The Drowned Woods

First off I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC!

The prologue was good and did its job. It set The Drowned Woods up very well.
I liked the characters but at times they become insufferable due to seeing similar characters done in other books. I feel that the characters are missing something to make them more “unique” or “less forgettable. There were times while readings this that I see a character and just completely bypass that section with good old glazing at the page.
I did love the multiple POVs, but it was flawed. I feel that it could have transitioned better.
The pacing was slow. For me, it was so slow that I got easily distracted. I can deal with the slow pace that picks up, a fast pace that slows down, and even a slow pace that picks up once. But this was constantly slow. The only way I can better describe this is to imagine this as a monotone person.
The ending for me was okay, I feel let down though.
I think if this whole book was written like the prologue was it would have been 5 stars.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this. I loved the writing style. It's fast-paced and I was sucked in from the start.

I love fae stories. They didn't play a huge part in this, but they were still there.

I enjoyed the characters. Mer and Fane are my faves (and the fae or not fae Corgi of course). I really hope there will be more with theses characters.
I haven't read the Bone Houses by this author yet, but apparently I need to. I didn't realize until after I read this that they are set in the same world and somehow connected.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.

I read the Illumicrate special edition.

I had no expectations from this book and was still rather disappointed.
Up to the about 60% mark, it was strictly average and then it became just nonsensical.
The writing wasn't impressive. The typos on the other hand - very much so.
The plot was a mess of nonsense to the point of making me want to DNF at like 85%.

Finished it be sheer force of will.