Gothikana

The speaker is discussing their opinion on a book called Gothicana, a dark romance novel. They mention that the book has a good plot involving disappearances and murders, but they did not enjoy the romance development. They found the relationship to be rushed and felt disconnected from the characters. The speaker also mentions that the book contains explicit and graphic sex scenes. Overall, they did not find the book to be enjoyable and would not read it again. Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do. Learn Shakespeare as you like it. Hey you guys, welcome to another episode on Chapter Slappers. I'm your host Keisha. Now today we are going to be talking something crazy, a little different, and a little bit more out of my reading realm than what I'm normally used to reading. Just for anybody who is new here, I talk about books that I have read and give my own personal opinion on them, kind of like a review, and I also read reviews from Goodreads on said books, and I either agree with those reviews or I disagree, and you'll hear my opinion. Sometimes I spoil, sometimes I don't. I guess it'll just have to be something you take with the episode. Anyways, today we are going to be talking erotica dark romances. Now, when I first started reading again, I was actually reading a lot of erotic romance, I'm not even going to call them books because I was reading them a lot on book apps. Let me tell you, I was doing it for quite some time, and it was getting pretty damn pricey because I was paying, like, I had so many different book apps that I was paying for. I was paying monthly for some, and some of them I was buying like every page, and it just was adding up. It got to be too much, which is when I decided, okay, enough is enough, I'm going to start buying hardback books or just books in general to have and hold in my hand and to keep. Also, I read enough dark fantasy erotic books to last a lifetime, and it just was something that I was kind of over and decided to stop reading. Also, a lot of them were fantasy, so it was like, I don't know, werewolves and aliens, and it was creatures and humans, and it was wild. So, I just was like, okay, I've read enough of this, and I've kind of not really gotten into reading erotica books after that because it's really just not my cup of tea anymore. No shade towards anybody who does like that kind of stuff. I just don't prefer it. I prefer, you know, science fiction, I prefer science fiction fantasy, young adult, young adult science fiction, young adult fantasy, and of course, I don't mind my books having that spicy level in them. That makes them all the more enjoyable, but I don't like to read stuff that is just purely about the spice, if you know what I mean. Anyways, I did get one book, though, and it is a dark romance book, and I got it because first of all, the cover is freaking gorgeous. I mean, it's black, it's, you know, I don't even know how to describe it. It's black, it's like a gated sense of like a castle, and there's like a rose on there. The title is kind of in gold print. It is the, and oh, the pages are purple. That's, that's why I got the book, honestly, because it just looked pretty, but I did go ahead and read it. Now, the book we are talking about is Gothicana, and I don't know how to pronounce this author's name, but Runix, that's what I'm going with. There wasn't anything inherently bad, I guess, about the book. I just think it was, it was okay. It was good. It wasn't something that I would, like, me personally, read again. I mean, I guess I would read it again, but I mean, probably, it wasn't a book that as soon as I finished, I wanted to reread. It's definitely something that maybe I would read if I was bored or something, but that's just my opinion. Basically, the book is about this girl. She gets accepted into a college, and she goes there, and she meets this guy, and everybody is like, oh, stay away from that Deverell. He's like the silver-eyed devil, and the college is called Varenmoor. Anyways, it's about that, and I think there probably might be triggers in this book. Honestly, I don't know. I really don't care about trigger warnings. To me, they're just not necessary when writing a book. However, there could be trigger warnings in here just because, I don't know, there's death, and I think maybe a trigger warning for people who have parents that are hospitalized for like schizophrenia or something. I don't know if that's a trigger or not, to be honest, you guys. Everything's a trigger to somebody nowadays, so who fucking knows? Anyways, yeah. The book, to me, like I said, it was okay. I just, I don't know. For me, I wasn't really feeling it. I think what got me was the main character, Corvina Clem, she meets this vad, Deverell, and I guess they have like an automatic connection, and it's not very long before they have sex, and listen, the sex is very graphic. Very, very graphic, and I don't mind that per se. Actually, I really don't. I don't mind that at all, but for some people, it might be too much. I don't know. Whatever your spice level is, it's how you take it, I guess, but I don't know. The plot was okay. It was okay, but would I read this book again? No. It just wasn't all that for me. I've read better books. Okay, let's skip my opinion. Let's get into these damn Goodreads reviews, and we'll just go from there, okay? Okay, so we're going to start off