Lakesedge follows Violeta (Leta) as she and her brother, Arien, are spirited away by a monster. The monster in question is Rowan Sylvanan who, according to literally everyone, killed his entire family. But Rowan needs Arien's help, and Leta can't leave her brother in the hands of a monster.
If I said monster too much, that's because Leta says it far too many times, but then Rowan gives her some dresses, and suddenly he's attractive? I just, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not like Leta. She was constantly grating on me with her insistent need to save everyone, but then not being very good at that at all. I mean I understand characters are supposed to go through stuff and mess up (especially YA characters), but after a while it just got excessive, and I was like "again?" Additionally, Clipstone tried hard to have representation in her supporting characters, but they were all so flat that representation felt like someone just trying to tick boxes.
I wanted to like this supposed gothic novel, but it wasn't very gothic and I just couldn't like Leta. Unfortunately, this was not for me.
If I said monster too much, that's because Leta says it far too many times, but then Rowan gives her some dresses, and suddenly he's attractive? I just, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not like Leta. She was constantly grating on me with her insistent need to save everyone, but then not being very good at that at all. I mean I understand characters are supposed to go through stuff and mess up (especially YA characters), but after a while it just got excessive, and I was like "again?" Additionally, Clipstone tried hard to have representation in her supporting characters, but they were all so flat that representation felt like someone just trying to tick boxes.
I wanted to like this supposed gothic novel, but it wasn't very gothic and I just couldn't like Leta. Unfortunately, this was not for me.