This was such a ... WILD novel from beginning to end. And I just found out, as writing this review, that it is going to be a SERIES??? LIKE SHUT UP. But I'm actually glad because we ended on such a unique cliffhanger.

This was a grotesque novel with a lot of loathsome (hehe) qualities. But understanding the grief that people have, a town that may or may not exist and has such a mythological, foreign fervor surrounding this.

You read this and you think it is set in the 1800s when in reality, it is set in like 2003-2004, with transcripts from 2012 about the weird occurrences in this wild ass town.

You experience this novel through transcripts, through Rupert's point of view - and all the fucked up things he experiences - and Gladys who also has a man in her life who just fucks shit up.

The lengths that this novel is going to, in such a short amount of time, is really impressive. It feels like we are jumping from subject to subject, but there's such odd specifications on the part that they play.

I loved everything about it. I cannot wait for the next installment.

This was such an interesting novel and I applaud Joelle Wellington on her writing and the way to pull you in almost immediately. This novel surrounds the dynamics of Kyla and her grief of losing her best friend, Erin. With this, we are drawn into a web of lies. Her brother, Mikky, comes to the funeral and stays in town to help Kyla get through her grief.

Kyla, from the beginning to the end, was very unlikeable and I know that was purposeful, but like damn. I did love, though, the strength that she had to keep going after half of her dies. There is such an important piece of life where you find your soulmate, but you're never ready to ever leave them -- to divorce the love they have. And Kyla is experiencing that. Her grief is more anger and that's how she is able to keep going every single day instead of actually coping with the death.

What I found interesting was the end. HUH??? MAAM??? I was expecting something close, but not that. It steered to a different path and I was glad in the way it happened. It makes me sad, all of it, but it was actually very well done. And once I got to the end, I did realize all the breadcrumbs that had been left.

There were a lot of moments where I thought there were lulls and it was boring, but we have to look at the entirety of the novel in its scope. To realize how relationships grow and flourish and that is slow. And the idea of grief is also very slow and we are getting hit with that at every second. It's a novel that pulls a lot of strings to get us to understand and focus and I believe that it was done well.

This was a very gentle vampire novel full of mystery, intrigue and revenge. I love the thought of a fast paced, gothic style revenge story. I loved the softness put on such a harsh type of villain. Su-Yeon was such an interesting character to read about and I was rooting for her from start to finish. However, Lily and Violette’s story was the most implrtant and it really did just drag for me at times. I love the thought of platonic soulmates but I was so bored when their chapter came up. Overall, I do enjoy my time with this book and would recommend.

this shit was creepy asf…. let’s start there. creepy and complex and emotional. there were so many pivots that i was not expecting and all my nerves were wrapped into one wanting the best for these characters. because of how fleshed they were, i felt like they were my family members that i was experiencing these same things with them. loved it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself while listening to this audiobook. I think listening to it helped more than physically reading it. I enjoyed Alison as a main character and her baggage but there was a lot left unsaid that should have been resolved in this novel until we reached the next. I also didn’t enjoy how we didn’t spend more time with the parents of Xander as it didn’t feel personal enough. Also the random thoughts and prologue for Xander really did nothing for the story as Alison could have just easily investigated or had conversations with people to pull his life together. The investigation fell flat and I didn’t even enjoy the part about having to save a dog.

Also - too many threads left undone. And a rushed ending to boot? wild

I did enjoy what I read though even with these critiques and I do look forward to reading the rest of the series.

i love the concept of this book and that we get the view of multiple women throughout this journey of a new world happening.

going into this novel: it starts with showing in the first 10% and the other 90% is telling, telling so if that bothers you, you will not like this. there’s not a lot of action, it’s giving more literary in a sense even though it could be more mystery/thriller

my qualms:

don’t like the name patsy don’t like that mercy is at the mercy of her friend Nari and how argumentative Nari was. like it was actually annoying and the black woman just sits and suffers questions: how do they know which men are gone? how did they get all of them? also - is it just men with a police history or those behind closed doors that are awful? there’s a part where they talk about “why not women” and i think that’s a valid question (albeit very small) that is immediately shrugged away. there’s a line where the Notes on a Scandal and said “ok well she wasn’t like a predator prowlin the streets” which is true but also a predator is a predator.