Gothikana

The physical copy of this book is beautiful/stunning. NOTE TO SELF: There's a reason you don't like creepy books.

It took a really long time to get into this story and when I finally did I was wishing for it to end quickly. Spoiler- It didn't end quickly. Apparently, a lot of people I follow felt the same way but they DNF'd.

Did the author create a vibe that oozed mystery and terror? Yes. Did the author make you feel safe and unsafe at the same time? Yes. Did you feel like you didn't know what was going on? YES. THE WHOLE DANG TIME. That's not good.

One- I knew who “done” it from the beginning but I still wanted to see if the author could prove me wrong or at the very least how it all played out. It was kind of a anti-climactic or maybe I was just done with the whole thing.

Corvina was 21/22(has a birthday in the middle of the book) and speaks like she's in high school. She's not the only one. Everyone in the friend group speak like they are 14 year olds. The whole book gave me high school vibes instead of New Adult/Adult University vibes. Vad was strange but everyone in this world were unique in that way. LOL. I didn't mind the teacher/student romance because he's only a few years older than her and they were both over 20 years old. It just didn't feel like a thing for me even though it was abundantly clear it was a thing in this story.

The thing about these kind of books is that you(me) is set up to not trust anything that is happening. The entire time I didn't know whether the other shoe would fall between Corvina and Vad. It was not easy to trust that he had her back. He was saying it. She believed it to be true but as a reader I was not convinced. You had characters constantly questioning her loyalty to him and even though she reassured the character/reader that she trusted him and that we should too, I just didn't feel that confidence. So even now, even after getting two epilogues, I hope it will be true and they find peace.

There were so many aspects of this story that wasn't explained thoroughly and I was disappointed. It's almost like the author just wanted conclusions to be drawn up and whatever the reader felt was good and good with them.

I just thought of something that was a bit jarring. Corvina and many of the people in this world speak in old world and then you have Vad throwing in a few lines that scream 2021 and it felt so out of place. It was hard to place when this actually took place.