Zachary SergiReseñas

“Thinking back on that night, it almost shakes loose a bitter laugh. It seems like a lifetime ago. Those naive kids who heard that whining through the stone… Now that we know what it truly was, will we ever be those people again?”

This was a spooky, enjoyable coming-of-age story, exploring themes of generational trauma, setting healthy boundaries in relationships, personal growth, and self-acceptance.

I loved the picturesque setting in this book. The beautiful mountain range, dense pine forest, crystal-clear lake, refreshing cold breeze, and the scent of freshly cut grass all immediately transported me to Copper Cove.

The eerie contrast between the town’s natural beauty and lurking darkness was so well-done that it sent shivers down my spine! Its remote setting, with no cell service or wi-fi, added to the mystery and already spooky atmosphere.

I liked Luca and his friends. These characters were not only fun but also relatable, portrayed with all of their strengths and flaws. There was also good character growth throughout the story, and despite mistakes made along the way, they managed to learn a lot from them.

I also really liked Manny, and I wished he had a more prominent role in the story, but the ending kind of hints that Luca and Manny might get a second chance, which made me super happy.

The story began well and was engaging, but the middle section dragged a bit, mostly due to lengthy conversations/explanations, rather than building up the story and letting readers draw their own conclusions about the Impact and the curse.

The idea of the Impact carrying remnants of a person sacrificed in the previous generation took me by surprise. It’s such a unique and interesting concept, and it added a lot to the story; however, I still felt that Impact and the curse were not fully explained throughout the story, as there were many unanswered questions at the end of the book.

This book leans more towards middle-grade than ya/na, but it was still an enjoyable read! It’s a fun, fast-paced, coming-of-age story, and it’s perfect for spooky season!

Thank you, LibraryThing, the publisher Tiny Ghost Press, and author Zachary Sergi for the ARC copy! I received a free copy of this book, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This Pact Is Not Ours does a delightful job of being a mystery/suspense for teens, grounded in queerness without being about queerness. The plot is good and not entirely predictable, which is always nice. The characters are consistent and well rounded in a way that feels authentic. Overall a good read, one I would recommend for fans of YA/teen lit who enjoy queer characters who are more than their queerness or Stephen King novels (only less explicitly sexual).½

Their debts are not yours to pay.

Ooh, how I do love a good summer vacation/camp thriller/spookfest, so I was super excited to win a copy of this book to review. This Pact Is Not Ours does a good job of keeping up with the spooks.

You've got your four friends whose families all vacation at the same spot every summer and during those few weeks, the kids lose themselves in their found family. Griffin, whose family seems to basically own the place is convinced there's something spooky going on, but the other three are mostly content to just go along and enjoy their favorite place in the world...until the summer they start to turn eighteen. Seems Griffin might've been onto something with the haunting rumors as this summer, Copper Cove seems out for blood.

I suspect highly that this is gonna come down to how much horror/haunting you want in your story and how much teen angst you're in the mood for. Luca's friend group has four members and there's a love triangle and it goes about as well as you'd imagine since this isn't a case to be solved by OT3. And given that we spend our time exclusively in Luca's head, Hazel and Ariana aren't as fleshed out as they could be (Hazel especially, given that Luca thinks of her as his best friend. Ariana is meant to be the outlier, so this is definitely on purpose) annnnnd I do think the story suffers a bit for it.

If you've read the synopsis, you know there's a Pact made by the summer families and that the kids are now of age to where they're being recruited into things, and part of that involves being punished by a supernatural being whenever they step out of line. Thing is, the punishment isn't always for the person stepping out of line. The being (I'm just not gonna call it by its proper name; I refuse) frequently doles out the punishment on innocent bystanders, and it doesn't take all that long for our foursome to figure that out. I only mention this because on MULTIPLE occasions, we get a variation of this:
The idea of roaming Copper Cove's campus at night to break the Pact rules by talking to the one person I feel most betrayed by suddenly feels quite stupid.
But punishment is probably what I deserve, anyway.

Yeah, but you're not the one who is gonna be feeling that punishment necessarily, Luca. And at this point in the story, you know this quite well. I try and remember when reading YA that teens are gonna teen and angst makes your brain go haywire but there are limits to what I'll overlook and I feel like this book pushes you right to that limit. Maybe not so for the intended audience but anyone past that might be warned it's a possibility.

They're still beautiful things, but now they're also broken. Perhaps irreparably.
This is one of those lines I loved and hated in equal measure because one of those things? Is a person. And people being 'broken' irreparably? Given the context of this quote? Is a big yikes. Especially in a book for teens.

In general, I do like the what if scenario being played out: what if, to possibly save the world, you had to doom a friend or yourself to death? What would you do? Would you fight it or would you sacrifice yourself? Would you sacrifice your friend? Especially with teenage friendships where everything (the good, the bad, and the angst) is set at maximum levels so often.

It's also especially interesting given the author's note mentions Buffy the Vampire Slayer specifically because of how she tended to handle that kind of dilemma.

I enjoyed the ride, even if I could've done with a little more backstory, a lot more Hazel (and Ariana) and maybe a little less bug horror, which is all I'll say about that because y'know, spoilers.

We're all just clumsy caretakers, aren't we? Ripping things open inside each other in the name of healing.½

>:( i'll try again for better endings but deffo not how i was hoping things would go

more fun than book one imo

This book was both classic and entirely unique. The two main characters are Amelia and Chase. Amelia has this amazing tarot card deck that was handed down from her grandmother. Her grandmother taught her and Chase everything she knows about the tarot, and now year later, as a last great hurrah of the summer before college, 4 friends set off on a trip guided by tarot. Their trip quickly turns to an adventure when their first stop sets in motion a grand treasure hunt to find the 4 intentionally missing cards from her famous deck. This book was a wonderful adventure. It is a choices novel, so the reader helps make choices throughout the book. What makes this unique is the choices center more on the characters personality rather than actions, and it helps change the meaning and the thought process of the trip. It also will teach the reader a bit about themselves and they learn about the tarot. Overall, this was a great fun read and should get more attention.