SPOILERS AHEAD
2.5/5 stars
This was a pretty fun story, but I don't know if I loved it... Overall it was fun but it was just lacking a bit of oomph I think. I didn't feel like the stakes were as high as they were supposed to be and it was generally a bit cheesy.
I really really loved the concept of the book - the haunted house vibes and trials through the levels of hell is so great in theory but it fell a little flat with the writing. I think that if someone like Keri Lake had written it and really leaned all the way into the gothic vibes it would have absolutely EATEN.
The setting being in New Orleans and Ophelia being a necromancer set the story up so well for a traveling haunted mansion that hosts trials to win a devil's grant. I would have loved for the trials to be more intense or more focused on what that level of hell actually was instead of more puzzles and clues based - the Lust trial was fun and fit the intention, but the rest of them didn't make a ton of sense and were more mind games than anything else. The side characters didn't really lend anything to the story either other than just to have other players in the game, which made it feel a little one dimensional.
I initially really enjoyed Blackwell but once he and Ophelia finally got together that was all it was about - which don't get me wrong, I love, but it got old pretty quick and I was waiting for them to start hunting for the lock and heart because they just kind of seemed to have given up on that afterwards. He was definitely like a grown up Danny Phantom and who doesn't love that. As soon as the two of them got together it was as if the other plots just got completely forgotten. She stopped thinking about Genevive and stopped looking for the heart and key and all they cared about was their little insta-lovey relationship and how it's doomed to not work out.
I think that there were maybe too many plots going on at once - trying to find Genevive, trying to find the lock and heart, trying to win the trials, figuring out the relationship of her mom and dad to Phantasma, learning that her dad is Gabriel, Ophelia and Blackwell constantly hooking up, why Blackwell is there in the first place, Sinclair's whole purpose in the story and why he and Blackwell hate each other so much (which I'm still not really sure about), and so many other random little things, that the main points got lost. If it had been focused more on the hunt for the heart and lock and the trials instead of all the other side plots I think it would have flown better.
I am a little bit confused about the whole ending and whose soul ended up in the locket and why her saying she loved him made him finally free, but to be fair I kind of sped through the end because I was ready to be done. I also didn't understand Blackwell being his "True Name" when it's a part of his regular name because we're never told what a "True Name" is. I was also rolling at his real name being Salem, that is just so goofy to me. There was so much of that just absolute goofiness in relation to devils and ghosts and things throughout the book that had me half cringing half laughing. The "reveal" of Blackwell being the mystic super secret creator also fell really flat, not just for me but Ophelia barely had a reaction to it as well.
I don't know, mixed feelings about this one because it is such a great idea and was pretty fun to read, but I wish it was written by a real dark gothic author who has proven they can write these kinds of relationships and characters and storylines. Truthfully, probably won't read the next one.
コメント