Dark Fae by Susanne Valenti & Caroline Peckham
Please, God. It’s me again. I want there to be at least one character in every book I read that is just like principal Greyshine. Greyshine, I would die for you.
Gabriel, baby, you could never make me hate you. “Because you shouldn’t want for anything.” ??? Cue unintelligible screaming. I don’t care what he does, that was real. He’s just a confused weirdo, and I love him anyway. He was my favorite through the entire book. Absolutely unmatched. Elise’s dynamics with the other three feel forced by comparison. Ryder and Leon definitely feel a tad bit more organic than with Dante. Ryder more so than Leon. God, I’m desperate for Ryder to not be our evil king.
Dante bores the hell out of me. Sir down and shut the hell up, pretty boy. The men (Gabriel and Ryder) are working. I know he’s a main character and whatnot, but I am well and truly bored by him. He just doesn’t have the draw or charisma the others have. Even Leon is more likable than Dante, and Leon is yuck. Gabriel obviously likes to keep to himself and puts distance between himself and other people because of his misguided view of the world. Understandable. Leon is happy go lucky and acts as such. He treats women like shit because of his nature or how he was raised or whatever. Not acceptable, but understandable. Ryder is a severely traumatized man who lashes out through rage and hatred because he had any trace of empathy tortured out of him. Every one of the boys behaves in a way that makes sense based on their histories. Except Dante. He comes from a close-knit, loving family. He’s cared for and supported. So… he acts this way because? Because he’s the –checks notes– second? Third most powerful far at the school? I’m just not finding any reason to root for him. Especially when he’s the only one outright abusive to Elise. Sure, Gabriel is mean in his misguided attempt at distance, but he hasn’t actively threatened her with bodily harm the way Dante has. Throwing her out of that window was way beyond the line, and I don’t care what happens, I am firmly against Dante.
WHO THE FUCK IS IT?????
I love when a book can shock me, and while parts of this were obviously predictable, I have no clue what’s going on. My main hope is that our evil king is not one of the boys (unless it’s Dante). With how far Elise has gone with Gabriel and Leon, it would destroy her to find out it was one of them. Ryder or Dante would hurt, but there would be less of that element of self-hatred because she wasn’t genuinely intimate with them. Anyway, the shorter this review is, the quicker I can get on to reading book two, so, I’m done.