Name: Lindsay's review of Black Iris by Leah Raeder
Item: Black Iris
Rating: 5
Author: Lindsay

Leah Raeder

Laney Keating's senior year of high school sucked. It began with one moment of weakness, one stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors started. Slut, they called her. Queer. Pillhead. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mom decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.

Black Iris

Lindsay

Emily Wisnesky

I was going to give this book less stars until I got to like 85 ish percent in, that ending literally changed everything for me. to be very honest, I questioned laney a lot during the book but I do understand her, and I honestly couldn’t get enough of her and blythe <3 very cute ending for them both

The writing was so beautifully poetic and the characters were truly flawed, raw and real

The plotwist had me, I never expected that

I still don't know what I feel, I do relate to Delaney but I also can't connect with her, I don't know why that is, or maybe it's because I can't feel much rn

It is definitely one of my favorite books

Lulu Evensen

It was unlike anything I've read

The writing was so beautifully poetic and the characters were truly flawed, raw and real

The plotwist had me, I never expected that

I still don't know what I feel, I do relate to Delaney but I also can't connect with her, I don't know why that is, or maybe it's because I can't feel much rn

It is definitely one of my favorite books

eunice

to start, i absolutely LOVED the writing. it was so raw and explosive and vivid, idk how else to describe it but that it left me reeling a lot. and the romance? it was fantastically written, i love laney and blythe so much they’re so hot i can’t even begin to properly comprehend LIKE..

however !! i DO want to mention that although this was a fairly quick read, the constant jumping between timelines confused me a lot. and i think that affected my reading experience a bit. don’t get me wrong, it’s not .. THAT confusing, no. but it exhausted me to try and keep up at some point so erm ..

menna

this is about a girl determined to take revenge on everyone who ever wronged her,,, so naturally i loved it.

- this was an absolute mindfuck,,,it left me staring at the wall for several minutes after i finished it because WHAT
- im in AWE of laney's brain to be honest,, the way she orchestrated her plan, the thought going into every little thing. i loved every second of watching it unfold
- the alternating timelines were literally perfect for this.
- another thing i loved was the atomsphere, it was dark and twisty and it suited the themes of this novel PERFECTLY
- also the writing is so freaking beautiful???
- all three main characters are horrible people and are so obviously unreliable narrators you literally cannot believe them about anything EVERYBODY IS LITERALLY MANIPULATING EVERYBODY,, but for some reason i loved their dynamic so much!!
- this had a literal love triangle where all points were involved with each other,, not just two people lusting after one person like in most cases.

if you're planning to read this please check out the trigger warnings if you think you need to. i'll probably forget a lot of them but tw for homophobic bullying, public outing, suicide, drug abuse, cheating and violence

More 

4,5⭐* 
La verdad no puedo expresar el amor que le tengo a este libro; ya de por sí amo la pareja con todo mi corazón,me encanta como la historia es muy realista aún siendo muy cruda pero lamentablemente pasan estas cosas que el autor te narra.
Nuestra protagonista ya en el principio te aclara que no esperes una heroina en la historia y eso es lo que más me gustó del autor porque Elliot aka Leah no trata de que Laney sea un personaje "perfecto" sino uno realista con un millón de defectos a causa de de su bipolaridad y de todas las cosas que le pasó y el hecho de que la mantuvo así fue genial para mí.

Seguramente termine releyendo este libro en todo lo que queda del año y en los siguientes años porque,como ya dije,lo amo bastante y la escritura dios es tan hermosa y poetica

the writing was something..... BUT BUT BUT LANEYBLYTHE ARE SOOO INSANEEE I CAN'T BREATHE WHAT THE FUCKKKJDFUFG

Samantha 

This book was so dark and twisted, and so so so good!!! Throughout the book I had many instances of being like wtf am I reading?

Amy Maddess

DNF a few minutes in to the audiobook. I wish I would have listened to this a few years ago when I read her other book Cam Girl because I would have really liked it when I was younger but it is harder for me to get into a book meant for a teenager now that I am older.

