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Good ideas, executed very badly
overall
Some good ideas, but all executed very badly. The writing in this is not good. The way in which Agnes wrote her emails in the first story for example bothered me. No one writes out dialogue in an email, you just retell the events, so it really took me out of the story when she did this. I also don't like it when authors use animal cruelty that doesn't need to happen for the plot. It just feels like you want to shock the reader but you don't know how else to do it. I don't recommend this, but if you do want to read it for some reason, check out the trigger warnings first!
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke: 3/5
Very underwhelming and doesn't really live up to the hype in my opinion. The end was very abrupt (I felt like Zoe not answering anymore was kind of a cheap way to make Agnes get to the point of no return), but I did kind of like it. It all went from 0 to 100 extremely fast and I don't really know if I believe that someone would do the things Agnes did just because some random person you've never actually seen or spoken to in real life tells you to do them. Definitely the best story in the book though.
The Enchantment: 1.5/5
God (pun intended), this was so bad. I hated this story. I know literally everyone on here has already said it, but I'll still repeat it: how would it even be possible to nail yourself to a crucifix? I also felt like this part of the story doesn't really need to be there? Of course it's important to the rest of the story that their son died, but we don't really need to have the whole scene to understand the trauma of losing your child. The story - again - goes from there to the actual plot very abruptly. At the start, I thought we would go into how Olive and James were forcing themselves to stay together while the marriage is clearly not going to work because that was their son's wish, but sadly, we didn't really get any of that. Instead we get some weird ass hot angel seducing Olive, possibly knocking her up (it's still not clear to me if that's what happened or if it really was a miracle), taking the child away again and finally giving some explanation that didn't really do a lot as to why this all happened. Did I already mention I absolutely hate the 'it was all a dream' trope? This felt like the author wanted to make a more messed up The Shining, but they did not succeed at all. Good idea, but very poor execution.
You'll Find It's Like That All Over: 2/5
This one felt like it's the first draft you write at 3 a.m. that definitely needs another look in the morning. Again, everything went so fast and we didn't really get a lot of psychological depth or motivation from the characters. The MC doesn't seem to like his husband very much, but apart from the fact that he's racist, we don't get a look at why he feels this way or what changed between when they got married and now. The premise is interesting, although not very original. It kind of felt to me like the author needed a third story to be able to publish this book and quickly wrote this 10 minutes before the meeting took place.
Some good ideas, but all executed very badly. The writing in this is not good. The way in which Agnes wrote her emails in the first story for example bothered me. No one writes out dialogue in an email, you just retell the events, so it really took me out of the story when she did this. I also don't like it when authors use animal cruelty that doesn't need to happen for the plot. It just feels like you want to shock the reader but you don't know how else to do it. I don't recommend this, but if you do want to read it for some reason, check out the trigger warnings first!
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke: 3/5
Very underwhelming and doesn't really live up to the hype in my opinion. The end was very abrupt (I felt like Zoe not answering anymore was kind of a cheap way to make Agnes get to the point of no return), but I did kind of like it. It all went from 0 to 100 extremely fast and I don't really know if I believe that someone would do the things Agnes did just because some random person you've never actually seen or spoken to in real life tells you to do them. Definitely the best story in the book though.
The Enchantment: 1.5/5
God (pun intended), this was so bad. I hated this story. I know literally everyone on here has already said it, but I'll still repeat it: how would it even be possible to nail yourself to a crucifix? I also felt like this part of the story doesn't really need to be there? Of course it's important to the rest of the story that their son died, but we don't really need to have the whole scene to understand the trauma of losing your child. The story - again - goes from there to the actual plot very abruptly. At the start, I thought we would go into how Olive and James were forcing themselves to stay together while the marriage is clearly not going to work because that was their son's wish, but sadly, we didn't really get any of that. Instead we get some weird ass hot angel seducing Olive, possibly knocking her up (it's still not clear to me if that's what happened or if it really was a miracle), taking the child away again and finally giving some explanation that didn't really do a lot as to why this all happened. Did I already mention I absolutely hate the 'it was all a dream' trope? This felt like the author wanted to make a more messed up The Shining, but they did not succeed at all. Good idea, but very poor execution.
You'll Find It's Like That All Over: 2/5
This one felt like it's the first draft you write at 3 a.m. that definitely needs another look in the morning. Again, everything went so fast and we didn't really get a lot of psychological depth or motivation from the characters. The MC doesn't seem to like his husband very much, but apart from the fact that he's racist, we don't get a look at why he feels this way or what changed between when they got married and now. The premise is interesting, although not very original. It kind of felt to me like the author needed a third story to be able to publish this book and quickly wrote this 10 minutes before the meeting took place.
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