talking about immersion - the writing style is very flat, simple and wattpad. The author actually says that tongues duel at some point. Wattpad writing in combination with supposedly deep talks about life and death (that repeat themselves over and over again) just clash, and exactly that is why this book shouldntve been YA in my opinion. This couldve been a great emotional venture into grief and dealing with it. Instead its one book of a girl dying and leaving behind a boyfriend amongst many.
Ein tolles und aufschlussreiches Buch, welches viele Aussagen belegt und auf viele weitere Meinungen Bezug nimmt. Persönlich auch höchst inspirierend. Das Buch hat meine volle Empfehlung für alle, die sich irgendwie mit dem Islam, seiner Geschichte und seiner gelebten Form auseinandersetzen möchte, ob Gläubig oder nicht.
rounding it up to a five, because I went into this book expecting nothing and finished it with a nice fuzzy feeling. I cried a few times while reading it, the book is imo greatly written, its well edited, its realistic enough that I could deeply relate to the main character despite him being super annoying in the beginning and I found new hope for myself. Even things I wondered about in the beginning were explained as the book went on and when relevant. The conversations felt ALIVE. Only small con I see here is the obviously milennial tumblr language but I forgive you, book, because you were great
Oh how I wished for this novella to be better than it is. The prince, the main character of the story, acts like a 14year old on anime TikTok; constantly stumbling over his words, blushing and hanging his head at everything. Which is a shame! The dysphoria scenes were very greatly written, and the smut was pretty okay too. That does make it worse to me that theres a sizeable age gap between the main character and his lovers. Also, the writing itself just wasnt all that good. Theres commas where they shouldnt be, commas are missing where they should be, sentences trail off and it gets worse as the book goes on. The typesetter for this book should also be taught a lesson (literally) because sometimes the first sentence of a paragraph will be centred for no reason...? Honestly, this book would be an easy 4 stars if the author had a good editor and didnt rely on his Wattpad expertise
PS: I see many people saying this book has a diverse cast of characters which is a little bonkers to me - three cis men, one trans man, all of them white. One other man mentioned, one other woman mentioned. Is that really diverse?
There were like, two parts of the book that really lost me. Apart from that I really enjoyed the author's style of writing and I appreciate reading a book by somebody I share views but not a history with, seeing his views align with mine while his emotional reactions differ because of our own histories. A great book, but also a very challenging read.
This book is ... kinda terrible? The sex scenes are pretty well written, and there's some interesting plot elements in the second half of the book ... but apart from that? Im no puritan but I feel like dark themes should be given SOME level of respect and/or realism. Meanwhile there are multiple instances of rape in this book that are seemingly written in for shock value and then irrelevant for the rest of the book. The plot also loses itself. And, maybe thats just me, but something inside of me is very much against the notion of putting BDSM as a TRIGGER WARNING next to INCEST and RAPE. Sorry, I dont think bisexual threesomes are as morally grey or bad as whatever else happens in this book, but it really feels like they're being put on the same level when the book is about breaking moral taboos and then makes two women make out with each other for a man
reading some of the reviews makes me wonder if we read the same book. I shake my head at people saying “some scenes made no sense! Like, why the incest?!” Well, see, because they're insane, and they're all mentally unravelling, and to show how deep the fucked-up-ness runs in this friend group and also how fucked up they are after traumabonding like insane. Like, did you miss Camilla going on dates over the course of the book? Charles beating somebody up for her? Charles beating HER?
Hated the first half of the book. The worldbuilding, imo, was all over the place and the translation is lacking. Its also just very unconvincing.. this world just doesnt feel real at all. Its not scary to me because of it. Its like an exaggerated parody that I couldnt take seriously.
The second half tho? Truly gruesome. Actual horror. I feel sick to my stomach. Im never reading this again, good horror
This book amazingly continues the story of the Whitesky family from the previous book, Moon of the crusted snow. Evan is still heavily featured in this book while his daughter Nanghoons takes up more of the spotlight, as the book is mainly written from her perspective.
Many people critiqued the slow pace of the first book. This one is still kinda slow but a lot more tense all throughout. At one point, I actually leaned forward and my heart started beating faster in anticipation - this never happens for me.
The story wraps up suddenly, but nicely. Its a fairly nice ending and fitting, considering the book is about the journey of our protagonists and the Whitesky family. Really loved this book. :)