So since everyone assumes this is going to be similar to The Cruel Prince because of the summary, lemme just say this.

THIS IS NOT LIKE THE CRUEL PRINCE, I REPEAT: THIS IS NOT LIKE THE CRUEL PRINCE.

Ok great! Glad we got that settled. Onward!

From the author of Vassa in the Night, Sarah Porter brings us Never-Contented Things, another contemporary-fantasy that drives itself on its characters.

This is a tough book to read. Like, really tough. There are certain themes, events, and just plain old character arcs that can be troublesome for some people. I'd even go as far as to say that there can be triggers for people who have dealt with any type of emotional, physical, and sexual (yes, sexual) abuse. So let that be a warning for you. Also, this book delves into the unhealthy relationship of 2 foster "siblings", showing the gray line on what exact is sibling love and obsession.

This...wasn't my fave book to read, and I'm not talking about the themes thriughout the story. I'm talking about how boring this book can be. While the character arcs, themes, and fae characters are all really interesting, that doesn't make up for the fact that this book was so boring. I felt like DNFing so many times, and that's not even an exaggeration. There IS fun in here, but it takes a lot of trudging through the boring to get to the fun.

LGBT representation. There's a lot of it, mostly in the character of Ksenia. HOWEVER, I think the LGBT aspects are presented more as an afterthought in order to be diverse. We get some clear descriptions about Josh, but Ksenia gets nearly none of that. All we can get is that she'll love who she wants, she's described as boy-ish by other characters, but she never identifies herself as anything. There's no concrete foundation to her as an LGBT character, but there is a lot to her character (if that makes any sense). If anything, Josh gets the biggest piece of the LGBT-identification pie, but it still just didn't feel solid. This all felt like afterthoughts to the story, so I always kept forgetting. Sometimes I'd even go as far as to think "oh yeah they're into both males and females". It happened a lot.

Character arcs is where this book really shines. There's very crucia, and albeit disturbing, events that happen to characters throughout this book. Ksenia is the one who has the most profound character arc. She develops SO MUCH throughout the book. Her character development alone is what saved this book for me. Without her, I definitely would hate this book. She is the focal point to the whole story.

This is a difficult book to rate. One part of me wants to give 4 stars for the character development alone, but another part of me wants to give it 2 stars for overall enjoyment. I think it would be fair to give it a 3 star rating, keeping it in the middle of both of my feelings. This is the type of book that will have very mixed ratings. Some people will love it, others will hate, and if you're like me you'll feel conflicted. Because of this, I'd just say to be wary on spending cash on this book, but I still think it should be given a chance. Just don't go in expecting something like The Cruel Prince, or you will be highly disappointed.

I have one (or maybe more than one but we'll get there soon) problem with this book.

It is unnecessary long and it takes forever to get to the point. Or we'll at least that's how I felt while reading. I won't pretend and act like I read the whole thing because I didn't, even though I tried to push through I really couldn't finish it. Maybe I'll try again later, maybe not. The writing was pretty good although confusing at times and it made me wish that some thing were explained better, I really liked it. But it was sadly not enough to make me read the whole thing.

The relationship between the main characters (Ksenia & Josh) was weird to say at least. It made me feel uncomfortable and I wasn't sure if I liked them or not. What I did like was the diversity, it was kind of refreshing reading a book where not everyone is straight (I don't mean to offend anyone, considering that most of my friends and family are straight, I just rarely find books with bisexual characters).

I'm giving it three stars because even though it's not my favorite book, it's not the worst either. I liked the whole idea and the writing style, I just think that it wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe I'll try to read it again later.

