Morgenstern made something to near perfection. I want to rate this 5 stars, however, the prose and some minor plot nuances dropped this down to a low 4. It's a good 4, just not 4.5 territory.

The problem with this book is more of that the magic of the book got lost because the dreamlike writing she was achieving bogged down a little with prose that wasn't relavent to said dream. Though this book, regardless, is apart of Honorguard Shelf for creating something that did manage to cast the spell it wanted.

Prose: Prose is either a hit or miss. If you read at least 30 pages for it and aren't liking it, just drop it, it doesn't get better. However, if it doesn't irk you, keep going.
She has a problem of not pacing her prose correctly where it starts to just blend in your brain a little TOO much. -.5

Plot: Solid

Pace: It maintains it's pace, it never increases or decreases all that much.

Characters: Not the most in depth, we got a cookie cutter DILF that was about as deep as ankle depth water. The MC is a self insert to be with said cookie cutter. The other characters are interesting, not deep, but do merit interest at least. -.2

Vibe: OH BOY. If you ever needed a vibe book, here. This book is mostly vibe. Keys, darkness, balls, book, coziness sometimes, a touch of darkness. I can see why Booktok ate this up. Appropriately so. +2

Worldbuilding: It's hard to seperate the vibe with the WB, the WB, while not too deep is VERY chaotic but as an art piece of a book, it was well executed. Did a lot of weaving and red herring scenarios that paid off. Some may not pay off but that's sorta the point with this book. 2+

Still, if you need a book to read while drinking whiskey, here ya go. You're not here for characters or any plot or "plot", just vibin' like a saxaphone seal

4.3/5