Reviews

Twixt by Sarah Diemer

rearviewmirror's review

4.0

Omg, please write a sequel.

anshianeko's review

4.0

I would say that I loved this book. The author surely had to put a lot of thoughts into it, from the superb worldbuilding, that I, have to admit, wasn't really expecting, to the plot that was pretty neat. Reading Twixt was definitely an interesting experience that I surely would love to go through again, with all of those plot-twixts and almost dreamy storytelling. Even that first person style that I honestly dislike was, in the end, pretty fitting.

And now, why didn't I give Twixt full stars, if I liked it that much?
My reason is pretty suprising, given that my friend always make fun of me that my rating is like "It's gay, 60/10."
It's just... I see a pattern in Sarah Diemer's books. Not that I've read so many, having read only The Dark Wife and Sappho's Fables, which she wrote under her pen name, but it's unavoidable to see the similarities.
Yep, I'm talking about the main character and her love interest and no, I don't mean that they are lesbians, which, of course, they are, Harrold.
It's just... one of the pair is always the more girly girl who can kick asses but needs her time to do that, and the second is the one with more experience in... things... And the love is mostly on the first sight, which is a trope that I honestly hate.
Also, the sex scene. Oh my god, they all seem the same to me. I'm so, so sorry, but I really hope, that her later books have already dealt with this problem.

Anyway, this book is good, go read it :D

booksnpenguins's review

2.0

I contain multitudes.

Spookapalooza part 2 - witchy buddies strike again!




I must admit this was a tad too mild for me, but I still enjoyed the story a lot. It was really deep and emotional; I liked how it was developed more than how it was presented if you get what I mean, but the entire concept is interesting and the idea of what it could have been, is probably what kept me reading from start to end with the same amount of enthusiasm.
I'm not giving it 3 stars because the twists and plot were a little too predictable, and because it was a bit boring.
A bonus star, though, goes to the sweet girls-supporting-and-loving-girls subplot.

Soooooo lovely!

jacemchale's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

li0n's review

4.0

Omg, please write a sequel.

unalahiff's review

4.0

Love Sarah Diemer's writing style. This book definitely kept my attention. It was a struggle to put it down at times as the pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Really liked the way the protagonist was written. Definitely recommend giving this a read.

miraeli's review

5.0

Twixt is a moving, beautifully told tale about redemption and whether one can ever truly be beyond hope of said redemption. Diemer has definitely developed and improved her writing since The Dark Wife. Not to say the aforementioned novel is bad, because it certainly isn’t, but there’s a marked difference in how that novel read compared to this one, and it’s all an improvement.

At the core of the story is a mystery, or actually several. Who is the girl who woke up in the snow, covered in blood? Where did she come from? Why can’t she remember her past, even with the help of something to remind her? How does Abeo City operate, what are the creatures who terrorize the City and snatch away its residents, where do they take them?

All of these questions are answered in time, and the way Diemer builds upon the mystery and delivers the answers is especially satisfying. This is due also to the terrific world building in the novel. It’s honestly some of the most creative world building I’ve seen. There are so many layers to Abeo City and its residents and creatures that I’m still thinking about the world a week after I’ve finished the book.

Added to that, Diemer manages to capture a great atmosphere in her writing about Abeo City. There’s always a steady sense of unease present in the text, even when the characters are happy, and the City is incredibly creepy.

Granted, it is a little easy to guess what exactly Abeo City is after a while. But for the most part, Diemer keeps the reader guessing, and the eventual reveal of what the City is and how it came to be more than made up for how obvious it was where the characters are.

If there were any downside to the novel, it’s that the main couple do veer perilously close to insta-love. Diemer, for the most part, avoids it a little by having there be a mutual attraction instead of immediate love. But it does progress at a fast rate, due to the short length of the novel. Still, the relationship was sweet, and I also enjoyed Lottie’s relationships with the rest of the cast, who all get their moments to shine.

This book reminded me of why Diemer is one of my favourite authors, and why I’ll read anything she puts out. She’s just so good, and her stories are always wonderful. Twixt is no different.

See more of my reviews at On The Nightstand!

sarahthornton's review

2.0

This book feels... Unfinished? Unpolished?
It had such potential but it failed to completely fulfil it. The ending was disappointing. It felt a little like reading only the middle book of a trilogy.

reluming's review

3.0

(Find the original review at Jellyfish Reads.)

