I really loved the premise of this book and there were some really promising elements. But the use of constant news updates to help push the world-building really pulled me out of the story and I couldn't connect to it. I'm sad to say that this one wasn't fun to read, I pushed through, but it did take quite a few years.

The Collection of the Negatives is definitely an intriguing novel and the first I have read from this author. It's captivating with interesting characters.

A chance encounter with a charming stranger makes Phoebe dream of a happily-ever-after until she learns that there’s a spell on her that makes her repulsive to men. Luckily her boss, Archibald Kane, and her new landladies are experts on magic. Only this one seems to confound them all.

I quite enjoyed reading this book. It was provided to me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Intriguing and adaptive. I was hook from the very beginning. This story is unique, and will have you on the edge of your seat. A real page turner!

Inconsistent characterizations, not enough backstory about the virus (which can work, but doesn't here), weird and unnecessary sex scenes (whyyyyyy), ends on a cliffhanger.

>> "O negatives are truly unique. It’s the only blood type that can give life force back to virtually anyone in the world on the verge of losing it, yet they can only take blood from each other. So, no, we do not all have the same biological makeup, but most of the world does–about 85 percent. You are part of the 15 percent in this world that has a rare blood type, but only about seven percent of the fifteen are O negatives."

The premise of this book was amazing! Set in a future world where your blood type is one of the most important qualities and where people is separated by their blood type. Collection of The Negatives is such an engaging and page-turner scifi thriller.

From the very first chapter, thanks to Violet St. Karl's great prose, I was hooked. and couldn't put down this book. Full of a widely and likeable diverse cast, this dystopian novel has a lot of plot twists that will keep the reader very interested in what's going on in this terrifying future where your blood can cost your life.

This one wasn't for me. My expectations were off, I expected a dystopian story, which I seemed to be getting in the first few chapters, which were the chapters I loved and I was really enjoying the story, until the virus mentioned in the blurb breaks out. Because there is little to none background information. What virus? What does it do, what does it make people do, why the quarantine, how does it spread? I had a million questions and I still do. It all seems kinda normal for Liri, the main character who seemed intelligent and quick-witted until that point, to get on a boat to escape. Does she really know why? No. She gets a half-baked explanation from a woman she barely knows and she decides to go with it. But okay, I rolled with it. Until Liri strikes up not one, but two insta-friendships, one of which with a man who seems to become her BFF and gains her loyalty in the blink of eye. Why? I couldn't tell you if I tried. It only gets worse when there is also insta-love. Because sure, the world is doomed by a mysterious virus, you'll never see your family again, you're on a godforsaken island with everyone behaving like it's Club Med, sure the resident psychiatrist makes you feel all the feels the second you lay eyes on him. Remember that Liri is 31, well passed the age of schoolgirl crushes, I'd think. I had totally had it when there was more elaboration on the tantric sex Liri and her insta-lover have than on the actual plot. I mean the virus is mentioned in 2 sentences and the sex gets like 4 pages? I cannot even! The finale feels rushed, a lot of information is crammed into the last chapters (some of which is supposed to explain the insta-love) and to be honest I didn't even know which way was up anymore. This had so much potential, but it didn't work for me at all. Mind, the writing wasn't bad at all. If you don't mind insta-love and you're more into sci-fi than dystopian stories, you may very well enjoy this story.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the free e-ARC. I think it's clear that didn't influence my opinion in any way.

Collection of The Negatives (The Blood Rising Book #1)
B: Violet St. Karl

This was an interesting read for me, it picked up my interest in the first couple of chapters. We follow Liri a New Yorker who has just been let go of her decade old job into a world that is in economic downfall. There is this part I enjoyed a lot where she is listening to current news through Magellan, which is like “Alexa” 2.0, It showed how much the world is going downhill, wars, turmoil, giant corporations taking advantage of unemployment for their own benefit, sounds familiar it’s like we are living in that world today. All this really piped my interest. Liri hears that a company will pay money for blood and she discovers she is O Negative, very rare and special. When a virus is released and New York quarantined said company gathers all the people with negative blood types to “escape”. Liri sees this as an opportunity of survival and decides to go along with said company that she hasn’t researched, doesn’t know anything about them, so it doesn’t surprise me when she finds herself a “prisoner” Albeit she is in an island resort with a complete wardrobe. She is constantly monitored, recorded, and fed a specific diet due to her blood type. I will be honest I had no idea what was going on throughout the book until the last couple of chapters. I felt that there was a lot going on with the side characters but Liri spent her days with her secret romantic relationship with her psychologist Sirus, the second half of the story just dragged on. The story picked up in the last couple of chapters then I felt like it ended abruptly with a huge cliffhanger. I still have so many questions and that is what kept me reading from the end, to know what was so special about Liri and the Negative blood type people. Overall I liked the plot of the story, I just was not a fan of the execution during the middle part of the book.
Thank You to Netgalley and Galactic Press for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I absolutely loved the premise of this book. It was something that promised a kind of dystopian view of our world which seemed totally plausible in our not too distant future. Liri is a highly relatable if a bit quirky character, but her quirkiness makes her lovable. The other characters are also likable, although the male characters can be a bit stilted at times. Brigid is a hoot and provides some insight into the powers of the ABO (the evil corporation) and how they could impact the daily lives of normal citizens. However, the post-apocalyptic type story takes a turn during an extensive love diversion between two of the characters, which is at times quite awkward and honestly made me laugh out loud. This section provides no real drive forward of the plot, and its awkwardness detracts from what seems to be the main plot. After this, the story changes again from an awkward love story to interdimensional aliens. The three parts of the story are a little disjointed and almost seem to be completely different genre types. The characters are likable enough that I will probably pick up the next book to find out what happened, but only for the sake of resolution. I was disappointed that the post-apocalyptic/evil corporation main thread seemed to take a back seat in the final section. There is potential here, and if you love both post-apocalyptic and aliens, give it a go.

