I want to preface this with the fact that this book does very well what it intends to do. It's a good young adult romance fantasy. Also, I am pretty sure I am not the intended audience and I have opinions. Maybe teenage me would have had a different approach, but alas, that person leveled up a bit and here we are.

I was on page two when I first rolled my eyes. It was not the last. Throughout the rest of the book I noticed a pattern for the eye-rolling, and I found the culprit for my unexpected eye muscle workout. I was the romance. While I know this is one of the main aspects of the story, it was my least favorite part of it. It has friggin insta-love. Like, come on. I also discovered while reading this book another love-trope that I don't like, which is

Spoiler

"I loved you in another life, that's why I instantly love you now"

. But I never heard anybody else complain about this trope, so that might not be something that bothers others people. The only positive thing I can say about this whole part is that there is no love triangle, which, at least, is a silver lining. And that's all I am going to say about the romance. Another thing that I didn't really enjoy, was the writing itself. While in the second half it got better, the first half was really annoying sometimes, with the metaphors and flowery prose, especially when describing things *ahem, Akiva, ahem*. For everyone who knows me, they should know that I live for purple prose; my favorite books are pretentious to the point of exhaustion. But I also think that it has a time and a place, that you either commit to it or leave it alone. This book took the road less traveled, a weird halfway path filled with weeds and mud, and emerged on the other side still dirty from the hike and without having seen any of the sights. But then again, I think exactly these parts are the ones that made people love the book, so who am I to say?
And now about the part that I really liked. The world building is the best part of this story and I am really looking forward to learn more in the next books about Elsewhere, with everything that entails. While the last third of the book gave some more details about it, it was in flash-back form (a thing that I know irks some people, so here you go, I mentioned it), so I am still waiting for more. In all fairness, I think I would really like a more mature story in this setting, because I can see big potential in it. But I can not really fault a YA book for being a YA book, can I?
All in all, the story was interesting enough to not put down after the first few pages which didn't really grip me and I am curious where it goes. It's a fast read despite it's size, easy enough to get trough even after a long day at work (or school, it you are more age appropriate while reading this) and interesting enough to delay your bed time a bit.

My life is blood because my world is beasts.