Book trigger warnings: Sexual assault, domestic violence, rape and murder. Also, an animal does end up dying, which is usually a big one for me, but it wasn’t explained in depth.
Hey guys! I know it’s been a long time since my last official blog post. I’m going to try to start posting more regularly again starting this month. I also am going to be adjusting how I review books. Instead of giving a summary, I’m going to review it based on five criteria—plot, structure, characters, spice, and feelings. The plot will review the overall plot of the story. The structure will involve the pacing and format of the book. Characters will be how real the characters feel, along with how much I enjoyed and felt connected with them. Spice is how many “adult spicy times” are in the book. Note that the spice rating will not affect the overall score since I have read a lot of books that don’t have spice. The next criterion is feelings, which will be rated based on how emotionally invested I was in the story. Then, we will finish off with overall thoughts. This way more people can enjoy the blog, and It will contain barely any plot and story spoilers. I will still give a warning when spoilers are coming up if they do. Now, onto the first review in my new structure.
A few months ago, I signed up with Bookfluencers, which, for those who don’t know, is a website that puts you in contact with authors looking for people to review their books. I was super excited to get started, and the first book I was selected to review was Underneath the Fireflies by Marine Scott. So, without further ado, let’s get into the review.
Plot: 5/5
I gave the plot for this book a five out of five. I really loved the whole idea of this girl having these powers and being an indirect witness to terrible things but then having to come up with actual evidence to prove her case. The book gave me That’s So Raven vibes. Not sure if anyone else here has watched that, but I really liked that whole concept a lot. I also enjoyed how the character had to grow with these abilities. She had her opinion on them change a lot throughout the story, which I think adds a lot to the overall plot and her character. I also feel like the symbolism in this book is done very well. There are a few little easter eggs that you will pick on throughout the story. I always think a book is more interesting if they have those, and you, as the reader, need to be able to find them.
Structure: 2/5
The structure of the book was where I struggled the most. I just want to add the disclaimer that mysteries and thrillers are not usually a genre I read, so all of these might just be me not knowing what I’m talking about. The first issue that I had was the lack of chapters; instead of chapters, like most books that I have read, this book had names, or a sentence, as a kind of chapter, but nothing was ever numbered. Personally, I like to keep track of the number of chapters that I have read, and usually, having an actual number in the chapter helps me with that. It also felt a little weird for me because it almost gave away parts of each chapter itself. If you also have the book in paperback, there are large chunks of pages that are not used because of these chapters. The second thing I struggled with was all of the intro-type “world-building.” This book is about our modern world, and for that reason, I felt I shouldn’t have been as lost as I was in the beginning. It wasn’t until I was about a third of the way through that I felt confident in my understanding of what was going on. It also didn’t help that this book changes povs a lot, but even in the characters’ minds, they are very vague with how they think about things. This made it harder for me to grasp what was happening in the beginning.
Characters: ⅗
I would give the main character, Grace, five stars! I think it’s a character. She grew so much in the story, and seeing that was so encouraging, she felt alive and real. However, I did not feel the same way about other characters in this book, which is why I ultimately gave this section 3 out of five stars. With all the different pov’s changing, I had a very hard time connecting with anyone other than Grace, and we didn’t get much backstory on anyone else, which made it harder to connect. The other characters, to me, feel a little one-dimensional, as if they were only there for Grace instead of being their own people.
Spice: 0 chillies
As far as the spice goes, there was none in this book. It definitely seemed a bit more young adult, which I honestly think was kind of good for the story. The story handles a lot of really heavy topics, and I think if there were any sort of spice, it would’ve taken away from some of these harder subject matters. The spice does not affect the overall rating of this book at all because I don’t feel the spice is needed to have a great story. I would just like to add this in case people are looking for something a little hotter.
Feelings: 5/5
The feelings get an easy five out of five for me. Just mentioned previously, this book handles a lot of hard topics, and I felt that this book handles them in such a respectful way. Some of the characters go through some very difficult things, and the trigger warning I would give include, Sexual assault, domestic violence, rape, and murder. Also, an animal does end up dying, which is normally a big one for me, but it wasn’t explained in depth. So, if any of those things are triggering for you, I would definitely skip this book. However, if that doesn’t bother you in books, then I definitely think you should check this out. The character dealing with these hard things really handled them in a real way, and it really just made the whole story so much better for me. Also, when I found out what the title of the book means, my jaw dropped!
Overall ⅘
Overall, I give this book 4 out of five stars. I was so glad that I got the opportunity to be selected to review this book, and I really did enjoy the story of a whole! If you are a mystery, thriller, or supernatural type of fan, I highly recommend that you check out this book! If you have heard this book or are more used to mystery books, what did you guys think of this question did the lack of tractors bother you, and how did you feel about the characters other than the main character? I’d love to hear what you guys think!
