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peachani's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Rape, Suicide, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Stalking, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Death of parent, Ableism, and Drug use
steffiraquel's review against another edition
My favourites are Jack and Beautiful Venom! I liked parts of: 'Shirley & Jim', 'The Sea Witch, Marigold' and 'You, You, It's all About You'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Murder, Sexism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Gun violence
Minor: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Animal death, and Infidelity
junepetals's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Death
Minor: Sexism
victorianrogue's review
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Murder, Rape, and Violence
Minor: Infidelity
abigailnoack's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This whole anthology was a mess to me. I am a victim of buying it during the peak of my book tube phase a few years ago, despite not having a whole lot of personal interest in the anthology. My reading tastes have also changed a lot since buying this book: I barely read fantasy anymore, let alone, villain focused stories.
Also, I know there’s a lot of people who don’t support this anthology because they think the booktubers and bloggers didn’t “deserve” to be published in this anthology, and I don’t really agree with that stance. I know a lot of people have blogs or booktube channels as readers and it’s super natural for readers to want to be writers. However, in the specific case of this anthology, the booktubers didn’t really contribute to the stories aside from the prompts. They each wrote a short commentary, essay piece or had to analyze something in the story, and a lot of them were very cheap and cheesy, or high school magazine quiz style or like a middle school book report. So yeah, it felt like a money grab, which it totally was for me; I never would have bought this without some of my favourite booktubers names not the cover.
To be honest, I did not read all the stories, as I have done in the past with anthologies. I had originally planned to read them all, but felt disappointed and disconnected after reading a few stories, that I then decided to only read stories from authors I thought I would like/have read before. Most of them just weren’t very memorable to me, so I didn’t bother giving individual ratings, or in-depth reviews for each story.
The standout story to me was Death Knell by Victoria Schwab with Jesse George. I’m not very familiar with greek mythology at all, but I really enjoyed her writing style. It was very vivid to picture in my head and gave off a strong feeling. (This is also my first time reading Schwab). I also felt that Jesse’s personal letter to death after the story was the only booktuber contribution that actually meant something to me. It was deep and fit the feeling of the story it went along with.
Stories I Did Read:
The Blood of Imuriv by Renee Ahdieh with Christine Riccio
Jack by Ameriie with Tina Burke
->I don’t think that Jack in the beanstalk is cool??
Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chainani with Samantha Lane
->Told entirely in text messages and usually I love that, but this was genuinely hard to keep track of and was pretty much just 30 pages of petty high school drama
Shirley & Jim by Susan Dennard with Sasha Alsberg
->I just don’t know anything about Sherlock stuff so I wasn’t interested
The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer with Zoe Herdt
->I actually really liked the concept for this story, once I figured out what was going on. Marissa Meyer does a great job of establishing a plot and motives and characters in a short time.
You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera with Catriona Feeney
->This one was also kind of a cool concept but I just wasn’t invested
Sera by Nicola Yoon with Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy
->This one was legitimately disturbing but the pacing and flashbacks were weird
Stories I Didn’t Read:
The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni with Sophia Lee
Beautiful Venom by Cindy Bon with Benjamin Alderson
Marigold by Samantha Shannon with Regan Perusse
Julian Breaks Every Rule by Andrew Smith with Raeleen Lemay
Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke with Whitney Atkinson
Also, I know there’s a lot of people who don’t support this anthology because they think the booktubers and bloggers didn’t “deserve” to be published in this anthology, and I don’t really agree with that stance. I know a lot of people have blogs or booktube channels as readers and it’s super natural for readers to want to be writers. However, in the specific case of this anthology, the booktubers didn’t really contribute to the stories aside from the prompts. They each wrote a short commentary, essay piece or had to analyze something in the story, and a lot of them were very cheap and cheesy, or high school magazine quiz style or like a middle school book report. So yeah, it felt like a money grab, which it totally was for me; I never would have bought this without some of my favourite booktubers names not the cover.
To be honest, I did not read all the stories, as I have done in the past with anthologies. I had originally planned to read them all, but felt disappointed and disconnected after reading a few stories, that I then decided to only read stories from authors I thought I would like/have read before. Most of them just weren’t very memorable to me, so I didn’t bother giving individual ratings, or in-depth reviews for each story.
The standout story to me was Death Knell by Victoria Schwab with Jesse George. I’m not very familiar with greek mythology at all, but I really enjoyed her writing style. It was very vivid to picture in my head and gave off a strong feeling. (This is also my first time reading Schwab). I also felt that Jesse’s personal letter to death after the story was the only booktuber contribution that actually meant something to me. It was deep and fit the feeling of the story it went along with.
Stories I Did Read:
The Blood of Imuriv by Renee Ahdieh with Christine Riccio
Jack by Ameriie with Tina Burke
->I don’t think that Jack in the beanstalk is cool??
Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chainani with Samantha Lane
->Told entirely in text messages and usually I love that, but this was genuinely hard to keep track of and was pretty much just 30 pages of petty high school drama
Shirley & Jim by Susan Dennard with Sasha Alsberg
->I just don’t know anything about Sherlock stuff so I wasn’t interested
The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer with Zoe Herdt
->I actually really liked the concept for this story, once I figured out what was going on. Marissa Meyer does a great job of establishing a plot and motives and characters in a short time.
You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera with Catriona Feeney
->This one was also kind of a cool concept but I just wasn’t invested
Sera by Nicola Yoon with Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy
->This one was legitimately disturbing but the pacing and flashbacks were weird
Stories I Didn’t Read:
The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni with Sophia Lee
Beautiful Venom by Cindy Bon with Benjamin Alderson
Marigold by Samantha Shannon with Regan Perusse
Julian Breaks Every Rule by Andrew Smith with Raeleen Lemay
Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke with Whitney Atkinson
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Death
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