This book started out pretty good. Liri is a quirky, smart woman who is persuaded by a friend to give blood and finds out she's O negative. Then a virus breaks out and all of the people with rare blood types are swept off to this random island where they are closely monitored, fed and controlled. This is where the story gets weird for me because instead of discovering why they are there and trying to escape, Liri begins this unexpected intensely sexual relationship with her psychologist Sirus. Half of the novel is about their love story and everything else takes a back seat.
She has this super nosey, controlling friend Allister who tells her not to trust anyone but does nothing to investigate why they are there. It's only at the end that we get this rushed explanation about a different dimension and Liris special abilities. And of course just as it's picking up the story ends in a CLIFFHANGER leaving me confused and dissatisfied. Needless to say I won't be picking up the next book. Too many open ended issues.
Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book started off well and captured my attention, but halfway through the story devolved into a romance-type novel that, I felt, did not move the story forward. So much more could have been done with the storyline to add action and drama without the heaviness of the relationship between Liri and Sirus. The characters seemed to fall flat in the middle of the story and the story plodded along. I found myself skimming a good portion of the Liri/Sirus relationship, and I picked up reading toward the end where more information about the occurrences and the action took place. There were also long paragraphs of exposition that were tiring to read with too much detail that didn’t move the story forward.

I did like the characters of Liri and Brigid. I will probably read book 2 once it is released to give the series another chance. It has promise and potential, so I’m hoping more action and science fiction and less romance will unfold.

When Liri is laid off from her job she hears of a company that will pay money for blood – in particular O- blood types. Then when a virus hits New York she has no choice but to trust this company with her life – but why do they want her blood?

I was really intrigued by the premise of Collection of the Negatives, the idea that a futuristic, shady corporation could be after your blood was novel and interesting. The plot starts off quite realistic and the world it is set in is I think very close to ours - running a parallel timeline rather than miles in the future. The larger world in general is given a lot of backstory which I appreciated, however St.Karl choses to give this to the readers by listing the exposition via a news app which was a bit of a tiring narrative device. When the ‘virus’ is released however, things start to get a bit unrealistic. This virus seems to inspire panic in our main character and she immediately assumes this is a death sentence - she leaves her family, sells all her belongings and trusts a shady corporation she only met that week to travel to an unknown location with a bunch of strangers. Having read a lot of dystopian virus thrillers recently this seems very much against the survivalist grain that most plots tend to go for. As the reader is never really told anything about the virus other than it affects the blood and New York is in quarantine it just seems like a massive leap – if we had perhaps seen the virus or met some people affected or the area was beginning to get dangerous with looting etc then it would be a little more understandable.

She then meets some truly odd characters who I didn’t particularly engage with. The first is Alistair who I couldn’t picture at all – he seemed to go from an older, professor-like character to a teenage boy and back again several time throughout the story. He also asks far too many questions and is so nosy about everything Liri is doing – I personally would have punched him if he had treated me like that! There’s also Brigid, who made me question if Violet St.Karl has ever actually met anyone from Ireland before – there’s some very bad stereotyping and the ‘accent’ was terrible! Lastly there’s Sirius who is the love interest with a wooden personality who asks far too many personal questions and made for some truly cringe-worthy young-adult style romance and intimate scenes. The dialogue is stilted and odd throughout which didn’t help me to engage with any of the characters.

My main problem was the fact that everyone just accepted that this island they had all been shipped off to was fine. No one really asks about home or if the virus has gone, no one questions why they need fitness tests or psychological sessions or what the company actually want with their blood. Everyone just takes everything at face value and accepts their fate but the underlying menace of the corporation wasn’t explored enough to make it feel like they were all just scared or lying. Then the story takes a sharp left turn into alien territory and I lost interest. The story ends on a complete cliff-hanger but even that won’t be enough to inspire me to pick up the next one I’m afraid.

Overall A Collection of Negatives intrigued me from its concept but turned out to be a bit of a mess. Thank you to NetGalley and Galactic Press for a copy of the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.