#this was rough

Noah Wyle at The Pitt Season 2 Emmy FYC Event

More videos and photos on my Instagram.

I should have known from my exasperation within the first few chapters that I was not gonna like it. The amount of times Scarlett kept going on about her sister had me rolling my eyes. The author really wanted to drill in how important she was to her, but it was to the point of beating a dead horse for me.

I was sus about Julien since jump, which part of me was glad the FMC showed suspicion towards him in the beginning. Even the lie he told about him and Dante wanting revenge made no sense because how would that explain them tracking down Donatella and Scarlett?? And the romance between the two of them just took me out of it, at a certain point while listening to audio on Libby I was like "Girl, haven't you only known this man for like a week???" And after all of that mess and watching him get murdered right in front of her, she just forgives him at the party??? I would have been livid.

I'm down for a good mystery, but this one was taking so many different turns that I just stopped guessing. I usually don't mind this, especially when a mystery is engaging and thrilling, but this one just had me scratching my head like "where on earth is this going??" The reveal at the end honestly wasn't very satisfying for me. It felt icky that everything Scarlett went through was all a part of the game (and yes, Julien and Donatella both said not all of it was just a game, but you literally died in front of Scarlett back to back???). I'm not even a fan of the FMC, but having her go through that then acting like everything was honky-dory felt so gross.

And Donatella. pissed. me. off. Man she was infuriating. When she was just acting, when she wasn't acting, when it's revealed that she plotted this all out and drugged her sister, and took her to Caraval. If I had to go through all of that just for my sister to say: "I did it for us! Now let's get dressed and go to a partyyyy :D"

Sure, their dad was abusive, and it's great that he left them thinking Tella was dead and Scarlett would ruin him. But shit, her sister is on a whole other type of emotional manipulation!!

I just don't think I can finish this series. And the fact that it was compared to THE NIGHT CIRCUS??!!