✩ Ori ✩’s Reviews > The Darkness Within Us > Status Update

Oh, so calling the king "the Shadow King" is meant to be taken literally. It would've been great if Levenseller let us know that demons and magic were real in those first chapters with all that lore dumping & ranting about institutional sexism (which was immediately legislated into a nonissue). Way to bury the lede, my guy.

Not marking as a spoiler because this is just a part of the world, apparently.

homegirl just said she doesn't wear make up because "with [powders], I often cause accidents in the street."

what in the fanfiction self-insert y/n mc [derogatory] is happening

Ah Eryx. The lesser known, edgier cousin of Eric.

btw the imminent queen consort has decreed patriarchy is no longer allowed lmao what is happening

There seems to be quite a bit of context the reader is expected to have gleaned in book one carried into this companion novel. For that alone, I feel impelled to categorise this book as a subscription box miss. Thus far, there is a lot of telling rather than showing to catch us up on the backstory of book one; chapter one is more of a lore dump on familial relationship + how the patriarchy is evil and ruined her life

Going into this with the expectation that, though this is a companion to the first book in the Shadows Between Us duology, it may operate as a standalone novel since it was presented as such by FairyLoot in picking it as the the sole book of May 2024's subscription box. It would be rather ridiculous for the book box to pick the second book in a series that necessitates reading in order...