I was NOT expecting this book to be the way it was, and based on the reviews already up on Goodreads that I've skimmed, neither were most other people.
I love all things Faerie, from Melissa Marr to Holly Black. However, Never-Contented Things was decidedly darker than any faerie book I've read before.
I know a lot of people are expecting this to be kind of like The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, maybe a little creepier, maybe a little darker.
Never-Contented Things is completely lacking in the political intrigue and intricate faerie culture that has drawn so many people to books like The Cruel Prince. This isn't to say that it's a terrible book, although it did take me a while to get interested in it. In fact, I would describe Never-Contented Things as more of a darker version of Coraline, that just happens to have faeries.
(Strangely, I also got Sawkill Girls (Claire Legrand) vibes from it. I'm not sure why. But I loved Sawkill Girls and Coraline was my favorite book when I was in elementary school.)
The first thing to get out of the way is that I didn't find many of the characters to be likeable. The two main characters, foster siblings Josh and Ksenia, have such a strange, codependent dynamic that just made me feel...uncomfortable a lot of the time. Their best friend, Lexi, who is also a main character, was probably the most likeable out of all of them, but I did find her to be a bit self-righteous at times, although objectively she was a very good person. The two main faeries, Prince and Unselle, had absolutely no redeeming qualities and, even more surprisingly, had much fewer spoken lines than I expected.
However, the character's personalities aside, I really liked the diversity in the three main characters. Ksenia is often mistaken for a boy, and while she does use she/her pronouns, she is very androgynous and is attracted to both men and women. Josh is also gender-nonconforming and pansexual. Lexi is black and throughout the book discovers that she is attracted to women as well as men.
Josh and Ksenia are essentially kidnapped by the faeries and taken to an alternate version of their town, one where they believe they have no hope of escape. However, Josh believes that he and Ksenia aren't right for the real world, and that staying in this alternate world will enable them to stay together forever. Ksenia is more skeptical, partially because while Josh sees her as the love of his life, Ksenia sees Josh as a little brother.
You know that feeling when you wake up from a long nap, and everything just feels...off? You aren't sure what time it is or what's going on, and you go through the rest of the day dazed and disoriented?
That's how reading this book felt for me, at least through the first 1/3 or so. That initially put me off from reading, and I was considering DNFing it. Then I realized how incredible it was that the writing could make me feel that way, especially since it was the way Ksenia was feeling throughout the first part of the book. The prose is absolutely amazing, and like nothing else I've ever read.
I decided to rate this book 3/5 stars, since I'm still kind of conflicted about my feelings towards it. It was definitely an experience reading it, but I didn't LIKE reading it. Like I said, I felt "off" most of the time while reading, mostly since it was creepy as hell and there were a lot of uncomfortable themes, as well as characters saying completely morbid things that generally aren't said in normal conversation.
But I did enjoy reading a book with completely unlikable characters, as well as the dark, Coraline-esque atmosphere, which was probably my favorite part of the whole book.

This sadly, was a DNF for me- I could not connect to the characters- and I thought that the plot was all over the place. I realize this is supposed to be a dark book but -Early on some of the content made me feel uncomfortable to the point- I just could not continue. Maybe I just didn't understand what the author was trying to do but the writing was a little confusing. The plot summary for this book was totally misleading. I was really looking forward to this one but it just was not for me. Maybe when it gets closer to the Pub date and more people read it- their reviews might sway me...but as of right now I honestly doubt it.

Never Contented Things is probably one of the most polarizing books I've ever read. Either readers are going to love it or hate it, so I'm actually surprised I fall in the middle. Easiest way to review this novel is to break it down into likes and dislikes.
Things I Liked:
The writing is beautiful: I loved the flowery, over descriptive paragraphs.
The hopeful message: At the core of the story is the idea that no matter what we have all gone through, we could find a way to survive.
The diverse characters: The characters are gender fluid with complex romantic attachments.
The cover: So beautiful!

Things I Disliked:
Lack of fairies: Took way too long for the fae to make their first appearance.
Sibling relationship: The ick factor was off the charts on that one.
Lack of action: The blurb fooled me into thinking this would be a fast-paced YA fantasy and it's not at all.

3/5 stars and a thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for review.

I really enjoy the writing of this book, but it got weird a little too quickly for me. One of the lines in particular really bothered me, where the older sister talks about strangers trying out the "softness" of her brother's skin, a 16 year old. I understand they are foster siblings, but the oddities of this made me really uncomfortable. I think if the author had worked their way into it a bit more instead of within the first few chapters it would have been easier to swallow. I was really intrigued by the magic in the story and definitely appreciated the writing but ultimately couldn't finish because I couldn't get past the incestual feel it gave me.

