ariel *ੈ✩‧₊˚ > Recent Status Updates

It’s no wonder why this novel stood the test of time. Really enjoyable!

It should be illegal for authors to write cringey teen dialogue. “Chillax” and “off the chain” are HORRENDOUS 😭😭

Does this girl have no self preservation lol? Doesn’t ask any questions or talk about anything? Lmao

🤷‍♀️ let’s see what all the hubbub is about ig

AJ….girl, pls get an editor.

This book is soooo long already, but I wish we were given more information about Helena's past, the Institute, more memories of Hel and Luc's friendship (and Hel's relationships with Luc/Lila/Soren/Seb in general). SenLinYu glosses over a lot of it and it feel really unsatisfying tbh

oh my god this book is soooo long jesus lol

I realize it looks like I'm complaining a lot (I'm really enjoying this book, I promise!!) but I wish this book had a character list. There are just so many characters, and it would be nice to know who is who. I don't even care about figuring out who they were in the fanfic; I just want to remember their names/who they're related to, lol. So many fantasy books have character lists, idk why this one didn't.

This might a SLIGHT SPOILER but: One of the biggest drawbacks of SenLinYu reworking this is that there are a lot of backstory things falling in the cracks. There's still 30% left to go but the biggest plus Manacled had was that it was formed from existing IP. There is a lot of worldbuilding, but it's heavy-handed and lacks the charm/realism that HP world has, for better or worse (fuck JKR lol)

screamingcryingthrowingup

SenLinYu is not great at writing action, or emotions of the characters. It's hard to visualize what's going on, or to even know how Helena is feeling or what she's thinking. Prob one of the biggest weaknesses of the book

“Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.”

Oh this is incredible. Idc what the nay-sayers say lol this story is still just a masterfully crafted.

Adding this book to my "horror" shelf. This book is no joke--very intense, very gory, very violent. I like horror, but body horror is hard to read. I am absolutely loving this book, and it's checking off every thing that I like about dark fantasy (romance? just not yet lol). This is a very slow burn, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I haven't read Manacled in years (2021? 2022?) but man, this is really freaking good. I really, really like the liberties Sen took making this story their own.

Shout out to my library 😎 (I was first in line 🏃‍♀️💨)

Idc what you all say, I’m excited for the movie and will be reading this in preparation!! (I’ll prob hate the movie but whatever, it’s a good excuse to read this lol)

More questions than answers…. It’s set in modern times? With computers ? And where tf does the black door really lead to

“Sophie listened and felt sad. Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else.”

“ What’s that? ‘Lemon, baby. A lemon tree.’ She must like the answer. Because she plops down and starts playing with the low-hanging fruit.” AYYYY OK ALI I see what you did there

"'It's impossible. I have to mourn him while he's alive. I have to wish he goes to jail. I'm not allowed to have him stay with me, help him. That's enabling, apparently. But [he's] still sick, and if I don't tenable him, then what if...'"

“Minor, and yet the idea of being laughed at stopped me from breathing properly. After that, I decided that limiting my interactions was the best way to keep people from hating me. But over time, embarrassment became resentment. …The thing about annoyance is that once there's a spark, you can find more things to stoke it. It grew and amplified between me and them. And eventually the abyss stared back.”

“It worked, until it didn't. Because their sob stories would always slip in. And I couldn't unsee their void stares that never found a place to land.
Because every now and then, I'd say something like, "We're all going to be dead and we'll forget we ever existed, someday." And they'd look at me like they recognized something inside me too.…
It meant I had lived through it. Plus, I survived everything before.”

“If you know where a story is going, don't hoard it. Make the story go there, now. But then what? What will you do next? You've surrendered your big reveal. …Often, in our doubt that we have a real story to tell, we hold something back, fearing that we don't have anything else.”

Funny parallel to this and Stephen King’s “On Writing”: both authors’s distaste for plot.
“When we talk about fiction, we tend to use terms like ‘theme,’ ‘plot,’ ‘character development,’ and ‘ structure.’ I've never, as a writer, found these very useful. (‘Your theme's no good’ gives me nothing to work with, and neither does ‘You might want to make your plot better.’)”

This is waaaay different than the first 4 books, but honestly, that makes it refreshing. I can see why Kingsley said she enjoyed writing the MMC; Izael is hilarious lol

Well that didn’t take long (I’m already back on my bullshit🤪)

Ngl I saw that coming since book 2 😅 but glad the FMC finally has a clue lol