firstly, thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for this advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are mine.

i can get behind horror and gore, as long as it has narrative value and isn't torture porn. it was uncomfortable the first time, and then it kept getting continuously repeated throughout the book without genuine purpose that i'm pretty sure it was shock value. i can see the themes that the book is trying to tackle, and the story could be compelling with a little more nuance and care taken for the way its written. however, without that, this story just comes off as a revenge plot with no real stakes, emotional value or character development. it’s just a book trying to shock you, relying on its own notoriety rather than good storytelling.

i wanted to really like it but i couldn't look past how this plot was handled and how all the characters bar krystal, akil and alexander (to an extent) were super unlikable. it was just hard to root for this story when the plot turns in crazy places without an explanation. there's just way too much trying to be addressed and nothing that's well addressed. that said, it was engaging enough.

i had a fun time, so it was pretty good that i finished it. but, the stereotypes and characters didn't exactly land and leave that big of an impact. for a story that's so focused on nora's life (on top of her relationship with sebastian), i wanted to see her friendships up close. i ate up nora and ainsley's friendship and am desperately confused as to how her friendship with clementine even works. i have some thoughts™️about the familial conflicts that the story introduced but didn't fully address by the end of the book.

BUT, it was fun. i had a good time.

my only complaint is that i want more

3.5 first of all, thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for this advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

truth betold, i did enjoy this book a lot. i do tend to find mysteries easy to dive into, and did overall enjoy the aesthetic and the lottery aspect of this book. what i found really engaging was the backdrop and the whole mysterious-island-with-secrets trope that it followed. that said, i did feel like the book was slow in places. personally, i found it hard to get past the first few pages of the book and then the pace picked up and slowed down once again in the middle. i don't mind slow paced books but the lack of consistency made it jarring when moving from section to section. also didn't feel like there was much depth to the characters that wasn't tied to a backstory, but that didn't pull away from the story too much. overall, a decent mystery that did the job well but had some slight consistency issues.

first of all, thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for this advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are mine.

i enjoyed this book. well, if i'm being entirely honest, i looked at this story as something i went with the vibes and the comedy rather than the actual plot and the characters, which isn't ideal, but that's what happened. the fantasy setting and the adventurous backdrop wasn't something i really connected with, and that could just be my disinterest in fantasy worlds as a whole, OR that the comedy and the dialogue in this book didn't give it that much of an importance. the world felt inconsistent to me. it was set in 1500s but the choice of writing didn't reflect that.

but, it was fun. it was exciting, funny, absurd, and everything that makes it a fun book.

first of all, thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for this advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are mine.

oh, boy. i've been in a pretty bad reading slump since around september (correlated with college) but somehow, i picked this book up and finished it in a single day. iliana xander strikes again! this happened with love, mom as well.

i do love natalie as a main character. she's driven and determined, wants nothing more than to find the culprit that drove her best friend to a coma. her povs are absolutely magical since she's a witty and entertaining character who feels like a real person. we also get a nick pov, and that brought the momentum down so so much more than i would've expected/liked.

coming to the story, i felt there were some drawbacks to the whole timeline and emotional investment i put in. while i enjoyed this very much as a fast paced novel, the fact that the majority of this story took place over 4 days and the emotional detachment i have with everyone else apart from natalie made this book difficult to love.

characters doing dumb things doesn't bother me as long as the plot is good, but the main issue with the book is how convenient it all ended up being. like a pretty bow wrapping a present, but something inside is still missing. i've noticed this problem with love, mom too but not to such a great extent because of the higher emotional stakes.

overall though, this is a very enjoyable book, a quick read and a decent mystery that entertains for most of the novel.