DNF @ 27% (not rating because of this) (TL;DR at the bottom 🙃) Some background: I was looking for horror recs (specifically subgenres within horror to check out) on Pagebound and the author mentioned their book was available to read for free as an ARC & had body horror. However, I fear this gave me wrong expectations going in and there was a miscommunication. I think they maybe thought I was looking for book recs in other (non-horror) genres but that have a subgenre of horror, rather than specific subgenres of horror where the main genre is still horror (i.e. body horror books: the main genre is just listed as “horror” but it’s more specifically “body horror”). Because of this, I expected the book to be horror fantasy, not fantasy with horror elements. And I actually DNFed before I even got to any horror elements. However, that’s not my only reason for DNFing. While I was intrigued by how Lorna, the first character we’re introduced to, and her dog-form worked (they seem to be separate identities/characters/beings that have to share a body), I pretty quickly lost interest as I read on. I think the main reason was the POV switch to a somewhat less interesting character and being so quickly introduced to new characters. Both things made it difficult to feel like I was getting to know any of the characters, their motivations, or really feel invested in any of them. And not being invested in the main characters makes continuing to read a story very difficult. On top of that there were two instances of the tense randomly switching from past tense to present tense. One felt like a definite mistake, while the other I couldn’t tell if it was purposeful or also a mistake. The first instance occurs in the middle of a chapter and is a is a single paragraph (pg. 18 of pdf version) and then the next paragraph goes back to past tense. The second instance occurs at the end of Chapter 3 and then the book seemingly continues using present tense when, until then, it was in past tense. Just kinda weird and random and feels like an error. Lastly there were a few personal taste and opinion-based things I didn’t like: I had trouble distinguishing the vibe of the setting… I think it’s medieval fantasy? However there is modern language (“nerd shit” & “girls girl”). I’m personally not a fan of modern aspects in an otherwise medieval/classic fantasy setting The writing felt a bit simplistic, cliche at times, and juvenile The dialogue (especially the flirting & banter) was quite cringey, cheesy, and/or unrealistic imo I don’t know a lot about DnD but it gives the vibes that it started out as a DnD campaign (or maybe WAS a full-on DnD campaign) that the author then turned into a novella. At the very least it feels set in a classic DnD-inspired world? Especially with some of the terminology (see: “adventurers”) and the worldbuilding/fantasy races (i.e. “tiefling”). Plus the general concept feels very DnD coded (different characters of different fantasy races come together to do a job). I’m not personally a fan of this but I could see others liking this aspect of it The PROS: I felt the description of character actions & facial expressions were quite good (setting descriptions were pretty good too) Tobias being a trans character was super cool Kind of piggybacking off the above, loved the diversity. There was a small side character in a wheelchair and lots of LGBTQ+ rep (especially trans/gender queer) TL;DR I had the wrong expectations going in (thought it was more horror than it was) but even upon realizing this, was willing to give it a shot. Was intrigued at first and loved the diversity (lots of gender queer rep), but didn’t feel any real investment in any of the characters. The final nail(s) in the coffin were jarring tense changes that felt like mistakes. On top of that though, there were some things that I’m personally not a fan of: unrealistic & cheesy dialogue, modern phrases in an otherwise medieval fantasy setting, and it felt like a DnD campaign turned into a novella. The combination of all this led me to DNF.