booktribe's reviews
581 reviews

I was so excited for this one, but I just can’t connect to the writing style. It’s so chaotic and the story is skipping around too much. Every chapter takes place in a different time period. Nonlinear storytelling to THIS degree is just too much for me. 

Thank you Daw and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

I am a huge fan of gothic dark academia novels, so when I found out that Alexis Henderson wrote one, I was incredibly excited!

This book has solidified Alexis Henderson as one of my top 3 favorite authors of all time! She is genuinely one of the best writers I’ve ever read. Her writing style is so beautiful & distinct. I can see her becoming a classic horror author that people will read for years to come. 

This novel is so mysterious and creepy. The imagery is HAUNTING. I could definitely see this becoming a movie! I absolutely LOVE the idea and execution of the persuasion magic in this novel. It was a very interesting spin on the power of mind control. I may or may not have been wishing that I had the power of persuasion while reading this novel lol. 

The novel did slow down at times and there are aspects of the story that I wish had been explored and delved into more, like the aberrations, but I enjoyed this so much and can’t wait for everyone to read it!

Thank you Ace and NetGalley for this arc! All opinions are my own. 

CW: suicidal ideation, animal cruelty & death, adult/minor relationships, child abuse

I will be withholding my review for this title in solidarity with the St. Martin’s Press boycott. 

I will be withholding all reviews for St. Martin’s Press titles until the publisher meets these conditions:

• Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

• Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm their employee caused.

• Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

St. Martin’s Press is one of my favorite publishers and I hate that I cannot promote their books because they won’t speak up and address our concerns.

Boringggggggggg. Almost 200 pages in and nothing has happened. I don’t care about most of these characters (except you Lan, you are loved, but not enough for me to continue) and I don’t care where the story is going.

Boringggggggg

I’m a huge fan of dark academia, and since it’s by a queer author of color, I genuinely thought I would love this, but I can’t get into it. I must DNF at 15%.

The first chapter started off with lots of info dumping, which was making the story drag. And from there it just got incredibly confusing. I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t even picture what was happening in the scenes. I set it down because of how confusing it was, but I wanted to try to give it another chance eventually. But it has been several months and I haven’t been tempted to pick it back up, so I’m calling it. If I ever decide to try again, I’ll update my review!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for his ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, but sadly it fell completely flat for me. I couldn’t finish this collection.

Firstly, I do want to mention something that I did enjoy. I absolutely loved the intro to the collection. It gave the collection as a whole purpose and an even deeper story! The intro really had me excited for the stories! However, this book is not what I thought it would be…

I was expecting this collection to be horror stories that empowered people of color, but these stories just center whiteness & racial trauma. I probably should have known from the title that the collection would center whiteness, but I genuinely thought this collection would flip the common trope of Black people & people of color dying first in horror on its head, but it didn’t. 

Every story is about racism or wanting to be white/fit in with white people. Why do all of these characters of color have such racist friends? I will mention that I had the privilege of growing up as a Black person in almost exclusively predominantly Black experiences. All of my schools were predominantly Black, I was hardly ever a minority surrounded by white people. So, maybe that’s why I don’t understand choosing to be friends with or date racists. But, that just felt unbelievable to me.

Another thing that bothered me is this: why does the white guy have to be racist to die first in EVERY story??? In all the movies and books where the Black person or person of color dies first, they didn’t have to deserve it. They were killed first whether they were good people or not. So, what bothers me is that it seems like this book feels the need to justify the white guy’s death with him always being racist. If we, Black people & POC, in these circumstances never have to deserve our death to be murdered, what makes the white guy any different? The white guy can just die without being racist, with no justification, just like us for all these years. THAT is how you turn the trope on its head.

Those things just made this collection disappointing for me as a Black reader CRAVING more BIPOC horror where WE are centered. I usually don’t read racism horror, I see enough of racism in real life, so I couldn’t enjoy this collection with so much blatant racism & micro aggressions in every single story without being prepared for that. Maybe one day I’ll come back to this knowing that it is racism horror and enjoy it more because I’ll be prepared for the anger and annoyance that comes with it, but for now, I won’t be continuing.

side note: out of all the stories I read, I can say that I did enjoy H. E. Edgmon’s story Best Served Cold!

Thank you Tor Teen and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

Wow.

I’ve been mad at myself for putting off reading this book for so long, but honestly, I picked it up at the perfect time. I’ve recently been focused on fostering more a connection to Earth and this was perfect to read while on this journey. 

This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. It’s very enlightening to hear other’s views on their relationship to the earth and how similar they are to my own as well as how they differ from my own. I love learning about so many Black people who are working to heal the earth. I have fallen in love with every contributor🥰 And I always love nonfiction that is told in transcribed interviews, but I love that the editor gets to have a distinct voice as well through the introductions to each section. You can tell so much thought, care, and intention was put into this book. From the selection of contributors, to the introductions to each section, to the interview questions. Everything was written with intention. 

This book feels like a hug. I’m not sure how to explain it, because the book isn’t cozy or anything, but it’s exactly what I needed in this moment. I feel so full after finishing this. This is one of my favorite books I’ve read all year and one of my fave books of all time! I feel like every Black person should read this book, as well as every ally, and I plan on throwing this book at everyone I know till they read it! (I will literally throw it at your head to get you to read it. So, let’s do this the easy way and have you add it to your TBR of your own volition k?)

Thank you Amistad & NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.