Okay, but Alison Ames’ To Break A Covenant is literally a Minotaur in the Labyrinth story from the perspective of the sacrifices. The mine is a labyrinth luring people in, chewing them up in minotaur teeth and spitting out the pieces. Also it’s explicitly queer, which definitely improves on the basic framework a whole lot.
Overall Rating: 2.8/10 melons 🍈🍈🍈(3 melon emojis due to how do I express .8 in melon form? Ideas welcome)
Story Concept: Over, I thought that the concept to this book was strong. Haunted mining town, group of girls, and a mystery? Sounds pretty good! I, in my personal life and literary choices, love haunted things. However, as I will get into in the other sections of the review, thought that it fell short. For this section I am going to rate the story concept a 4/5.
World Building: Here is where I think things started to go down. The world building started strong with descriptors of the old mining town but as I continued to read I realized it was quite minimal. I wanted more. We were kind of given a basic overview of the town and then a few places in the new town. I wanted more spooks, more details about the history of the mine, more information on the families within the old town and how they were effected. There were just certain parts that I wish we spent more time going over. I want to compare it to a sitcom set where there are, like, 2 or 3 places we always see. What else is out there?? For this section, I'm giving it a 2/5.
Writing: I am very iffy on this section. Overall, the language used within the book is really good. The descriptions of some of the events, specifically the ones involving gore or the supernatural, were fantastic! Evocative words that really helped paint a picture in the mind. Then other things fell flat. I thought the pacing was simultaneously too fast and too slow. We spent too much time going over one thing and not enough over others. I had a lot of gripes with the writing. For one, I can't really place when this story is taking place and how long it spans. Sure, a story does not have to outright say it or anything but I think it would have added to the world building. There were various pop culture references from when I was a high schooler, which was not all too long ago, but they felt almost cringe-y and like they were references for a younger audience. Which, it is a young adult novel, but it just seemed off. There were also some portions of the story that were "clips" (parts of fake dialogue) from fictional paranormal/ghost hunting shows. On one hand, I love this use of conveying information. On the other hand, I felt like they didn't add much. I think they were suppose to add some suspense or exposition. They were just missing something. Also, not going to lie, I have absolutely no idea how to take the ending. There are a few ways for me to theorize what happened but I'm very much like "eh" about the whole thing. 3/5 for this section.
Characters: Characters were also an overall let down for me. They had some good bones but needed more meat. I know not all books can be hundreds of pages of detail and history but I think characters should be well developed. The main 4 characters seem more like pre-teen Original Character's with 2 main quirks that never really get explained or have much use. I did not feel very attached to any character. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how old the characters were. At some points I thought they were, like, 13. Other times I know they were at the very least driving age. Overall, to me, the characters were pretty forgettable. 2/5.
Aesthetic: So, first off, the cover. The cover is sooooo pretty. I love a good cover, I do sometimes pick books off of their covers and I can't remember if this was the case for this book. Now, the aesthetic within the book. Similar to the first section, it had some good structure and things that generally get me interested. But I just think the ideas were not utilized fully or thought through fully. That sounds kind of harsh but to me it just seemed like the entire book was created based off of a handful of cool sounding things and it was left at that. A 3/5, could have been better.
watching the s2 trailers i'm just so loving the 1790s glimpses so far. it could be totally misleading, but i kind of get the sense that (for now, in these clips), armand is kind of painting a picture of how initially(?) lestat impressed him as a sexy badass when he came into his life? bc these memories, sir. damn.
which is a hilarious contrast to a season of louis's condemnation of him mostly as a manipulative, insensitive, selfish partner who was a crap mentor and a terrible parent, who nonetheless had a compelling "way about him" (and a vampire bond). (BUT! ofc if we read between the lines it's clear these aren't louis's only feelings on the matter. just the framing he currently has for daniel.)
i'm really curious whether louis or armand (both?) is portraying lestat looking glamorous and villainous at the trial:
and not to break your dash, but of course claudia's recounting of him that we're allowed to know is mostly lestat as anywhere from a negligent to cold to monstrous maker/uncle/brother/tormentor.
This is my first demetri imagine. english isn't my first language so it might not be the best thing you have read but
Y/n POV
I was walking around the castle. The kings have been alerted that I was Demetris mate and human after he found me. They came to an agreement that I could remain human for a limited amount of time since it wasn’t the best time to change me. I can still remember the day we met quite clearly.
flashback
I was shivering in the cold, it had started snowing. I had stupidly forgot to check the weather app. It is a well known fact that Sweden had unpredictable weather especially this early in the spring. One day it can be snowing or be sunny with no clouds in the sky. This morning the weather was sunny so I stupidly assumed that the weather would be good for the rest of the day. I was wrong since the temperature dropped to just a few degrees celsius above zero.
I was walking fast, taking a shortcut this cloudy and snowy day hoping that I won't get hypothermia before I reached my apartment. I was so lost in my thoughts that I suddenly bumped into someone hard chest.
"I am so sorry that i bumped into you, I was di-."
When I looked into his eyes I suddenly couldn't speak. I was struck by his beauty and felt a sudden attraction and my heart started thumping faster, I couldn't look away from his eyes. I forgot entirely that my clothes were getting wet since I didn't move when after I fell to the ground. His face held a suprised expression but also a glimse of curiousity. It was like we both forgot our surroundings and we were the only people in this world.
He was the first to snap out of it. Seeing me on the ground he offered me his hand to help me up.
"I am sorry it was my fault, are you okay miss?" he said inquiring me about my name.
"Y/N, Y/N L/N is my name" I said as I took his hand, he helped me back on my feet.
"My name is Demetri Volturi. it's nice to meet you" he bowed as he introduced himself giving me a charming smile. before looking me up and down in concern. " You are shivering. are you okay miss Y/N"
Not wanting to worry him I said I was fine. I was on my way home. He offered me his coat.
"You don't have to. I am fine really"
"I insist. You need the coat more than me. trust me" he said with a genuine smile.
"thank you" I gave him a smile, taking the coat he offered, hesitantly.I felt much better wearing the coat.
" These streets are generally unsafe, I would be honored to accompany you on your way home to assure you making it home safely."
I thought about it looking at him to see if he looked suspicious. Normally I would say no but something told me I could trust him so I answered him with a nod. And then we were on our way to my house.
He walked with me the entire way to my house. We were having a delightful conversation, learning some things about one another. He was Italian and was on a business trip and visiting his cousins that lived in the city, but too soon for my liking we got to my house and it was time to say our goodbyes.
"Thank you for walking me home, see you around?" I told him with a smile, wishing the distance to my house was much longer so we didn't have to finish the conversation since the probability that we would meet again is slim.
"I will see you around. I have some business to attend to before going backn to Italy, I hope we can have more conversations like this sometime"
This was a start of a beautiful relationship
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A/N
How was my portrayal of Demetri? Leave your thoughts in my inbox or in the comment section. Do you want a part 2 but with Demetri’s experience of the event or a similar imagine but with another character. My inbox is open to requests. It might take time to make these imagines since I am taking courses and are generally very busy. Another Demetri imagine is on its way.