Reviews with content warning for Blood - Nestlings

This book started off feeling like it'd be a 5 star read then slowly went downhill until it reached an unsatisfying ending.

Something fantastic about this book was the authors ability to create an intense feeling of isolation in New York City. The setting is fantastic - so ominous. Our FMC is in a wheelchair which I thought was quite clever as it added to her isolation. The pacing was also quite good. The author didn't reveal too much too quickly. There were quite a few genuinely scary and unsettling moments!

There are a few issues with this book and Id say the one that struck me the most is that I didn't feel like the author didn't really capture parental love well in his writing. The FMC had basically no maternal instincts. This isn't entirely a spoiler but

the FMC is resentful towards her baby because a very difficult birth left her disabled in a wheelchair. I thought this added an interesting dynamic but my problem is that I think that was a character flaw that she should have overcome by the end of the story. It kind of seems like she will but she doesn't

.
The reveal of what's happening felt a little too much like an info dump after a nice slow build. I didn't like that in the end

the dad, who has been a mostly great dad for the whole book decides that he should just let the vampire gargoyle leech people have his baby. Why have him searching so desperately for a way out just to make him change his mind about it in a whim then kill him off. Also the wife didn't seem traumatized enough by basically killing her husband. Her whole world fell apart and she just seems fine at the end. So dumb.

I hated Frank. More specifically, I hated that frank existed as a character. He feels like he was inserted for political reasons because the author wanted to write about a stereotypical far right extremist but he genuinely added nothing to the story. I think it actually would have been more effective if

instead of being a horrible ex landlord who wants revenge of the couple for moving out and damaging his apartment, he instead was an excellent nice landlord who was seeking the couple out to return some belongings they left behind. What happens is he goes to their apartment to kill them because the dad swore at him, the couple is Jewish, and Frank is a bad person. Then he immediately gets killed by the monsters at the same time the FMC is trying to escape elthe building. What's the point? If he was a nice neighbor, he could have helped the FMC escape and then his death would have had a huge emotional impact.

Anyways, I get annoyed when it feels like authors are trying to hard to insert a political message that didn't fit naturally into the story. One more thing that bothers me is that

after the physical therapy woman gets killed/ goes missing (which was a great scene, by the way. Truly spooky), why the fuck did no one reach out to the FMC? Her coworkers would have known that was the last place she was working. Does no one notice this lady missing?

Can we also talk about how the history of the building is shrouded in mystery, but for some reason every delivery or Uber eats employee refuses to enter the building? Why do door dash employees seem to know it's a bad place but no one else seems to know?!

Content Warnings

thefmark's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book was good enough to (begrudgingly) finish but not to recommend. It tries to be too much and doesn’t fully succeed at any of it. The biggest travesty is that the worst character got the happy ending, it would have been more satisfying had there been no happy ending at all.

Content Warnings

csecen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Content Warnings

smokeyphynix's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

sonygaystation's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed this for a lot of reasons, but it definitely comes second to Mary (which blew me away with how much I just LOVED it). I really liked Ana as a character - her disability and her relationship with motherhood were so good. I also absolutely loveeeed the inherent Jewish-ness of the novel. I think the way it was incorporated was so satisfying and the fact that you couldn’t have major plot beats happen if you erased the Judaic aspects is so chef’s kiss. I’m not even religious and I want to see more religion in horror. The vampires were an interesting new take too. Not my favourite the way they were presented but definitely novel and cool! I do wish the book had maybe been a bit more scary or had more of the vampires doin their thing than it did, but also hearing about it was so GROSS LMAO that maybe I’m good with what we got. I also really enjoy hearing Nat Cassidy’s thoughts at the end of the book and it felt comforting that his 2021 was as much a dumpster fire hell year as mine was, even though I wish very much that there wasn’t need for comfort or to be comforting. Also Reed wins shittiest man award I hated him and baby bird was the cutest friggin nickname ever ok that’s all :)

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