eriniese's reviews
166 reviews

boring as hell, a thriller that isn’t at all thrilling, and definitely something far from a page-turner. i’ve also read other people’s reviews and it turns out that the author is promoting a debunked and harmful autism rhetoric, which just makes it all worse. i regret i wasted so much time on this book, especially that i didn’t even have it on my tbr and picked it up on a whim. ugh

for a horror book, it doesn’t really give you that chill. sometimes the descriptions were really good, but sometimes they were either so flat or so over the top that the vibe was just. nonexistent. the author can’t keep up the suspense for more than a page or two.

anna is annoying, and acts like a teenager (and her father also goes and tells her something like, “you will not talk to me like that, young lady!” which is. hilarious) so imagine my surprise when i realized she was over 30 years old.

the ending was kinda hilarious idk.

also. the inconsistency in anna’s ability to speak italian is crazy. first she serves as the family translator and can understand everyone fine and she can speak it, and then it turns out she’s learning it on DUOLINGO and that she actually doesn’t speak it well. and then there was the

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“spell”

with grammar mistakes that made me crack up. i’m giving the author the benefit of the doubt that she just wanted to show that anna’s italian wasn’t that good, but then again,

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if she made a mistake in the spell, how the fuck did it work lmao

. and also the fact that she found it in some old ass italian witchcraft book. like brother in christ how did you read and understand it with your duolingo italian. it would take you 5 years to get through.

i gave this author two chances and went into this with zero expectations and somehow still got disappointed lmao you had a chance to improve and you missed it!! like, is a good mystery with fleshed-out characters and a sense of urgency and suspense too much to ask?

this book was more about dylan and paige vrushing on each other, being "cute" and their silly relationship drama, than it was about the mystery. this would've been better if paige had a crush on audrey and not on dylan. i don't even know why i'm supposed to root for them. it was totally unnecessary and brought nothing to the plot. even when they were in danger, there wasn't this sort of, oh my god, this person i love is in danger i'm going insane feeling. they should've just stayed friends, it would've been more fun.

the teenage angst drove me insane. the dialogue was cringy and unnatural and when the author wanted to come off as funny, i just wanted to smash my skull open with a hammer. like, i'm supposed to still be the target audience of these ya books? i'm not an old hag? i just started uni? so why is all of this so juvenile. it feels like the author doesn't know how to write teenagers.

⭐ 2.5

the beginning was very intriguing, but then i got bored, and at the end i was just close to laughing idk it was just hard to follow and some of those backstories felt unimportant and took too long to get the point across. also, this book plays a lot on suspension of disbelief and convenience, so, for example, the thing about devon being able to do just about anything in any place and time was just little believable.

this book is just NONSENSICAL. it tries to be bouth rom-com-y, light and cute, while also bringing up (with little to no actual conversation) a lot of heavy topics. it feels performative at best with the "look we have gay people! look i'm DISGUSTED with this homophobic line in the movie! look i'm so against this and that! eat the rich!" at some point even the evil director becomes so cartoonishly villainous, it just makes him look like a poor caricature. i can't take him seriously.

the characters have no depth. gemma is just as indecisive and unstable in the last chapter as she was in the first. she makes a decision and then doesn't even overthink it, but on the next page you see her being like ACTUALLY! so there's absolutely zero development to her. her friends are so bland and unimportant, the only reason why i could discern them at all was because camille's only personality trait was also being white and dumbed-down by gemma's internal monologue. she must like her friend so much and have so much faith in her lmaooo the first boyfriend was also there for literally no reason. we could've cut him out and it would make zero difference to the plot. he was truly just useless.

also, i just love how the reason why i picked up this book showed up for like 2 pages 90% in and was overall insignificant to the plot. like brother in christ what is this writing what is this pacing!!!

the fact that not even lesbians could save this book should speak for how bad it was

overall, i really enjoyed it! the story unfolded at a steady pace, and so it was actually easy to get immersed in the story without getting bored with one or two very high-action scenes thrown in. i have to say there were juet too many characters. and although the ending was unexpected, it was so in the grossest way possible, especially with

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the mother staying an apologist for her incestuous, abusive, and rapist husband, saying that, oh, but he really loved her!! bruh. i'm glad that jane was judging her because i personally wanted to throw up

i liked it but didn’t love it. i liked the first part where the main couple was getting to know each other better than the second, where the “angst” felt poorly executed. the best thing of it all was the kitty cat ♡

⭐️ 2.5

i need to preface this by saying that i'm the #1 fan of the fake dating trope. i'm the #1 apologist. i can excuse a lot when it comes to silly plot and suspense my disbelief as long as i'm entertained by the fake relationship. i am also a lesbian so ESPECIALLY when it comes to my lesbian stories. but this is just TOO MUCHDJBFJDK it's just too cringe. i can't even embrace it.

it's really hard to remember that these people are grown (in their late 30s, early 40s) because they act in a such juvenile manner and their behavior makes no sense.

the conflictis absolutely stupid and we could do without it and fill the book with some actual getting to know each other and bonding. like

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you both want more and you know that. and natalie admitted to herself that with taylor, she feels like with no one else in the world. that it's so different, safe and easy and fun. it was literally SPELLED OUT. and in her teenager-adjacent fashion, she chose to be like WELL I CAN'T HAVE THIS BECAUSE NO ONE BEFORE WAS NICE TO ME AND I'M TERRIBLE. when she actually said that with taylor she didn't feel this way. like, being anxious is one thing but making a drama out of nothing is just silly. also, the way her annoying friend says something like, "get to know her, not her the actress" and then he gets angry because taylor didn't do an intense background check on natalie and her private life instead of doing the right thing, which is actually getting to know her on natalie's own terms. bruh.

it was hard to find romantic chemistry, especially if you compare it with sexual attraction, so the epilogue was hilarious.

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the way they were scared of being together and then suddenly they're married after one year of dating

why am i kinda obsessed omgggg

"libertad, tiene razón la señorita, libertad, aunque esta palabra no suena bien en boca de mujeres."

"el día en que te descubrí fue el último de un largo destierro."

"what crime have i committed? loving you? is that a crime?"