Arc Review: Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone

Title: Lakesedge
Author: Lyndall Clipstone
Genre: YA Fantasy / Paranormal / Gothic
Publication Date: September 28th, 2021
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Rating: ⭐⭐

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an ear to review. All opinions are my own.

“There are monsters in the world.

When Violeta Graceling arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

There are monsters in the woods.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn…

There’s a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.

Now, to save Rowan—and herself—Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.” (Goodreads)

As an anticipated read, I’m disappointed.

I think the biggest offender for me was the writing style and that honestly killed it. It’s hard to fall in love with a book when you don’t mesh with the writing. In the blurb it is compared to Naomi Novik and Brigid Kemmerer. Both of those authors are big names and I just didn’t see this one comparing to their books unfortunately.

As for the characters, they were okay but left me underwhelmed. Violeta may be portrayed as selfless but honestly, she is selfish. I really didn’t like her or the choices she made. Rowan was just not what I was expecting and his broody self wasn’t working magic on me. It’s kind of a shame as broody is usually a good keyword as to what I like about characters. Her brother just kind of felt like a plot point pawn and it was hard to connect with him or feel anything besides what his mother did to him. That was pretty harsh.

The setting had it’s moments. I liked the use of the lake and the estate but it still felt a bit underwhelming. As this book is going for a gothic feel I just felt like it tried so hard to be that but it fell flat. I didn’t get the spooky vibes I wanted.

Overall, this was okay and ultimately not for me. I’m just going to keep this review short. You can take it as you will for it seems this may be another unpopular opinion! Apparently I have a lot of those, haha.

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