eriniese's reviews
160 reviews

i think i read it this quickly because i just wanted it to be over. there was no thrill, no mystery, just sickening amount of people thinking about sex and being jealous and insufferable and annoying. considering the high ratings and the hype surrounding this book, i was beyond excited to read this—i probably should've known that by that alone that i'd get disappointed lol the flashbacks to the actual ngiht of the murder built no suspense. there was no good foreshadowing. it only felt dragged out and boring.
i predicted

Spoiler

will being steven

at the beginning but then i thought Nah that's ridiculous and impossible. but then it ended up being real.

the only thing i liked about this book is the setting, truly. MEH

throughout the entire book i tried to guess who the murderer was and i really thought i got them so i almost lost my mind when i got to the ending. C R A Z Y.

girl the worst thing abt this book wasn't even the fact that i struggled to connect with the mc but the breaking of the fourth wall to talk to the reader. it annoyed me so much!!! it also felt like there wasn't much connections between saoirse & ruby, even though that was kind of the whole point of the book, i guess.

oliver was my favorite part of the story, and i also found myself liking beth a lot. it's a strong point of this book, that it has even side characters developed into actual people that seem tangible and aren't there just for the sake of filling out the space. (except for izzy and hannah, maybe.)

i jumped into this book expecting fluffy romance with a sprinkle of rom-com-y angst, but it wasn't what i got. not with saoirse's neverending internal conflict and self-sabotaging and depressing background. it all made her into a good character, but i guess there was so much of it that it felt like i missed a good part of the whole falling in love montage.
i thought i'd enjoy it a lot, but it ended up being an okay read.

unfortunately--boring as hell. didn't even get a single Wow out of me. i just wanted it to end.

2.5 stars!
taking this off my thriller shelf because there was nothing thrilling about this slow burn lol

i didn't really like the narrator. he felt really pretentious, and his backstories and monologues mostly bored me. i suspected the ending will be like that

Spoiler

the part where he kills himself, at least

, and i guess that made me trust malcolm even less. but the plot twist where

Spoiler

he was the one who caused claire's accident

caught me suuuper off-guard. although the killer was sketchy to me, i don't really "buy" him. idk i just didn't like how that played out lol

i really liked nero the cat, though!! the best part of the book!!! and the way he got to the bookstore made me crack up honestly

the rest was. MEH. that's what i thought when i put it down lol

i'm glad i read a majority of the books mentioned in here that i'd had on my tbr because this book gives MAJOR spoilers that you can't avoid.

4.5 stars

i really love the atmosphere of this book, how chilling and dark and spooky it was, and how easy it was for me to immerse myself in the story. the multiple povs were executed so well; the characters were all distinctive and had their own voice, but they didn't stick out, either. the only thing i didn't enjoy entirely was the ending, but the rest of the book was incredible.

erm.

now, listen. no one could be more excited than me for LESBIANS. VAMPIRES. BOARDING SCHOOLS. MYSTERIES. no one. maybe i just expected too much.

EKHEM! let's start.
1) the white cishet superwoke saviour thing kat had going on rubbed me off in all the wrong ways. it just felt like poc and queer people were being used in this book just for diversity points, like the author had a list of things to include and just ticked everything off without giving anything any depth. like, the author could have just added poc characters to the damned book!! in this review, the person says, "when you’re a society full of immortal beings you could at least transcend sexism, racism and homophobia. why would such things as sexual and gender identity or skin colour even matter to vampires? a lot of the bigoted ideas in society have their roots in religion, and i honestly don't think many vampires will care about god after being turned. they're literally immortal already—heaven and hell are not really something they have to worry about," and these are my exact thoughts on the matter.

not to mention the downplaying of colonization through galen. it was completely unnecessary--as were all the other racist and queerphobic takes--but,,, yikes. you could take these problems all out and it would change nothing except make the book a tiny bit less uncomfortable to read.

another thing: kat saying "i CAN'T be queer" when both her friends at home are queer and her ex best friend slash current roommate slash the girl she kissed is also queer, when she's clearly from a very, very accepting community (she makes it very clear by bringing it up ten million times),,, UHHHHH . and, okay, internalized homophobia is a very hard thing to go through but when it comes to her, it's literally never addressed in the book. she's like "i can't be queer!!" in one second and then she's in love with taylor in the next. not to mention that she calls evangeline for using 'lesbian' as an insult and then keeps sucking up to her and wanting to be her friend.

i also have an issue with her queer friend saying, “see? straight people always assume it's something you have to discover, but i was born this way.” like--silence. i would even take this if a cishet said this, because they just don't understand. but so many queer people i know--myself included--have struggled and are still struggling with coming to terms with who they are, so the "you just know" message was super weird to read about, especially if it was a person who's questioning their entire identity who read this.

