Gomez's writing is slow and beautiful, and I loved some of the takes and the approach on vampirism, but the slow pacing and long chapters meant I never really got into it. the fact each chapter is its own short story and features different characters means I never get particularly attached to characters or their relationships; this was particularly noticeable in chapters 3 and 5 with Aurelia and Julius, especially when I didn't feel like anything really happened. it picks up in the last few pages of each chapter and then ends and after a while the structure feels predictable, and I lost interest about halfway through. the last chapter felt wildly different to the rest of the book, instead reading like the introduction to an entirely different book, but with too little worldbuilding to make it a compelling story on its own as well.

I wouldn't usually mind the timeskips but I don't feel like there's any sort of development for Gilda, and anything vaguely interesting that could be considered development basically happened off the page, unseen to us. despite the slow pace relationships feel sudden, and then they end as soon as they appear once the end of the chapter nears. it was so disappointing because I did want to root for some of the characters, like Toya, but the pacing and narrative meant that there was always a disconnect between the characters and reader than I struggled to ever get over. I really like the concept and what this book was going for so I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected.