Truth in the Dark

It's no secret that I adore fairytale retellings and this was one of the best and most unique I've read. The writing is lush and beautiful. ( )

Terrible. I started this book because it was recommended to me as a m/m retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche, which is one of my favourite Greek myths. I finished it only because I wanted to see just how bad a book could be and apparently still get a publishing contract. Truth in the Dark didn't work for me on pretty much any level: characterisation, dialogue, prose, internal world building logic, plotting. Why Naef and Aerie-Smith (yes, that's one of the protagonist's names) even like one another. Nothing. I might have been willing to overlook some of that if this had been a good piece of erotica, but... well, imagine the likely calibre of sex scenes in a book which contains sentences like

"Time is a slow-bleeding bitch, then, isn’t she? She’s a big, slime-oozing slug, taking her sweet disgusting self to travel glorb-glorb-blargh across the span of your days."

Glorb-glorb-blargh indeed.

Lane seems to think that having every other words out of Naef's mouth be an expletive serves as characterisation, illustrating the torments of his soul or... something. Even I, who've been known to swear with the best of them, found this unwarranted and distracting. A flawed protagonist is one thing, but I spent the vast majority of the book rolling my eyes at Naef and wishing he'd just shut up. Avoid. ( )

I love it when Amy writes fantasy - she's so darn good at it! Instead of a beauty and the beast story, she has given us a tale of two beasts. Unique and heartwarming. I loved it. ( )