[dj khaled voice] ANOTHER ONE! this was marketed as romance so, you know, i expected romantic tension. whatever was going on between kat and taylor definitely wasn't that. there was no character or relationship development. NONE. they're just fighting, watching twilight, fighting some more, had 10 misunderstandings, and then professed their love to each other because they have ALWAAAAYYSSSS loved each other. they can't live without each other. you're getting expelled?? I'M GOING WITH YOU EVEN THOUGH I LITERALLY COULDN'T EVEN FANTHOM THE THOUGHT OF LOSING MY MENTORSHIP AND SCOLARSHIP!!!!! i'm gonna be honest. for 80% of the book i really thought they weren't even gonna get together in the end.

the writing didn't bother me at first but then it just kept getting worse, especially the descriptions. the unnecessary metaphors just sounded weird as hell. a failed attempt at being poetic.

the only interesting part to me was the virus/cure mystery, but it was done poorly and basically hidden under all the nonsensical high school drama with characters who make the same mistakes over and over and learn nothing from them and have absolutely zero development. it was irrelevant for the majority of the book. even the mystery of kat's fangmaker and benefactor was clear since the beginning i couldn't believe she didn't find out. or that her mother didn't tell her the truth right then--like, she had to know. so, there's basically no plot.

i also can't understand kat's weird need to be accepted by castel. the way she can't fanthom that he could be the bad person just because she depends on him financially and he's "nice" to her??? GIRL??? get help.
i have all sorts of issues with that character, and another one is the way she's playing with galen's feelings when even at the beginning she KNOWS she doesn't like him, the way she cheats on him by kissing taylor, and then later on can't even support him as a FRIEND, and dismissing him when he opens up to her when she's the one who prompted him to think of his behavior and that he should change,,, DUH.

Spoiler

it was also ridiculous when the headmaster wanted to kill kat & taylor

and instead of idk. running away. fighting. grabbing him. kicking him. doing SOMETHING!!!!! they just hugged and were ready to die? just like that?? i'm sorry i had to laugh.

anyway, i'm just very happy i can finally put it down and forget about it.

2.5⭐
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giving it an additional pity star because it was so ridiculous and mediocre that it actually made me laugh.

HALLELUJAH! i'm finally done!! firstly, i should issue a formal apology to my priv mutuals on twt because i forced them to experience the absolute ridiculousness of this book along with me through my reaction thread.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

it feels to me like they aren't really "enemies" since they basically have Suppressed Crushes on each other from the very beginning and it's just laced with them being horrible people to each other - leo more than nina, anyway, though she tends to be a bitch sometimes. he basically ruins her career because he's a selfish and misogynt asshole, but he apologizes for it (in a truly half-assed way), so i guess it's all right! :) (no it's not i need to set him on fire)

i have so many quotes written down that made me want to throw myself off the roof of the tallest building in the world. i love how leo is an absolute ass to nina and then we can read: He could feel the heat of her breath on his skin. Goose bumps prickled up his arms and neck. He was...inexplicably excited. LIKE WHAT??? and it only gets worse from there! Not to mention that sometimes when she got mad, he seemed to get...more turned on. how about you k*s?? <3 listen you can find people hot obviously but it's another thing to always think of someone as a sexual object, and leo does it CONSTANTLY in this book. he pops boners every other second. ANOTHER ONE: “Freddie’s short ribs were just how I like them, tender and smoky.” Nina’s eyes closed, as if she were savoring the dish all over again. Leo swallowed. Had the words tender and smoky ever sounded so...explicit? GET HELP!!!! or, another one: He smirked, pleased at her discomfort. (i could go on and on and on and on.) (i'm pasting things from my twitter thread, so here's another one! His eyes drifted toward the sweetheart neckline, which revealed the top of her cleavage. Had her breasts always been this distractingly perky? [cat-throwing-up.gif])

meanwhile, nina leaves the show because she's tired of the constant sexism and overall toxicity she's facing on the set and the internet and in the press, and she also wants to take care of her restaurant, but instead of being a little sympathetic since it's basically mostly his fault, leo manipulates and guilt-trips her; he says that her departure from the show is affecting his business and his mental health. "How do you think they're [viewers] going to feel when I put out an interview explaining that I'm the victim in all of this? When I explain that I've had to fire my employees, hardworking people, because of the bad press? They'll turn on you just as quickly. And then, instead of being Nasty Nina, you'll also be 'selfish,' 'manipulative,' and 'entitled'." UHMMMMM . this man needs to die like i'm serious. he's insane.

i think the author thinks that him going :( omg idk why i said all this sexist and mean shit to her (ten times) i mean i KNOW it's wrong so i'm not a bad person :( is going to make me pity him and forget about the fact that he's a self absorbed bitchass little fucker. well, erin la rosa, you are wrong. i need a gun. (example: He couldn’t believe he’d gone out of his way to be rude. He had to be better to her. He would never hurt her again. WHEN IT'S HIM SAYING THIS EVERY TIME AFTER HE SAYS SOMETHING SEXIST OR TREATS HER LIKE SHIT OR LETS HIS FRUSTRATIONS OUT ON HERRRRRR DUDE SEEK HELP!!!! it's not like there's someone else in his brain telling him to say this stuff. he's just an awful person.)

and omg