Mandy Webb > Recent Status Updates

The writing is so freaking pretty. Dark shadowed magic and fairytale stretching out lazily around you, slowly pulling you in. I am still absolutely obsessed.

The prologue was 2 and a half pages and when it was done I knew this was going to be a top 5 of the year book for me. It’s 11 at night and I have to be smart and go to sleep but I want to stay up all night reading so bad. It gives me Stardust movie vibes with a dark academia twist and the characters are so intriguing. The writing is everything I want out of a fantasy, lush and magical. I’m obsessed.

“War survived in the buildings now built to withstand fires, as well as hurricanes and floods; in the redrawn town lines; in the landmarks turned to ruin. And it survived in the hearts now filled with a hatred, suspicion, and paranoia that hadn’t existed before they were forced to grapple with all the ways humans could hurt one another.”

Hits so hard given the state of the world currently.

THESE CHAPTER TITLES.

IN A SOFT, TENDER, GAY WAY

that's it thats the chapter tiiiitle

Like pls just inject it in my veins.

"Are you asking me to off him, my good bitch?"

I'M DECEASED. I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE REST OF THE STORY THE TIMING OF THIS QUOTE ALONE GETS A 5 STAR RATING FROM ME.

Talen winced delicately. "I should not have said that. Forgive me. It's only that I know quite well how easy it is to convince yourself that you are fine and comfortable in the life you lead when in fact you are desperately unhappy, and remain where you are only because doing otherwise feels too frightening to imagine."

GIMME LUSH FANTASIES WITH QUOTES LIKE THESE CALLING OUT RELATABLY PLAIN HUMAN FRAILTIES. YESSSSS

"Choke me, Daddy."

THIS BOOK IS TRYING TO MURDER ME IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, AND I'M OKAY WITH IT.

GODDAMN IT IM SUCH A HOE FOR SNARKY BANTER

I AM OBSESSED.
Like just instantly sucked in and enchanted and im not at all surprised because I have been in love with Zoraida's writing for years but holy hell this is BEAUTIFUL

OMG THIS BOOK DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE THIS ADORABLE. I CANNOT.

Snarky, playful banter? Check. Imaginative and vivid quirkiness? Check. That feeling when a character in a story breaks the 4th wall except in this case it feels like there is a 5th, 6th, and 7th wall all of them overlapping and broken for different periods of time? CHECK.

I am delighted and charmed and giggling as I read.

"There's always a new Chosen One around the corner. I don't want it to be me. I want to read in my room and fight with my sisters and light candles at my altar and do my extra-credit homework. I wanted to fix my family, not the world.

My family is my world."

DO NOT DO THIS TO ME ROSE MORTIZ. DO NOT HIT ME THIS HARD IN THE FEELS WHILE IM SNEAK READING AT WORK, OH MY GOOOOOD.

🥰 I. LOVE. EVERYTHING.
LIKE JUST...THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANT AND NEED, PROTECT ALICE KINGSTON AT ALL COSTS.

Omg i didn't forget how much I love Dhonielle's imagery but I'm just falling in love with it all over again. I'm not always the most visual reader but I can see this whole world in my head.

"I have also lost many," she said quietly. "I know what it feels like to know you live because others have died, how the grief sits in you like a stone you cannot dislodge. I have to believe that if they could see us now, they would be proud of our fight and would not regret their part in it."

EVERY CHAPTER IS A COLLECTION OF SHOTS FIRED AT MY EMOTIONS.

ALL MY BABIES ARE IN DISTRESS AND SO I TOO AM IN DISTRESS.

"It would seem that having more emotions within would lead to having more to say, since there is naturally more to discuss. But now Abel knows it doesn't work that way. Emotions don't take turns; they crowd in together. His different feelings blot each other out, like writing words atop other words in ink, until nothing's legible any longer. What remains is a darkness that says nothing and contains everything."