• Status: Read (September 15th, 2021)
• Pages: 304
• Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Vampires, Historical Fiction, Crime
• Type: Paperback/Advanced Reader’s Copy
• ISBN: –
• Rating: ★★★☆☆
• Reviewed: Yes

WARNING: I have no sense of what is a spoiler and what isn’t, so this review may contain spoilers. I also cuss like a sailor, so read at your own risk. I am not a professional, I just like to read and share my thoughts on them.

Why are half stars not an option?? I feel bad giving it 3 stars, but I can’t bring myself to give it 4. I want to give 3.5 stars, but since half stars are not an option, this will have to do. I received the Advanced Reader’s Copy via a giveaway and I wish I was being paid to review it, but I’m not lol

Now, I’m not very big on vampire stories, it’s just not really my thing, but I figured as long as they don’t sparkle, I can handle it. The cover is nice – it’s simple, not overcrowded but also not boring. It draws you in and makes you wonder what’s going to happen. The intro letter in the book is also pretty cool and I like the author’s personality. She seems really interesting.

The book started off as a real page-turner and I was intrigued. It didn’t get boring, but it felt like it dragged on longer than it needed to like it was being stretched to hit a page goal which was kind of annoying.

My biggest annoyance with this book is the fact that they keep bringing up the fact that she is a girl.

“Nobody’s going to execute a girl, no matter what she did.”

Um, excuse me? She can literally commit murder and get away with it JUST because she’s a chick? Mkay. Sure. It was fine the first couple of times they mentioned this, but it was repeated so much that it got really annoying and frustrating to read. If the girl is guilty of a crime, she deserves to be punished for it whether she has a D or a V. She can’t be guilty because she’s a girl? Bullshit.

I mean, this book feels like it goes out of its way to make us realize that Marie is a girl. Like yeah, she’s a girl. We get it. Girls do no wrong. It’s impossible. All women are innocent and should never be punished even when they commit mass murder.

One thing that stood out to me is when Marie said that the killer drinks the blood. Maybe it’s because Jensen is young, but I feel like MOST people wouldn’t immediately jump to the idea of a vampire when they hear that. Would they not just think it’s a sick person? Or someone who thinks/wants to be a vampire? This boy just straight up jumps to the conclusion of vampire even though that’s not what she said. She didn’t DENY it, but when she first mentioned it, she simply said “he drank it” and HE is the one that said vampire. I don’t know why but this part irked me.

[No jury would buy that once they saw Marie, so young and so little. So female.]

I – efhbsjndkl WHAT. I never thought one sentence could bring me so much pain, so much cringe. “So female”… what the fuck does that even mean? You’re kidding, right? That’s a joke, right? Are you dead ass right now? Either the author is a serious feminist or she’s trying to capitalize on how butthurt women are these days which, honestly, isn’t a bad play if you’re wanting to make money. Nothing against the author here, but I honestly hate it. This gave me flashbacks to the feminist mess that was The Lost Apothecary. I will never recover from that book.

I’m not sure if this copy has been edited since it’s an ARC, but the line breaks for their conversations confused me on more than one occasion. Now, I understand when someone is literally speaking a fucking novel that you have to line break so it’s not this huge wall of text, but the line breaks were happening after just one sentence and you know my dumbass didn’t notice the lack of end quotes so I just assumed it was the next person talking but it wasn’t and my brain had to stop multiple times to reread it trying to figure out who the fuck was talking.

Percy was my favorite character and really the only character I liked in this story. I didn’t hate the other characters, but they just didn’t really stand out to me in any way. Except for Pilson, fuck that guy. He’s a douche.

I didn’t like the ending, either. It felt… I’m not sure how to explain it but it felt as if it just ending too abruptly, I guess? It made the story feel pointless which I get – life doesn’t always have happy endings where everything is tied up all nice and neat, but this isn’t real life. It’s based on a real-life case, but it’s still fiction and I like my fiction to wrap up because I linger on the questions for fucking ages before finally moving on.

Overall, this book wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t an enjoyable read for me. It just felt very bland.

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