positive, and we'll start with a five-star review on this book. So this person said, this book changed my brain chemistry. I didn't know I heavily needed a dark, academic, gothic romance until I read the first few pages of this book. It scratched an itch so deep inside my mind. I don't know what's real anymore. Corvina is such a badass character. OMG, I love her, and VAD, I want him so bad, it's not even funny. They are such an iconic duo, and the ending, I'm in love with them. Though this book does follow their romance, it also follows this underlying mystery of strange disappearances, murders, and random suicides. And the way that shit was unpacked before my eyes at the very end could not have predicted that shit. No fucking way. Multiple times I catch myself smiling and squealing at this book at random times. To say I am shocked and disgusted is an understatement. I deserve to be euthanized, honestly. Okay, so that was a pretty damn good review that this person left. I'm not going to lie. The book does have a pretty good plot to it, with the disappearances and the murders and the suicides. And it was kind of creepy. There was a little bit of creep to it. My whole problem with the book wasn't necessarily the plot itself. It was the romance development. This girl, Corvina, she meets the professor or teacher, VAD. And he, obviously, he likes her a lot. I think it's mainly because of her eye color. And that does have something to do with the book. But the problem is, he doesn't want to like her. And he gives mixed signals. But then, out of the blue, they have a really quick, steamy sex scene. And then, after that, he's like, we can't do this. And it happened so early on in the book that there just wasn't any lead up to the relationship. And it does kind of get better. But at the same time, it kind of doesn't. I don't know. Honestly, the relationship is borderline stalkish. Because by the end of the book, you find out that this dude pretty much found her. He found her mom in a hospital. He went to go look for his friend at a hospital, a psychiatric hospital. He found her mom there because her mom had purple eyes. And he was looking for her. He knew, like somebody told him, he needs to look out for somebody with purple eyes when he was a kid. And he found her mom there. And she had purple eyes. And then she also was at the psychiatric hospital as well. And he saw her. And from then on, he, like, kind of orchestrated things to where she ended up going to this college. And that's the thing for me. It was completely orchestrated by him. And I don't know, like, why he didn't get to know her more. I don't know. It was a lot. It was weird. It was weird. It was weird. But don't get me wrong. Like, the sex in here was, I mean, it was diabolical. There was some really good stuff to it. But also, I didn't like the way that, like, he really treated her. He kind of was controlling a little bit. Maybe, no, maybe, I mean, you know what? I can't even say that. Because he was, like, more of a dominator. He dominated the sex, the bedroom, which I guess, like, she needed in a way. Like, that was something that she needed. But he was her first, like, ever. She had never had done the deed or anything like that. So, it was pretty damn rough. There was no loving. There was no easy going, no romance to it, nothing at all. It was, like, wham. And, yeah. But, I don't know. Maybe she, I mean, she, I guess that's just something she needed, was a dominator in her bedroom. Which is fine, you know. You know, if that's what you need, that's what you need. But I just, to me, it was just, it was pretty damn quick. And it didn't really, it, I don't know. I mean, the book did focus on the plot. But it also focused on their relationship, too. And I'm just not somebody, I don't know. You know, I can't even say it was bad, because it wasn't. It was, like, a decent level. I think, for me, it's just, I'm just not into romance, really. Unless I'm really invested in the books and in the characters. And that's probably what it was. It probably has nothing to do with the book itself as a whole. I think, for me, I just wasn't really connected to any of the characters. And you guys know, I love a book series. And this, obviously, is not a series. I don't think it is. I think it's a standalone. And so, there wasn't really a connection formed for me with the main character. And I guess that's why I didn't really care about the romance part of it. I was more interested in the murders, to be honest. And, like, I didn't care for how the romance was playing out. It just wasn't my cup of tea. But, anyways, let's see what else we've got. So, that was a five-star review. Let's go check and see what else we can find. Okay. This person left a three-star review. She said, I would have loved to see their development, but they just happened so fast. I take Tristan's silent treatment in this. I think they slept together once. He ignored her for weeks. And then he was going all alpha and claiming her. I was like, dude, chill. You're moving so fast. It was kind of too much and not really convincing. