This book immediately grabbed me, and I read the first half super quickly! It didn't turn out to be the book I thought it would be. I thought there would be a lot more of the house itself being the evil, but it ending up being what it was was very interesting. Overall a pretty good YA read. ( )

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

Merged review:

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!! ( )

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

Merged review:

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!! ( )

I'm not sure if this book was really predictable or if I've just read too many books, but I figured everything out very early on. Still, the story itself is enjoyable and I didn't mind watching it play out - that is, I didn't mind much... ( )

Ms Reid and I won't become friends anymore I fear.
Seeing this book in the monthly book box I was not really thrilled as I didn't really like the Wolf and the Huntsman, but I thought, let's give her a chance, this is after all her third book now, and she might have grown as a writer and might have gotten those things I considered major flaws in her debut under control. Sadly, she hasn't. If I thought the Wolf book suffered from plot holes and nonsensical plot lines at least her writing style was not objectionable (at least I don't remember that I was annoyed by it), now we have a story not necessarily with plot holes but still with a lot of nonsensical parts, topped with a writing style that is all over the place.
Simple sentence structure, occasional interlaced with big words (that feels like as if they were looked up just for this sentence) followed by a more "traditional" writing style, and once again, passages that are way too over descriptive. Which would not be so bad, if other parts of the story that might needed than more in depth are completely forgotten. (Did they ever eat anything at the house? Or did they only ever had coffee?)
Or for the nonsensical part, why do two grown ups need the permission of their host to leave?

I think my biggest issue is the lack of character development, which was already pretty flawed in the Wolf. Instead of having a path of how Preston and Effy get to know each other better, it is they meet and boom "hey let's write this very very important thesis together, doesn't matter that I have no idea if you can write, but when I saw you for the first time, I knew I wanted to do it only with you!' "Oh Preston, kiss me!"

On the plus side, I liked the surrealism of the decaying house, sadly Ms Reid could have done so much more with it but she drowned herself in unnecessary details just to get to a certain word counts (or so it seems) while on the other hand glossing over events that could have given the story more depth. ( )