Laura Pohl

At Grimrose Académie, the fairy-tale deaths continue. And unless the curse is broken, one of the girls could be next. Nani, Yuki, Ella, and Rory have discovered the truth about the curse that's left a trail of dead bodies at Grimrose. But the four still know nothing of its origins, or how to stop the cycle of doomed fates. And each girl harbors her own secret. One is learning why she was brought to the school. One struggles to keep her new and deadly power under control. One knows exactly how much time she has left. And one, trying to escape her dark destiny, will come even closer to fulfilling it. Can the girls change their own stories and break the curse? Or must one of them die to end it forever?

The Wicked Remain

Kimmy Hobden

Pippa sighed impatiently. “I’m in love with you, you complete moron.” 

The silence echoed in the room as Pippa stared at her, waiting for Rory to say something. The words hit her like an arrow, and Rory didn’t know how to respond. So she did the only thing she could. Rory grabbed Pippa’s face and kissed her. It was a messy kiss, her face smashed against Pippa’s, her lips thirsty and demanding. There was a moment of stillness, and then Pippa responded in kind, her hands pulling against Rory’s waist, pressing her closer, devouring. Rory turned her head and parted Pippa’s mouth open, and it was exactly like how they always fought, where each move could save her or doom her, but maybe it was going to be both at once.

She didn’t know what she wanted. That had always been the problem...Then she wanted comfort, which she found in books because her family had been too hard. And then the books had offered her adventures and a place where she wanted to belong, a place that was real and true, and where Nani could find her home. 

And even that wish seemed too unattainable.

Rage at the injustice of it all, at how much was asked of her every single day, at how much had been taken from her without her consent.

“Maybe when I leave there’ll even be a day when I don’t hear her voice in my head before I hear mine.” 

Rory, opposite Nani, was wearing combat boots, ripped black jeans, a backwards black hat, and a pink sweatshirt with the words WOMEN WANT ME, FISH FEAR ME.

Rory had texted Pippa because it was the only number she knew, the only number she'd clicked on her phone more than a hundred times. It was seared into the back of her eyes. She could recite it in her sleep, knocked unconscious, her lips forming the numbers that led her to the other end, that led her to Pippa.

“If you’re going to commit crimes, might as well make them big.” 

"Nani Eszes," Svenja said with a sigh before leaning to kiss her again, “you'll be the death of me."

Ellie M.

Took me quite a long time to finish this and I honestly just wanted it to be over. It makes me feel old to say this, but I felt truly disappointed that the curse wasn’t even laid out and they just “broke” it with the power of friendship. The curse was intricately woven, as mentioned multiple times, but it was never thoroughly justified. I hoped it could’ve been more well written as the story revolved around the books and yuki, but it just made this sequel fall flat because it was all over the place. I had expected so much but “friendship” apparently was the only answer ://

Pacing: this book was so lopsided. There is absolutely nothing happening for the first 2/3 of the book, and when, in the final 1/3 mind you, there finally is action, it makes absolutely no sense. The curse made no sense. And while it could be argued that the first 2/3 were meant to be character driven, the point of character driven arcs is to have some form of character development. There was none to be found. The curse didn't feel very urgent considering 4 months pass within the first 2 sections of the book, and then we're led to believe everything else happens within 2 weeks max?? No.

The curse isn't well explained, and also how/why it was broken was confusing as well. Also,Where was all the magic before? We've seen absolutely no sign of magic outside of Yuki, and now we're to believe that all the teachers and the headmistress have been witches all along?

The character arcs in this book were okay with the exception of Yuki and Ella, though the latter less so. Suddenly Yuki has turned into Bad 

 Snow White and is on a villain arc, but she showed no signs of this thinking in the first book and it just came out of nowhere. Also her obsession with Ella? Where was that in the first book? Also Ella suddenly being in love with Yuki?? This came out of nowhere to me as well, and kind of undermined the friendship conquering all message. I just absolutely hated pretty much everyone. No one was interesting, no one was compelling really, and overall it felt hasty. 

The villains felt like the author tried to subvert the evil stepmother trope, and then, when she realized that there would be no villain, shoehorned the villains in with no foreshadowing in the slightest. 

The more I write the angrier I get. I thought the first one was just okay, but this one just did not do it for me.

Holly

Some things this book did well:
-representation
-Anxiety rep
Things this book did not do well:
-literally everything else
Pacing: this book was so lopsided. There is absolutely nothing happening for the first 2/3 of the book, and when, in the final 1/3 mind you, there finally is action, it makes absolutely no sense. The curse made no sense. And while it could be argued that the first 2/3 were meant to be character driven, the point of character driven arcs is to have some form of character development. There was none to be found. The curse didn't feel very urgent considering 4 months pass within the first 2 sections of the book, and then we're led to believe everything else happens within 2 weeks max?? No.

The curse isn't well explained, and also how/why it was broken was confusing as well. Also,Where was all the magic before? We've seen absolutely no sign of magic outside of Yuki, and now we're to believe that all the teachers and the headmistress have been witches all along?

The character arcs in this book were okay with the exception of Yuki and Ella, though the latter less so. Suddenly Yuki has turned into Bad Cinderella Snow White and is on a villain arc, but she showed no signs of this thinking in the first book and it just came out of nowhere. Also her obsession with Ella? Where was that in the first book? Also Ella suddenly being in love with Yuki?? This came out of nowhere to me as well, and kind of undermined the friendship conquering all message. I just absolutely hated pretty much everyone. No one was interesting, no one was compelling really, and overall it felt hasty. 

The villains felt like the author tried to subvert the evil stepmother trope, and then, when she realized that there would be no villain, shoehorned the villains in with no foreshadowing in the slightest. 

The more I write the angrier I get. I thought the first one was just okay, but this one just did not do it for me.

grace richards

3.5,, rory was channeling her inner me when she said “i’m going to be honest i didn’t understand one third of what was going on”

marilynn

laura put her all into making me cry istfg. platonic relationships are something so important to me i cried so much literally sobbing

the plot felt very centric compared to the first book thank god we were more focused on it while still able to balance good character development.

nothing im saying is making sense so im gonna stop here and just tell you to read it

The Wicked Remain

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