Heart of the Impaler (Alexander Delacroix) - ★☆☆☆☆

The first thing I noticed about this book was a case of Special Snowflake Syndrome. Does the main character, Ilona, HAVE to be jaw-droppingly gorgeous without even knowing it (cough, cough, Bella, cough, cough Twillight)? And, on top of that, the author HAD to make her Not Like Other Girls. 

I mean, seriously. Apparently, every single one of the other girls are completely shallow mean girls. And, of course, every single male has the hots for Ilona, which makes all the girls into jealous bitches. Can you get even more anti-feminist? This book is basically saying that girls are either gorgeous Special Snowflakes who catch male attention without even trying, or they are jealous, shallow bitches who don't matter.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being a physically attractive female. I'm just saying that other girls shouldn't be shamed if they aren't. One of the first scenes in this book is where a girl is portrayed as a shallow bitch and then shamed for not being able to catch the male attention that Ilona did. Should girls really be shown tearing each other down and fighting over scraps of male attention?

At a certain point, I just couldn't keep on reading this degrading portrayal of women.

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