This review will be posted on Goodreads, my blog at natlockettwrites.com, and Amazon on March 1, 2019.

"Prince and his fairy courtiers are staggeringly beautiful, unrelentingly cruel, and exhausted by the tedium of the centuries―until they meet foster-siblings Josh and Ksenia. Drawn in by their vivid emotions, undying love for each other, and passion for life, Prince will stop at nothing to possess them.

First seduced and then entrapped by the fairies, Josh and Ksenia learn that the fairies' otherworldly gifts come at a terrible price―and they must risk everything in order to reclaim their freedom."

I pulled this directly from the Amazon page as it perfectly illustrates the initial problem I had with this book. Based on the reviews I knew not to expect The Cruel Prince-despite the use of the word "Prince" in the pitch. However, the way this book is being described is not at all what you should expect when you begin it. This is not good or bad, it is just fact. These are not the faeries you have come to expect in the advent of SJM and Holly Black. I would say they are closer to Melissa Marr, but even that isn't quite right. This book reads more like a horror than a fantasy.

Unusual, atmospheric, creepy-crawly. You spend most of the beginning trying to get your bearings and understand what is going on. You may be thinking that, that is typical of all books, but this...this is different.

The overall atmosphere in this book is impressive. Porter does a good job making you feel like you are not in the world you think you are. Someone mentioned they felt drugged while reading it-I would corroborate that. There comes a point where everything feels wrong-even physically you start to feel off.

Porter's writing style is a character in and of itself. It does take a little bit of effort to track it at times, but it is voicey and unique, characterized by long sentences and uncommon words.

I wanted to give myself the chance to like this book, but like many of the other reviews I've read, that incest conversation dialogue made me gag a bit. I almost DNF'd right there. Surprisingly, the incest wasn't the problem (it wasn't given the opportunity to be the problem, not that I think incest is ok), it was the dialogue itself that made me want to go take a shower.
"No, baby, it would be wrong. You're younger, I'd feel like I was taking advantage of you."
"Besides, we're basically brother and sister. Incest is frowned upon."

MAYBE it is just me-not that I think foster siblings should be getting jiggy with it-but I am not sure the word incest even had to come into play here? At least not as (pausing to think about how ridiculous this all sounds to me now) central as it does.

I'll also add that the character of Josh made me SUPER uncomfortable. The way he spoke in all of his dialogue sounded extremely childlike and he was very handsy. He pushes personal boundaries.

I hope, despite my own feelings, that people will give this book a chance. There are certainly people who will enjoy it. Unfortunately, that just isn't me.

Who will enjoy this book?
-People who like the unusual. I would recommend reading this book with NO expectations of what it will be. It might even be more fun that way.

-People who enjoy non-traditional MCs. Ksenia and Josh are much different than any characters I've seen at the forefront of a novel. They are very flawed and Ksenia, at least, feels very real.

-Horror fans. This book is a trip.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for giving me the opportunity to read this book before publication.

This book really should have been my jam, the synopsis sounded like something I would adore, instead, I struggled so hard to get through this. The three main characters were frustrating, their plight was boring, I was constantly asking if there were going to be any faeries in this faerie book. We are told so often how charming and adorable Joshua is, but I didn't see it, I was *told* ad nauseum about how fascinating and wonderful this chubby scene kid was, but I really wasn't shown it, I was shown a selfish cry-baby throughout the whole novel. Ksenia was dull, but we're told how interesting, intelligent, and unemotional she is while she chews scenery and hand-wrings through the whole thing. The danger posed to, let's face it, complete strangers to us didn't feel poignant, the relationship between Lexi and her sister felt saccharine and flat and her relationship to Ksenia (because I won't call her by that horrifying sounding nickname 'Kezzer") felt tacked on at the end. Also, if you're going to give your fairie a name that you have cleverly derived from the Unseelie Court, don't assume the majority of your readers will get it if you don't explain it and it's a vanity of your own creation that you've wasted. I only give one star to books I did not finish, so 2 stars, which I've given this, is bottom of the barrel for me.

