I would've been more happy to of just had Della's POV because she was so interesting to follow and I loved learning about her world and the magic of the Bend. When you have two POVs and one of them is subpar compared to the other, it hurts the book. There was a lot of female badassary in this book. That women have so much power but men try and take it away any chance they get. I also loved the feminist undertone to the entire novel, the story of how women go missing and no one gives a crap. This book was very atmospheric, had eerie writing, and a twist I didn't see coming until it was too late. 'Women spend so much time trying to make ourselves small so we won't get hurt, or we make ourselves so visible our visibility becomes a shield.'Īngry Girl x Exhausted Witch Sapphic Romance I would read a book by Waters again in a heartbeat. This was my kind of book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This story was tough to read in places, but it wasn’t too depressing so you can see a way out of that anger towards some sort of hope. This story has a great mix of this darkness and anger, but it is also about two young women -both a little morally gray- who want to take their power back. These characters both have a lot of anger, so their relationship starts out angry too, but their sweeter moments together gave the story a little lightness that it needed. These two young women are not going to go on a romantic date together, but they might just steal a kiss over learning a spell. While it was on the lighter side, I liked it quite a bit and I thought it fit the story very well. The entertainment value of this book was through the roof for me.Īs I mentioned before there is a light WLW romance.

Just one more chapter, one more, I had to know what was going to happen. No way! Thank goodness I’m on my vacation because I read this until 3am because I could not put the book down. I started reading this last night thinking I would read half and finish today. This is one of those books I would highly recommend reading when you have a large chunk of time to yourself. Once you get a few chapters in, you just become completely hooked. What impressed me the most was the pace and readability of this book. It may be because I read so many crime books that I picked it up so early so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that other readers don’t. I could have used another red herring or something to throw me off balance a bit more. My only real complaint is that I was able to solve the mystery too early for my tastes. Is she alive? Is there a monster out there human or the non-human kind? I just thought it all worked really well. I love mystery and crime books and when you put in some paranormal elements it just takes it to another level for me. Therefore, if you are not a big YA fan, I would not let it put you off in this instance. I missed the part that might have said if the characters had just finished high school or were still in it, but this felt much more like a New Adult story to me.

While this is YA, I honestly kept forgetting that it was. This is a book that won’t appeal to everyone, but if you like that dark and angry feel mixed with magic, murder and mayhem, then this is the book for you. This is quite the mix of genres being Southern Gothic, paranormal, mystery, and YA with a light WLW romance. It’s the kind of book I can’t stop thinking about and I know I won’t soon forget. I’m happy to say that it was the kind of read I was hoping for and a book that really clicked with my personal tastes. Three words: angry, sapphic, and witches, is why this book was on my list of most anticipated reads of 2021. It was dark, emotional, a bit creepy, but it was also magical with a bunch of badassery.

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