Elle's Reviews > Belladonna

Now available!!
Published Aug 30, 2022

I have never seen a book so epically blow a 3-1 lead like Belladonna did. (look, a sports reference) That opening scene was killer, and even the story set-up afterwards was intriguing. I was enthusiastically exchanging theories with my reading buddy up until around a third of the way through, but either the pacing shifted or finally caught up with me, because I had to all but drag myself through the back half of this book.

The absolute biggest miss for me were the scenes where Signa was learning about and trying to navigate “society”. God were they boring; I could not bring myself to care about a single moment devoted to that weak-ass plot line. I’m not sure if it’s the Bridgerton effect, but there’s absolutely no need to shoehorn a young woman’s ~societal debut~ into a story about vengeful ghosts and murder conspiracies. How did Adalyn Grace expect anyone to give two shits about the implications of refusing an invitation to tea when we *just found out* that (view spoiler)[someone was intentionally poisoning Blythe (hide spoiler)]. Belladonna has a focus problem—where the things that felt the most pressing, like issues of life and death, had to take a backseat to the frivolous and tedious aspects of aristocratic posturing.

I also couldn’t fully conceptualize ‘Death’ based on the description provided by Grace. Is he a ghost? How are they (view spoiler)[kissing or having sex (hide spoiler)] if his face is literally obscured the entire time? Logistically, I have many questions, but his character never felt fully real to me either. There was a bit of Luc from Addie LaRue in his demeanor and presentation, though that character had motivations, his powers and reach were clearly defined, etc. But with Death, I still don’t understand what ‘he’…..is.

The actual ghosts were the best part and more interesting than most of the characters, despite rarely getting to speak, and I wish we didn’t keep getting dragged from them back to the boring humans. There’s certain tropes that I would expect in a gothic novel, and foreshadowing in general is frequently utilized, but there was not one twist that you couldn’t spot a mile away, which erased all of the uncertainty, all of the tension. I kept hoping my assumptions were wrong because of how unremarkable they’d make the story, but I was, sadly, correct. What a bummer.

And do not get me started on that attempt at a cliffhanger/twist in the epilogue. I am not falling for that again!!!! I have already seen Signa try to solve a murder mystery once and was NOT impressed.



I usually do more of a set-up for what a book is about, but I was too annoyed by how this one played out to attempt it here. Basically all you need to know is that this book was heavy on vibes, missing plot in the middle and probably best enjoyed not thinking too hard about anything presented.


*Thanks so much to Little, Brown For Young Readers for an advance review copy!

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