It took me a while to get into this one, I don’t think I really got into it until at least 40% of the way through. 

I think a lot of the story hinges on how much the main character loves and cares for her younger brother, but I didn’t really get a chance to care for him. I don’t think he was actually in the story much. There’s much more a focus on the love interest and he’s a bit… meh. I also didn’t really care for him. 

Weirdly, I think the audiobook narrator made me really anxious (I was listening on 1.5 speed which is normal for me, but I did have to slow it down for this book) because she seemed to always be talking really frantically. It meant I’d rarely want to pick it up because I usually listen to audiobooks when I want to relax or turn my brain off - and this didn’t help. 

After the 40(ish)% mark, I did find the story a bit more interesting. I always find folktales being real an interesting premise, and I liked how the fantastical seemed to creep into the real world in this. 

I thought this was a standalone so was a bit surprised when the end didn’t tie everything off nicely. I might check out the sequel… but I may well not. 

biggest hint this book will suck: main character's name is violeta graceline.

if you like this book i beg you to read something else because this must be the only book you have read in your life. it's not even entertaining enough as a hate-read.

this book reads like what every edgy teen wrote in middle school, but we all grew up and knew it sucked and should never been a published book. this author didnt.

it feels like the author assumes the reader is an idiot and needs to be shown graphic child abuse at page 7 for us to understand that the adoptive mother is bad. there are so many ways to convey this info without functionally beating it us over the head with it. (sorry for the shit pun, not intended)

the main character is unloveable and irritating. the opening scene has her "saving" her brother from child abuse yet she follows it up with making him, with freshly burned and blistered hands, clean her wounds. ??????? do it yourself!!!

hey reader do you know how the main love interest is bad? because violeta literally calls him monster all the time for in my eyes zero reason. (yes i know the reason in universe but it seems like the least of violetas worries considering her brother is being engulfed in darkness and her whole thing is about how he is innocent even though people would consider him a monster.... girl!??!?!?!?!?!?!) but worry not reader, she makes sure to tell us he's attractive as soon as she sees him and in the following page too. also don't worry she makes sure to later on tell us that she herself is "curved and small"....... GIRL SHUT UPPPPPPPPPP

you already know where the story will go and how things will play out. nothing about this book is compelling or loveable. it's paced like garbage. has awful characters. an unloveable main character. a poorly built fantasy world. and zero good qualities.

normally id give a book 2 stars if it wasn't my taste but i figured someone else would enjoy it, but if youre going to read a ya fantasy or romance there is literally any number of books that is more worth your time, energy, and money. dont even borrow this from a library. it SUCKS.

This book read like a 2012 self-insert watt pad fanfic, especially in the beginning. There’s a lot of build-up with no delivery and it seems like instead of letting the story speak for itself, the author instead just tells you how you should feel about the story. 

At the beginning, the main character refer to the (initial) antagonist as “the monster” constantly. After hearing a single rumor about him, being told that he’s called a monster and having like 2 interactions with him. It’s like it was just easier to have the main character keep calling him a monster instead of actually illustrating it and leading you to that conclusion yourself. The entire book just felt like it was trying to hard to be dark and scary, without actually delivering. 

My biggest complaint, though, is the descriptions throughout do not line up. When I read, I have a movie that plays in my head of what’s going on in the book. And the way actions were described, it completely took me out of the story almost constantly! For example, if it describes two characters in the same room, at first it will describe them as being on opposite side of the room, and then 2 seconds later it’ll be saying that character A grabbed Character B’s hand. When did they cross the room?? Did I miss something or do they just have super long arms?? 

My final note:

there’s supposed to be  a love triangle in this?? The third person in the supposed love triangle is only actually in a scene maybe 3 times. And the way it’s described it felt my creepy and weird than anything. Reading it, I kept thinking to myself “does the author mean for it to sound like the main character is kind of into him??”

Nothing about it seemed intentional.