Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book. All reviews discussed here are my own.
Ohh this was such an intriguing book and I have such mixed feelings on it. I really don't know what genre to class this book as; it's YA with a mixture of historic, dystopian, fantasy, and criminal underworld?? It was definitely a refreshing YA read that's for sure and unlike anything else i've read. The women are tough and hard as hell; they know the price for living ad they aren't willing to pay that price anymore.
"kind enough to cut us from the inside so we can never have children"
The opening chapter was really interesting; starting from Clementines perspective up until she kills the fella and then switching to Aster's view and going backwards in time slightly until we catch up with Clem. I thought the writing throughout this book was well done and I was never left bored; the plot does move slow at times but it's not a massive drawback on the book. I thought the world-building was done well overall; there's very similar mirrors with today's world so it was quite easy to follow. I also loved the character Aster and thought she was a really well-developed and bad-ass female lead. I felt this book was a solid four stars throughout but there were a couple of things that made me drop my rating.
"the only problem was, Aster had never chosen this life"
One of the mains reasons was Clementine. I just didn't like her as a character. I thought she was quite daft to be honest with you. In the first chapter she comes across as fearful, yes, but also brave and strong. And then the rest of the book she is just reduced to a side character who is obsessed with the first nice man she lays her eyes on. Honestly she just seems to fall head over heels for him and gets annoyed anytime Aster gets suspicious of him; yes maybe Aster should trust him more but she's spent the last year of her life seeing up close and personal just what men are capable of so she's right to be wary. I think the main issue is that Clementine, and Mallow and Tansy, were all really underdeveloped and didn't have much of a role in the story. Therefore it's hard to warm to any of them that much. Also the fact that Zee tries to relate how he feels for Clem to how Aster cares about Clem is laughable; he's literally known her two minutes.
I also am slightly confused about the magical/fantasy elements of this book as they were the only bits that weren't well explored.
The ending of this book really disappointed me. First off the fact that Violet is left for dead; as we didn't see her die i'm praying she makes a miraculous recovery in the next installment. Violent for more had one of the biggest character developments throughout this book. Davis doesn't shy away from what Violet has done to survive but she gives us the reasons why and it really humanises Violet. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be born into that place and know nothing else. She was such a strong character throughout and it felt like such a waste for her to die. Secondly, I completely get that Aster wants to stay however I do not buy for a second that the other girls would leave her, especially Clementine. Clem and Aster have been together throughout and so for them to be suddenly separated like that with what seemed to be no real conversation about it just didn't ring true for me. This happens with a lot of books where there is a lot of time spent developing the world itself that the ending seems really rushed. It definitely felt like it came around too fast for me and honestly didn't make much sense. I did enjoy though that there were so many "Lady Ghosts" and that it turned out to be a string of women who wanted to save other girls.
Overall i'm mixed about this book. I love Aster and think she was such an interesting character, but other than Violent the surrounding characters weren't overly well developed and easily faded into the background. I think the world itself is interesting but it just didn't quite hit the mark for me. I would be intrigued to read the sequel though so it isn't one I hate.
Ohh this was such an intriguing book and I have such mixed feelings on it. I really don't know what genre to class this book as; it's YA with a mixture of historic, dystopian, fantasy, and criminal underworld?? It was definitely a refreshing YA read that's for sure and unlike anything else i've read. The women are tough and hard as hell; they know the price for living ad they aren't willing to pay that price anymore.
"kind enough to cut us from the inside so we can never have children"
The opening chapter was really interesting; starting from Clementines perspective up until she kills the fella and then switching to Aster's view and going backwards in time slightly until we catch up with Clem. I thought the writing throughout this book was well done and I was never left bored; the plot does move slow at times but it's not a massive drawback on the book. I thought the world-building was done well overall; there's very similar mirrors with today's world so it was quite easy to follow. I also loved the character Aster and thought she was a really well-developed and bad-ass female lead. I felt this book was a solid four stars throughout but there were a couple of things that made me drop my rating.
"the only problem was, Aster had never chosen this life"
One of the mains reasons was Clementine. I just didn't like her as a character. I thought she was quite daft to be honest with you. In the first chapter she comes across as fearful, yes, but also brave and strong. And then the rest of the book she is just reduced to a side character who is obsessed with the first nice man she lays her eyes on. Honestly she just seems to fall head over heels for him and gets annoyed anytime Aster gets suspicious of him; yes maybe Aster should trust him more but she's spent the last year of her life seeing up close and personal just what men are capable of so she's right to be wary. I think the main issue is that Clementine, and Mallow and Tansy, were all really underdeveloped and didn't have much of a role in the story. Therefore it's hard to warm to any of them that much. Also the fact that Zee tries to relate how he feels for Clem to how Aster cares about Clem is laughable; he's literally known her two minutes.
I also am slightly confused about the magical/fantasy elements of this book as they were the only bits that weren't well explored.
The ending of this book really disappointed me. First off the fact that Violet is left for dead; as we didn't see her die i'm praying she makes a miraculous recovery in the next installment. Violent for more had one of the biggest character developments throughout this book. Davis doesn't shy away from what Violet has done to survive but she gives us the reasons why and it really humanises Violet. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be born into that place and know nothing else. She was such a strong character throughout and it felt like such a waste for her to die. Secondly, I completely get that Aster wants to stay however I do not buy for a second that the other girls would leave her, especially Clementine. Clem and Aster have been together throughout and so for them to be suddenly separated like that with what seemed to be no real conversation about it just didn't ring true for me. This happens with a lot of books where there is a lot of time spent developing the world itself that the ending seems really rushed. It definitely felt like it came around too fast for me and honestly didn't make much sense. I did enjoy though that there were so many "Lady Ghosts" and that it turned out to be a string of women who wanted to save other girls.
Overall i'm mixed about this book. I love Aster and think she was such an interesting character, but other than Violent the surrounding characters weren't overly well developed and easily faded into the background. I think the world itself is interesting but it just didn't quite hit the mark for me. I would be intrigued to read the sequel though so it isn't one I hate.