Cover Image: Strange Deaths of the Last Romantic

Strange Deaths of the Last Romantic

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Member Reviews

I REALLY REALLY WISH I COULD BE NICE BUT....

This wasn’t good. It really wasn’t. The entire time I felt as if this book was satire, as if the publisher lost a bet and was forced to publish this book. Sometimes it hurts to read bad books and this hurt. THIS IS ALSO WHY I WOULDN'T REVIEW IT....

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Unfortunately I did not care for this book. It was interesting at times but overall not for me :( it was hard to follow and I did not prefer the writing style.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

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Nope. Sorry. Not for me.

This was such a weird one. Cool premise, but the pretentious writing was a pass for me.

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Strange Deaths of the Last Romantic follows Adam, or Aristotle, as he discovers that no matter how many times he dies, he will always reappear, unharmed by death, somewhere else. And, with so many people following him, he never remains in one area for long until he meets a girl. This novel's concept appealed to me. There might have been so much to discover, so many lives of Adam that the reader could have witnessed but would only remember in flashes. It's the type of novel that could've been fantastic. However, it wasn't a book for me. I am confident in the author's ability to create something spectacular. I just think he took on too much at once. They admit that they don't feel compelled to stick to a single genre. Even if you don't choose a genre, there is a structure to it. I'm looking forward to reading more of their work in the future and seeing how they develop. This had a lot of potential.

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An interesting concept, but poorly executed. I really wanted to like this book, but from the very first page, the writing is clunky. There are some really serious passive voice and tense issues. I also thought the chapters jumped too quickly, especially in the beginning of the book. These were all craft issues that threw me out of the story. In addition, I don't think that the world was built very well in that I didn't believe what was happening at all

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Oh.... oh no... I got a Netgalley ARC and this was possibly the most unrelatable book I've tried to read this year. I couldn't wrap my head around any of it to get the a point of enjoyment. It was all just so.... exhausting. Sorry, definitely not for me.

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This was an interesting book. Adam is cursed. He can't die. He has people out to try and steal his powers. He has finally found someone who makes his life worth living, but can he save himself from those out to get him so he can live that happy life?

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Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

While working on this review, I was trying to come up with the nicest way possible to put my words together.

This book was quite strange and that’s putting it mildly. There was little suspense, some sciencey type fiction and a touch of romance. I think the idea was right, but just not crazy about the way it was carried out.

It’s rare that I ever give a book less than 3 stars, but I just can’t give it anymore than 2!

This book deals with suicide which I think is a really touchy subject and needs to be handled with care.

The Goodreads synopsis notes that “Adam discovers that immortality comes at a cost; every time he dies, he loses a little bit of himself”. At one point, Adam is forced to choose between life and love.

I’ve seen some reviews call this a thriller and I don’t think I would necessarily classify it as that.

I wish I had better feedback for this one, but this is my truest and most honest review.

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DNF 40%
I honestly don't care what happens after this. This scene made me so physically ill that this book can not be redeemed.
The scene that caused me to quit is the main character committing suicide right next to the sex worker he spent an intimate night with.
I should have turned back when I first began to doubt this book.

WORSE YET! It is marked as YOUNG ADULT.
This is trash no ifs, ands, or buts.

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The premise and the cover is what intrigued me to this book but unfortunately, this book just turned out not for me. I felt the writing was quite pretentious and disliked it. An amazing idea and to me, poorly executed.

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This was one of the worst book I read that had major plot holes, bad writing that managed to be pretentious at the same time, unlikeable characters that were beyond redemption. Also a fair bit of sexism and misogyni and awful portryal of sex workers. I can't think of a single good thing to say about it

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Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

"The first time I committed suicide I was ten years old.

There have been many more suicides since."

Adam is cursed. He cannot die.

But one man’s burden is another man’s blessing, and there are people who are out to harness Adam’s special talents.