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm a sucker for a good slow burn, which would have really worked with this book. And that's how I feel, too. There was no slow burn to this romance. It was just, like, pretty automatic. And I didn't really care for it. If I were to rate this book, I think I would probably give it a three stars, too, just because there was a good plot to it. Some people didn't like the plot. I don't know. They said it wasn't their cup of tea. One thing I did love about the book, though, was I think every chapter there is, like, a quote from someone. And I really loved that. The artwork in the book is pretty, too. But books are not just about the artwork, okay? They're about the plot and the characters. And for me, there just wasn't enough connection with any of the characters. But I digress. Let's go ahead and check and see what else we can find as far as a review goes. Okay. So this person gave the book a one star. They said, DNFed halfway through. I don't usually rate or review books. I don't finish. But this is genuinely the worst book I've ever read, which I don't say lightly. Usually, I'll never say outright, don't read this book. But, my God, I have never been so baffled as to how this has so many high ratings. This book is clearly just here for the aesthetics, an angsty romance on a dark academia backdrop or an attempt at one. The first few pages initially impressed me for its pretty Gothic designs, a playlist, map, the full shebang. But lo and behold, it seems more energy was put into the design of the book than its contents, for it was riddled with errors and clearly needed an editor. Being self-published, I could let the occasional typo slide. But when the fourth one I came across was a misspelling of the word happy on a page with a whole seven words in total on it, in a huge graphic design quote, that just made me think the author hadn't even bothered to read it through either, so why should I? Not only that, but the dark academia aesthetic it was apparently striving for was nowhere to be seen beyond needing a reason for all these characters to be in one building. The dialogue made me cringe so hard I physically recoiled, and what I assume was meant to be a steamy sex scene just read like a violation. So yeah, a DNF from me. Okay, now, I finished the book, I did not not finish it. I will say, I liked the plot. I think the book could have been more about the plot and less about the relationship. I feel like the relationship was too fast, and I feel like it was too much. It didn't scream, I care for you, I adore you, I love you. It screamed kind of more forceful, I guess. I don't know. Like I said at the beginning, this seemed more like a dominator submissive type of relationship, and that's all well and good. But there was a part in this book where the girl Corvina is talking about her schizophrenic mother, and she does have panic attacks when she talks about that, which I understand for her, it was, it was definitely hard. However, if I am going to talk about something that makes me have panic attacks, or something that is very emotional for me to discuss, I need to be doing this with a person that I trust. And at the moment, she didn't really know if she trusted him. She wanted to, but she wasn't sure if she did. She did end up talking to him about it. However, it was during a sexual act that she was talking about this. And I don't understand why a person would put that in a book. I am not going to want to speak about something so personal while having relations, if you will. It just was not, to me, that was tactless, and I didn't quite understand it. There are so many other ways that this person could have gotten her to open up about this traumatic experience, and she did not, or he did not, do that with that scene in particular. And that happened with quite a few scenes. It just, to me, there was some of, some of it was just very tactless, and I didn't really care for it. Like I said, the book is very sexual, which is fine, but it wasn't a good sexual experience while reading. For me, it was more cringey than anything. Altogether, though, I did like the plot of the book. I liked the fact that there was murder in there, so it was kind of a mystery to be solved. And that's what I liked about the book. The relationship, trash. Romance, trash. Would I recommend this book? I'm so sorry, you guys. Please excuse my dog. She is sleeping next to me, and she is snoring, so you will definitely be hearing that. Anyways, would I recommend this book? Not to anybody that I know. I wouldn't recommend it. It's too much and too little at the same time. And so, for me, I'm not going to recommend this book to people. I mean, you could read it, and you could like it. I think it depends on you personally and what you think that is your alley and your cup of tea, as far as reading goes. And if you like romance, and if you like a certain type of romance. Maybe you would like this book. I don't know. I just know it's not something I would ever recommend. I have a million other books that I've read that I recommend, and this never pops into my head. When I was thinking about doing book reviews, I was actually like, well, maybe I'll do reviews on books that I read that I didn't quite care for. And this was definitely the top of my list. I did not care for it. Yeah. That's all I've got to say about this. Gothicana. Thank you guys for listening in. If you like this episode, please be sure to like, subscribe, and follow for more. And be sure to head on over to my TikTok page, chapter slappers, with a space in between the words. And follow me on there to see what books I pick up from Barnes. And that is all for today. Thanks, guys. Bye.