Review: Bad Moon Rising

 

This review is based on an eARC provided by the early review platform NetGalley.

This book just confused me so much. As far as writing style it wasn’t necessarily actively bad, but it wasn’t good either. But the plot. I don’t understand it at all. I can’t really explain my issues with it without going into spoilers, so spoilers below.

Okay, first and foremost, WHY WAS THE INCEST PLOTLINE NECESSARY? The dynamic between Gabriel and Lodie was already super creepy because, you know, he was her high school teacher, and then it turns out they’re related?? Why?? It was so icky and I just don’t understand what it contributed to the plot. Honestly I don’t know what most of the decisions in this book contributed to the plot, maybe because the characters weren’t very realized at all. With Gabriel, it felt like the reader was just supposed to magically understand why he was so messed up, but it wasn’t clear at all. And of course with Lodie, the book ends with her somehow magically sending them back in time to be a perfect family, but why? Their father was actively abusive and murderous, and how is that something going back in time fixes? I think it’s a decision that could very much work if the character and her trauma were better fleshed out, but they just weren’t, and the decision felt so arbitrary and sudden. Plus, the magic that allowed her to do it wasn’t explained at all. Why could she do that? Are there costs? Will she and Gabriel remember what happened? There were some attempts at explaining and foreshadowing throughout the book, but they didn’t really do enough to make it make any sense.


Spoilers end.


So in conclusion, it’s not that there isn’t potential here, but this book needed some serious revisions and much more character development to make it into anything solid.

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