12.05.26
I liked the refreshingly fun, irreverent tone and vivid worldbuilding. I didn't like the inevitable power-imbalanced, male-possessive romance, the narrative inconsistencies or the main couple being the only characters with character, and not particularly likable ones at that. But a refreshingly fun, irreverent tone and vivid worldbuilding counts for a lot.
31.03.23
This could have been cringingly cliched. It was slow, so slow - creating more impatience than psychological tension - and the characters didn't behave like real people, and the introspection about storytelling was rather too meta, but the strong world building, clear sense of place and the fact that there was never any question that supernatural forces were at work made it feel like a surprisingly fresh take on gothic / horror / folklore.