I was looking forward to reading Twixt since I remember that I read The Dark Wife a couple years ago and enjoyed it, but I think Twixt failed to measure up to the The Dark Wife.

The prose in Twixt is lyrical, but unfortunately I don't think the writing style worked for the story that was being told. I think a sparser style would have helped to build up the atmosphere and tension much better. As such, I think the pace was slowed by the descriptive prose. That's not to say there weren't moments when the lyrical prose was fitting and beautiful, but I felt the narrative was weighed down by the style a lot of the time, making the first half drag on a bit too much.

Nothing much really happens in the first half of the novel. There was a plot twist about 60% in that I saw coming from miles away, so I spent the first half just kind of waiting for the twist to happen. Characters are not particularly well fleshed-out; I think maybe if there was more emphasis on getting to really know the characters in the first half then I wouldn't have been so bored. But I just ended up thinking, "Nothing is happening and I still don't feel like I know the characters at all."

Part of this problem lies actually with the very concept of the novel. People wake up in a place called Twixt with no memories of anything that preceded their awakening. So, naturally, without memories, everyone's sense of personality seems greatly dimmed. They can get pieces of their memories back by taking something called Nox, so there's one scene in which characters briefly talk about what few memories they have, a scene which I really appreciated. But otherwise it was hard for me to see the characters as real people.

I must say that one exception is a character called Isabel, who is sort of the ex-girlfriend of the main character's love interest. She was probably the most interesting character in the entire novel who had a curiously complex personality and hidden depths, but unfortunately that still wasn't very well-explored and I never understood her motivations. She left the deepest impression on me out of all the characters though and I desperately wanted to know more about her.

This problem was compounded by the fact that the main character gets a crush on one of the other characters pretty much as soon as they meet and they fall in love very quickly. For me to really enjoy a good romance in any story, I have to get to know both characters myself and fall in love with them; I have to understand why they're in love with each other. But since characterisation in this novel was somewhat on the weak side, I was annoyed by the insta-love.

The world-building is also confusing. It's hard to really talk about it without spoiling the reveal that comes about two-thirds through the book, so only click if you don't mind being spoiled for that:

The characters who live in Abeo City seem to come from different time periods, though this is never made clear. It's revealed that those who come to Abeo City are dead souls, so one explanation is that these people have died at different times, but then wouldn't the characters themselves have a sense of how much longer they've been here compared to other people? I really wanted the novel to delve into this, because one of the characters, Edgar, seems more old-fashioned than the other characters. He wears a waistcoat and a white collared shirt; the other characters wear hoodies and sneakers and jeans. When talking about his memories, he says that his mother "contracted a coughing sickness". I'm not sure anyone would really say that these days. I would have liked it if the novel had actually tackled this and explained what was going on so I could have a better understanding of the characters and visualise the setting more clearly. I kept expecting an explanation but none came.

Not only this, but I also wanted to understand the theology of the novel. Twixt is revealed to be what humans call purgatory. Snatchers, whom everyone in Abeo City are absolutely terrified of and think of as monsters, are actually good-- they're represented as like angels. There's a church somewhere in the novel as well, but I couldn't figure out what it was really meant to symbolise. I wasn't sure whether the book was really at all religious in any way, but the presence of the church was confusing.

However, having said all that, the book definitely picked up at around 60% after the plot twist. The pace was faster, things were happening, and and the romance was actually written beautifully, once I got over my annoyance of how instantly they fell for each other. I think Diemer is really at her strongest as a writer when she writes about love. I think that's why I enjoyed The Dark Wife so much more, because the love story there takes up more space in the narrative; it's much more central and has a little more time to develop and unfolds wonderfully. I think I got to the know the characters much better too in that one. But yeah, the love story is the best part in Twixt. That's where the lyrical prose really, really shines, and I just melt into the feelings that the two characters have for each other. And it's why this novel still manages to earn three stars from me despite all the problems I had with it.

So overall, I think the premise of this book was cool, but it could have been better executed. The love story is wonderful though. If you haven't read anything by Sarah Diemer and you want to read a nice lesbian love story, I would definitely recommend checking out The Dark Wife first! That was really, really good. Once you've read that, you can decide for yourself whether you want to try Twixt.

adotzam's review

3.0

Not really sure how I feel about this book. I liked it enough to see it all the way to the end, but it was a tad predictable, I didn't really care about the romance, and the characters were two-dimensional. I think this book really could have improved with more length, more detail and world-building, because I just couldn't get a good grasp of the setting of Twixt.