However, Adam soon discovers that immortality comes at a cost; every time he dies, he loses a little bit of himself. So when Adam meets Lilyanne—his reason for living—he’s forced to choose between life and love.

I found this novel to be very strange yet unique. It had multiple genres a little bit of suspense, a little bit of science fiction and a little bit of romance. I was very interested right from the start, and found the novel quite intriguing.

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Really liked the idea of this book and the cover, but unfortunately I could not get into the style of writing and all became a bit predictable and messy.

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Trigger Warnings: Suicide, glorification of suicide, death of a parent, murder, child abuse, references to drug use, animal death

Adam cannot die.

Whenever he tries, he wakes up in a new place with only the memory of his name. Any other memories are fleeting and usually lost when he dies again. Adam believes himself alone and unique but he is not. There are more like him and there are those who want to be like him. And they will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.

My many thanks to NetGalley for approving my request for this book. I generally do not regret my decision to request an ARC but I deeply regret this one.

I will be honest dear reader, Strange Deaths of the Last Romantic is not a good book. There were times that as I was reading it I was amazed it had even made it to publication. There is fanfiction on A03, fanfiction.net, or even WattPad that is better written and with characters infinitely more likable.

The basic plot surrounding Strange Deaths... is, I admit, an intriguing one. The opening scene is quite strong and really draws you in but just as quickly descends into ridiculousness. The plot holes are numerous and many of them could have easily been fixed with some kind of real editing work. Problems and conflicts are solved with little more than a waved hand and are often never mentioned again.

The writing for Strange Deaths is something I could go on about at length simply because it is so bad. Clunky prose and stilted conversations abound. The manner in which Adam describes Lilyanne (or any female character honestly) reminds me very much of the examples from Reddit's 'menwritingwomen' board highlighting what NOT to do. At times I wondered if Mikheyev actually pulled ideas from there.

Unfortunately, the characters that populate Strange Deaths aren't much better. Adam (or Aristotle) comes to romanticize his suicides. He spends paragraphs admiring the gun he carries and even admits to finding killing himself addicting. His viewpoints on women - along with every other male character - are quite misogynistic. The few female characters falling into either the "goddess" or "whore" trope with no in-between. The women are very one-dimensional and almost everyone practically falls all over Adam soon after meeting him.

As I said above, Strange Deaths is not a good book. Clunky and awkward writing, plot holes the size of the Titanic, strange and abrupt shifts in narrator, and deeply unlikeable characters make this an eye-rolling read. It is not often that I advise my readers to stay away and NOT read a particular book. This is one of the few times I make an exception. Head on over to fanfiction.net or A03, I know without a doubt you will find something better there.

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I just wasn't able to get into this one. I picked up a lot of underlying misogyny in the way the MC (a really unlikable one btw) talked about women, Just couldn't be bothered to force myself to continue past 15%.

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This is without doubt one of the more unique book ideas I've heard of, unfortunately the execution wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I'm reticent to create a list of reasons why this didn't work for me when so many others already have, however I think it's crucial to know going into this is that there is an abundance of trigger warnings including the glorification of suicide.

The plot is somewhat convoluted and there are many plot holes, underdeveloped characters and arcs. I think the focal point on this is the 'edgy writing style' but for me it lacked the substance to back anything up.

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I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Um.... well... the summary of this book sounded a lot better than the execution in my opinion. There were a lot of plot holes. The structure was not my favorite. The topic of women in this book was poorly handled. Why the fuck are we killing dogs?
I wouldn't really recommend this book unfortunately.

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There is so much BS happening in this tiny book. Ughhhhhhhhhhh! How do I know that without reading this book? Cuz I read reviews on GoodReads. Duh! Anyway, after reading one long ass review I knew I was lucky enough to not read this book. Phew! What can I say I was young and made a mistake of requesting it.

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I didn’t like it. It’s an odd story. The first chapter completely ruined it for me. I didn’t enjoy it at all.

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