Queer spies in a weird dream dimension after their mission goes wrong? Sign me the hell up! I liked the premise, however, „Secrets We Cradle in the Dark“ and me doing math have one thing in common: We lack focus when it matters.

There are so many plot points it delves into, and it can't seem to decide which one to focus on, something which is a necessity when writing a story with only 180 pages. Is it the spy plot? Self-acceptance and recognition in the context of therapy? Romance? Trauma? Abusive governmental facilities? Loss? This caused a lack of crucial information, which left so many plot points unexplained and created a lot of loose ends. You can't just put the words THERAPY GUN in front of me and then NOT expect me to have a lot of questions.

Regardless of the pacing difficulties, I loved getting some insight into the characters (even if it was a rather short one) and their dynamic, which is simultaneously incredibly stable and fluctuating between romantic and platonic like it's an Olympic sport.

So to sum up: I loved the beginning, got lost somewhere in the middle, and somehow only found my way back to the plot in the last fifty pages, where I kept fearing something bad was going to happen. This book had excellent discussions about mental health and therapy, topics that simply deserve more time to be acknowledged and worked through. Regardless, I enjoyed the time I got with these facetious characters, even if I would have loved to get to know them better.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.

Calla, I love you. Mao Mao, I would do everything for you.

This could be the entire review, but I shouldn‘t gloss over the atmospheric wonder that is the world-building and character work. The intentions and layers each of the characters‘ personalities have are beautiful to watch as their interactions unfold. This book absolutely does not fall into Chloe Gong‘s usual YA genre (it‘s her new adult debut), but the brutal and romantic scenes still work incredibly well with her writing style.

I definitely see why it might be demanding for some readers to stay invested since the pacing ebbs and flows, but for me, the fascinating worldbuilding and characters outweighed those difficulties.

The way this ties in so nicely with the Villains Duology makes my Vicious-loving self very happy. I missed this series.

Inside of my mind there are two conflicting impressions when thinking about this story:

• Great storytelling that presented me with more time in a fascinating world
• An art style that made it painful to look at Eli and Victor, they just look that bad...

When I Arrived at the Castle has incredible visuals. It almost makes you feel the tension and horror of the travels through the Countess's castle as if you were experiencing them yourself.

As much as I wouldn't want that to happen, maybe if I were experiencing it myself, I would fully understand what was going on.

While I do have an idea where the author was going with this, I would have loved some sort of confirmation that my suspension is correct.

But hey, toxic queer vampires make everything better, am I right?

Read if you: want to read one of the OG Batman stories want to get to know the writing of Frank Miller want to see Batman in the art style of David Mazzucchelli Catwoman's origin Catwoman being a badass

Don‘t read if you: don‘t want to see Gordon cheat on his pregnant wife don‘t want to read a story including a LOT of sexism can‘t read cursive

Richard! Please pay attention to what people are telling you about the conspiracy you are supposed to prevent, so you can have one leg up on the conspirators and don‘t have to rely only on dumb luck to survive!

Oh no, he can‘t hear us, he is absolutely not listening to a word people tell him…. AND SOMEHOW IT WORKS -_-

The only aspect that makes this book somewhat redeemable are Richard's absurd and sometimes hilarious comments he throws out at the most random times.

This book was not it for me. Rani and Meghna are an interesting duo, but their romance felt like it came out of nowhere, when the setup during their one-sided rivalry phase would have built some excellent tension. Instead we got Meghna being mean to Rani without even trying to understand her point of view, which led to a lot of misunderstandings.

The app they developed is so massively infringing on people‘s privacy that I am shocked how no character thought it would pose an actual problem and somehow let them enter an international competition with it?

The ending is also just happy for now and in no way resolved the discussions/issues that their relationship may cause with their families in the future.

I loved the premise, but the execution wasn't entirely my cup of tea.

Behold! The power of Superbat! insert a bad joke about them wearing the same ring here

Incredibly entertaining story that sold me on the world‘s finest as a superhero duo (trio if Robin is invited). Mark Waid and Dan Mora, keep on doing what you're doing.

Turns out someone does care about Tim Drake.

An action-packed, investigation-filled and surprisingly wholesome story, where Tim might not exactly come out to people but gets more comfortable in his identity and finds a surprisingly fun boyfriend. The five Tim Drake fans are going to love this.

Yes, I absolutely loved these stories, so let me propose some alternative titles: Story 1: You can take the heir out of the crime ring but you can't take the crime ring out of the heir.

Story 2: Be gay, solve crime with the og yearners

I long for more Secret Shanghai universe content.

An interesting take on a classic fairy tale that doesn‘t forget to include valuable messages like "Kindness pays off!“ And "Sometimes violence is okay!“

However, I do feel like Justin Richards should step up his synonym game, because the amount of times I read the word "creature" in a 37-page short story is insane.

Janice Hallet's books always feel like a fever dream, but this one especially.

The plot twist came out of nowhere and would have been incredible with a setup, but alas, nothing was previously explained. The story is being told through emails, text messages, and essays, which is an incredibly cool concept to explore and increases the ability to speed through this book, but it just didn't work in this story. Little scenes like a few characters texting each other while literally sitting in the same car and similar plot holes are supposed to be just glossed over and aren't really supposed to be scrutinized.

The Examiner is set up like a story to guess along, but you simply get too little information to actually guess the biggest plot twists. Instead, the details are hidden to a point where it makes no sense to not at least be mentioned in some capacity early on, which ruins the whole concept. The book had some great ideas, but the execution fell a bit short.

Writing this review made me feel a bit like Allison when she was criticizing XY's work (I am very sorry, but I don't remember his name), with the difference that I am not going to set this book on fire. If you still want to give one of her books a shot, maybe try The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. I enjoyed the plot significantly more.

Wow, I didn't know Carmilla could get even gayer until Re: Carmilla proved me wrong.

Excellent voice acting, an interesting story, a sapphic vampire… what more could you want from a narration of one of THE OG vampire novels?

The writing is a bit slow, but that is to be expected from a story published in 1872, however, it is still an interesting read that has some hidden gems. (Cocoa-obsessed Carmilla, I see you!)