I'm really loving Caitlin Starling's visions of horror so when this got announced it was immediately on my most anticipated list.

I went into this book expecting the typical plague styled horror. People dying, the threat of infection. As well as uncertainty of what kind of story it'd fully be as it's around only 130 pages total.

30 pages in and I got so excited to see it was something much more. With particular scenes catching so much of my interest. Even with my longing for it to be much longer. Evelyn's grief and panics stirred memories of my own, which made this small novel a bit of a undertaking for me.

This said, I do with we could have seen a bit more with the soldier's end. He seemed like an after thought till the last 20 pages or so. He was my only gripe.

Yet, in my opinion, Starling managed to create a garden that catches attention and showed how the blame we place upon ourselves sometimes never leaves, but grows like weed among the flowers.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Yellow Jessamine is the story of a woman named Evelyn who must navigate the depths of her lifelong guilt and grief while attempting to unravel the mysterious affliction that comes over members of her city, Delphinium. Evelyn must not only hide from the Judiciary that the "illness" somehow originated from the crew of her own trade ship, but her mounting pile of secrets and treacheries that only grows as the novel progresses.

I started out really liking this book, but there were a number of things that really bothered me about it in the end.

First, it was listed in the LGBTQ+ category, which I would not file it under. If I had not been told this was an LGBTQ+ novel, I would never have known that was the way it should have been read (and I still don’t really see it, even after being told).

Secondly, I felt there was both so much filler, and so much left unexplained. We, as readers, are dropped into a mysterious world where a rival government seeks to take hold of the city of Delphinium, but we are given very few details other than that about the conflict. I still am not sure who the Judiciary serves, and was confused about a number of the characters’ relationships to each other/the governments.

I also found Evelyn’s character to be be very conflicting, as she seems torn between calling herself cowardly or brave, wicked or a product of unfortunate circumstance. Maybe this was meant to showcase her inner turmoil, but it did not come across that way in my opinion. We also find out about some of Evelyn’s actions that serve as plot twists later on, but not in a good way. It felt like these elements were tossed in to tie the story together at the end rather than being woven throughout and alluded to along the way.

On the positive side, I found the general plot line interesting, though it was lacking in resolution. I was drawn in by the mysterious affliction that begins to come over the townspeople, and its connection to Evelyn. However, we don’t exactly get answers (or at least not satisfying ones) about what it is, which I found to be a bit of a letdown.

Toward the beginning, this almost reminded me of The Haunting of Hill House, but with more strangeness in place of horror. The book begins with the line “To those harboring the weight of self-blame: may you bury it.” I am assuming readers were supposed to focus on the message of how grief and guilt take hold and can be let go, rather than the literal plot, but if that was the case, the end message was a little startling.

Overall I would give this 2.5 stars (rounded up to to 3) for the promising idea and intrigue, but the execution left me disappointed.

I will freely admit that this book ensnared me with that beautiful, creepy cover and the promise of a plot centred around a mysterious plague!

Due to this story being a novella, certain aspects of the plot and world were left open or without a huge deal of explanation, and for that reason, I did struggle to get as invested as I'd have liked. Likewise, beyond some shocking, satisfying revelations regarding Evelyn's backstory, I didn't get too great a grip on the characters. Overall, however, I enjoyed the close relationship between Evelyn and Violetta and the unique way it resolved, and found Yellow Jessamine to be a spooky, clever read with the odd twist I didn't see coming and one or two 'oh, dang!' moments.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest review!

"Something had come back on her ship, looking for her. And it was spreading."

It was such a good read! The writing was great, immersive, attached to a gothic, atmospheric setting. I don't wanna talk much about what happens because of spoilers, but it took some turns that I was not expecting. For that, I loved it!

The characters are morally gray, specially our main character and her maid Violetta. As for the representation, it features a F/F romance, what's perfect since we are, currently, in Pride Month! I'm not and own-voices reviewer, so keep that in mind. It's not the main focus at all, but it's there. I really enjoyed it.

Definitelly recommend this quick and intriguing novella!

The first book I finished in June was a LGBT horror novella from Netgalley, although the LGBT elements were extremely minimal and reserved until the conclusion of the book so I feel as though they were added in *potentially* just to tick the LGBT+ box. We follow Evelyn, in mourning for her dead brothers and parents as she tries to run her estate and survive in the paranoid and struggling city of Delphinium, when one of her supply ships docks bringing with it a mysterious plague.

I adored the setting of this book as well as the mysterious, paranoid and shady tone. I also loved the mystery surrounding not only this new plague but Evelyn herself who holds many deadly secrets including her knowledge of poisons. It was definitely an intriguing and very creepy story at times that I'd recommend if you like darker reads.

This was a very good read. Very creepy. Another great novella in the series. Historical, thriller, horror. It had everything in a quick read.

The best way to describe this is... just ok. It does a lot of great things, I loved the atmosphere and the world building we did get from it. Like the world felt big and whole even if we didn't see all of it. And you really felt sucked into the depressing collapsing empire vibes. The little bit of Sapphic love we get towards the end is nice, just a shame it falls into a trope that won't be named for spoilers. And Evelyn is a very interesting point of view, if things do get a little confusing towards the end with her.

However, I felt that the characters fell a little flat for me and certain key plot reveals just didn't land the way they should have. I felt like I should've been in shock and awe, but instead I was just confused as to how we got to point A to point B. Things should be left unknown in books like this, but this one leaves things almost too open for my taste.

It is also worth mentioning that I almost DNF'd this book towards the beginning just because I could not be invested in the story. I was about 50 pages or less in, and I struggled to be invested in the plot. There were interesting bits, but none of those bits really caught me. It wasn't until I hit the 50% mark that I just decided to finish it because it was short and I thought why not.

Wow I actually really enjoyed this! Fast paced and I was interested the entire time. I wish this was a full length novel because I would've given it 5 stars if that were the case. I would have loved to see more character development and world building and more background information. I enjoyed this nonetheless but it left me wanting more and curious.