piastri's reviews
85 reviews

i'm not sure if 'enjoy' is the right word for this book, because it was a very heavy read that wasn't afraid to delve into the depths of the horrors of slavery and the intergenerational trauma of such, but i'm very glad that i read it.

i loved the elements of dante's inferno that were woven into annis' thoughts and story, and how that was combined with the supernatural world for such a raw representation of the spirit of survival and family. jesmyn ward has such a poetic way of writing in this that pulled me through the plot and her descriptions were just. so emotive and devastating. i'm really not sure what else to say because this book took everything out of me, but it was incredible to read

i really wish i’d done some contextual research before reading this, because i think that would’ve majorly improved my understanding and also enjoyment. 

that’s not to say that i didnt like this book! the whole self destructive college student hits very close to home, as does the struggle with learning how to love genuinely. 

it was definitely a conscious choice to continue this book because it starts off. a bit slow, but it did pick up and was fun from there.

i always love a bit of folklore and the south american stuff was really interesting, but i was not prepared for just how blatant and extreme the racism was between these fictional species? it caught me quite off guard, even with an understanding of south/central american history

my other problem was that the main characters were just like. stupid? like it was fun while reading but then you think about it afterwards and it’s like what???

how did reina not realise that feared evil grandmother was going to kill the damas.. like ‘oh no it’s just some drops of blood’ when has an evil god ever only wanted drops and not death. also eva? like seriously how did you think it was going to end well when you run away with a guy you only met over discord letters 

also whatever was going on with reina, celeste and maior was Weird!!

like we spent the entire book seeing reina pining over celeste, and celeste not rejecting any of those ideas and then admittedly out of the blue finding out that you’re cousins AND YOU STILL WANT TO BE WITH HER???? like surely that would be an instant turn off especially when she’d already said that she only did all this stuff as a friend?? then maior, who reina had been a bit of a cunt to (maior had also acted pretty racist towards reina so some of it’s justified) but who had only ever wanted to help her and be nice to her? and reina only going to her after she knows that she can’t have celeste? yikes.

all of this happened in like the last 10% of the book as well so don’t go in expecting a good sapphic storyline. 

however, i really liked the ending where eva became

rahmagut

and im assuming reina became

ches

and it might well be enough for me to read the sequel

i am. so broken. 

i really enjoyed this book, especially with the intersection of armenian culture (something that i’ve never read much about) and a sapphic romance. 

bonus points for a main character who is comfortable in their bisexuality, a happy ending and

an accepting family

i really enjoyed this! unfortunately i read it over like. three months so i didnt entirely follow everything i read, but the tying together of colonialism, the immigrant experience and horror was really intriguing. 

definitely plan to reread later so that i can properly appreciate it

i love lesbian love in the face of deep emotional pain!! 
i just wish the ending had been a bit more fleshed out because the build up had been so good but then it felt a bit rushed. don’t let that distract you from an excellent sapphic love story though

i really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as i did - i started reading with the expectations of a light, cute romance novel, but then pretty quickly was hit with a much more ‘real’ story of mental illness, grief, disability, mother-daughter relationships, etc.
tess sharpe has a lovely way of weaving together an interesting storyline with much darker themes and complicated characters, which i really enjoy

will come back to later