Ok, I don't think I can put off writing this review any longer. I waited as long as I could, rereading the story to see if I could somehow change what I felt, and well, I couldn't. So I'm going to try to explain it, without going on too long or giving too many spoilers. In fact, I'm going to try not to do any, but just in case, read with caution.

The first thing I have to say is that you have to read the content warnings. They're there for a reason. In fact, several reasons. Now, if you are one of those with a strong heart and stomach? Then go ahead and go blind.

This is, without a doubt, the most difficult, very difficult review I have had to write so far, and I have had several of those. And as much as I loved the story, I also hated it. Maybe hate is too strong a word, maybe I should say that I disliked where the story was going, and how it ended.

As I told the author, one generally reads fiction to escape reality, and one hopes that in fiction, the villain will always be punished, especially one as indefensible and irredeemable as Aleksander. And this was not the case. In fact, he won, and he won big time.

Now, with what I said, you may wonder why the 4 stars then. And despite my personal issues with this story, I cannot deny that it is a freaking MASTERPIECE. Yes, just as I wrote it. From the first book to the last, there is a continuity with the story of each one and everyone in general, which is incredible. A FLUIDITY, even with all the back and forth from present to past and back again, and all the POVs, that is almost absolutely impossible to achieve. And yet, this author did it. Not only that, but she managed to make every experience, every emotion of each of the characters, spill onto the pages, making them tangible. You can read them, see them, touch them and feel them. Each one of them. You can't avoid them even if you wanted to. And that, for me, when reading a story, is what makes it unique.

So I cannot deny the incredible talent of this author, nor her brilliance in writing such a complex story, with so many layers that you never finish discovering them all, so many highly sensitive themes, and that makes you feel so many things at the same time.

So despite my love-hate relationship with this book, I cannot help but highly recommend it, and let everyone draw their own conclusions, and I am sure that many will end up loving it and thinking like me, that it is a MASTERPIECE.

I was given an advance copy and voluntarily wrote a review.