jbellomy's reviews
469 reviews

really great in so many ways, deeply tainted by the fact that rebecca makkai does not understand cancel culture.

i get we all loved rwrb but the fanfic-to-romance-writer pipeline floweth TOO freely. the trauma narratives are getting out of control. at the beginning of this book is a long list of content warnings--including but very much not limited to: physical abuse, a quite harrowing portrayal of an alcoholic parent, a pretty brutal image of violence, and just wild parental neglect all around--that ends with BUT DON'T WORRY, THERE WILL BE NO HOMOPHOBIA BECAUSE WE MUST PROTECT THE CHARACTERS FROM HOMOPHOBIA SPECIFICALLY. like what are we doing here. (tangentially related: there are two joking mentions of biphobia that lead me to believe the author does not understand what biphobia is.)

but also, i listened to it in one day while traveling cross-country. and it was cute. i'm part of the problem.

Fun but doesn't deserve the hype! I rolled my eyes non-stop at both the characterization and the prose. Violet is the specialest girl alive -- simultaneously ~oh so weak~ but also THE STRONGEST EVER (it's giving bella swan), Xaden is your stereotypical bad boy with a heart of gold (aka every LI in every enemies-to-lovers story), the writing explains stuff in narration, then re-explains it in painfully repetitive dialogue, then explains it AGAIN in narration (see: low-rent 2010s YA fantasy). More than once, a character would say something in one chapter, only to fully contradict themself the next chapter -- and not in a way that was supposed to indicate complexity; these instances were clearly editing oversights. Also if anyone could tell me why she had to say the word "caress" so many times, or why she chose to cop the idea of elementally powerful sex from Sarah J Maas, that'd be swell. Hopefully later installments will have more Rhiannon, she's the only one still alive at the end of this who interests me.

Mona Awad does not miss. 

nothing intelligent to say about this! it's good!