Grace O'Callaghan

Black Iris is about Laney. A girl with a troubled past hoping for a fresh start at college. Enter Blythe and Armin: The fierce girl that is just as prickly as Laney the charming boy that cuts back the thorns but has secrets of his own. When Laney's past comes to the present she will stop at nothing to get her revenge and her best friends are going to be her partners in crime.

I have extremely mixed opinions on this book. I was definitely captivated but rarely am I interested in thrillers so perhaps the bits I liked about it where in spite of it's genre. It's hard to tell. I feel like I might have to reread this one.

Laney is an interesting character. She straight up tells us she's an unreliable narrator and yet I still believed every word she said and was then shocked when she didn't tell us everything. She's definitely an unlikeable main character. She takes drugs and sleeps around a lot and doesn't really help herself at times, but I was still able to sympathise. I like when I root for unlikeable people. I think it does a disservice to just demonise a person's actions as it shows we don't understand that everyone is capable of doing wrong. But by recognising how other people are capable of harm we are able to avoid that ourselves.

Blythe and Armin were also intriguing characters. Blythe more so than Armin. I don't want to talk about their dynamic too much as most of the book is about it. Just know that it's complicated, messy and blurs the lines of friendship and sexual attraction.

You can't say that this book is uneventful. There are so many moments that will make your skin crawl, your eyes pop out of your head and have you bawling in the corner. It has so many highs and lows. However, I personally found some of it so dramatic that it made it feel a little ridiculous and I don't think that's what this book was aiming for. I just couldn't take it seriously sometimes.

The writing is probably the thing that I have the most complicated feelings about. On the one hand I thought there were some great lines that felt like they encapsulated emotions and life perfectly. But on the other, some of it felt quite cheesy, over the top and pretentious. There are some very heavy and serious moments in this book that are impactful. However some of it felt undercut by the writing which was trying to be groundbreaking and meaningful that it just felt forced. I think listening to the audiobook didn't help matters so I may try to physically read it as everyone seems to love this book.

Mental illness is something that is more often romanticised these days and while this book has romantic elements, it doesn't glamorise it in my opinion. We see the characters in awful situations at complete lows that while described beautifully are not something that ever felt desirable.

All in all, if you want something that will make you feel something, pick this up. I am still not sure where I stand with this book, I need to reread it to make up my mind fully. I think if I were to give thrillers another go, this kind emotional revenge story seems to be the kind of thriller I'd more likely to be into.

Olivera Mitić

Genesis (@whisperingchapters)

This review can be found on Latte Nights Reviews

A dark and twisted tale of an anti-heroine who will seduce you, lure you in and scare you.

I had no idea what I was going to read. All I knew was that the blurb definitely got me hooked and Natasha from Book Baristas kept saying the book was amazing and everyone had to read it.

This story is so twisted like you cannot begin to imagine! For the first time in my life, I enjoy a story that openly talks about lesbianism and bisexuality. Our heroine, or shall I say, anti-heroine of the story is not one you usually tend to like. Laney has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which means she is a very mentally and emotionally unstable human being. She is a character who has "manipulating" as second nature.

I am not the heroine of this story... I'm diagnosed borderline and seriously fucked-up. I hold grudges. I bottle my hate until it ferments into poison, and then I get high off the fumes.

Her past is not one you want to have. Her parents are very dysfunctional. Laney didn't even have friends in high school, especially after a scandal video made it's way into the hands of her classmates. If she used to be an outcast, she was the dust beneath your shoes after that video. One night she meets an interesting pair: Armin, a guy who treats her as if she were a psychiatric client but can't help loving her. And she meets Blythe, an intoxicating woman that Laney cannot stop thinking about. They make her feel so energetic and alive. You would think that being them will help her find redemption and save her... In the end, she is not the only one who needs saving. 

This book was a major mind-fuck, the kind that I love to read. I love stories that give me a headache, trying to figure out what is going to happen, only to receive a major slap in the face at the end. It is filled with flawed characters and plot twists that you will never see coming.

Leah Raeder is an author that has a beautiful writing. Her writing is intricate, poetic, lyrical, at times metaphorical... All of these laced together can bring a very imaginative and compelling story that will leave readers excited and impatient for more.

Lindsay &
Black Iris by Leah Raeder

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