A unique story about the world of the Fae that is wholly its own in every way. With just enough of a creepy edge to keep you thrilled into finishing this story, the world of Never-contented Things is sure to enchant you from page one.

If you are looking for a happy, feel-good fairy novel, then look elsewhere. Porter gives readers hard-to-love, extremely flawed characters that will make you feel uncomfortable for most of the novel. The hideous, deceitful fairie kingdom in this novel hark much more to the old-school fairie kingdom - alien, cold, who view humans nothing more than playthings, if not emotional food. The characters claw their way through their issues and faults, scrabbling for redemption. It is a hard road to redemption, and sometimes hard to take the journey with them - but if you persevere, it will be worth the rough and difficult ride.

I read 1/3 of this book and just couldn't finish the rest. The writing itself was poetic and haunting in a way that left me stunned. I loved her writing style overall but the plot had some major issues for me personally.

This is a really dark book that focuses on foster sibling incest, abuse, and self hatred. If you're going into this book with the hopes it will be similar to Holly Black's "The Cruel Prince, then you will be sorely disappointed. The main characters were well written and you really want to like them, but things happen to where you see that they are in a never ending cycle of abuse, hate, and are horribly wrong for one another. They are worse together than they are apart and I think they are so co-dependent on each other that they just can't see it.

Overall, this book wasn't what I was thinking it would be. The fae aspect really just wasn't there in the way I was hoping...it helped progress the story along, but it wasn't what the forefront of it. I couldn't stomach the foster-sibling incest aspect due to the main boy not understanding boundaries or the word no for that matter.

Sadly, a DNF for me.

Don't get me wrong, this concept is anazing! A dark fae story similar to the likes of The Cruel Prince (maybe TCP done right?? Sorry, I'm still bitter about that book to.) But this is not The Cruel Prince, it is not even remotely anything like TCP.

At the same time, I could only hope that the characters get better throughout the book because everything was just... what? My reaction is just that: "what?" Like, what even happened in this book? I get the whole thing of trying to confuse your readers with this fae presence and all but it just didn't do anything for me. Not mention the lack of fae in the first place, half way in and I'm still wondering where they are.

The plot was wonky and weird, and not that the good kind of weird. There was this awkward sibling relationship where they love each other but are foster siblings and I simply couldn't get into it. They're interesting characters to a point but not for me.

But, this book was basically not for me! I was left disappointed, but hey there's always next time.

Also, for some reason, there's no warning for the things in things in the book, so be warned for assult, abuse, and incest.

This is how you do scary fairies.

I really enjoyed this, although it was hard to get through at times. 1) The subject matter was occasionally a trifle disturbing (not necessarily a bad thing). 2) The paragraphs tended to be long, with dense, flowery writing. The descriptions were probably my favorite thing about this book, and I can't fault the writing, however much it might have slowed down my eyes sometimes.

Having read several fairy books where the evil, cruel fairies are... not evil or cruel, this book came as something of a surprise. I guess I had been lulled into complacency by those other books, because I was surprised this turned out to be a dark as it did. I expected some kind of romance with the fairies in question, but that's so far from what actually happened.

My one gripe with the book is that it's a little light on plot. Normally this isn't much of a problem, but with all that lush writing, I kind of needed something more going on. Oh, there's action, and a lot of self-searching among the characters, but somehow it didn't quite balance. It was like, I need to describe all this beautiful clothing and dangerous fairies and weird occurrences, so I'll just whip up some characters and stick them in a town and see what happens. However, those characters were all fully fleshed, with unique voices in their separate POVs, which is no small thing.

Overall, this is a must-read for people tired of watered-down fae. It might not be an easy read and it deals with some uncomfortable subject matter, but it's very well-done.

I heard buzz about this book specifically on Twitter, and I'm really into faeries right now, so I wanted to try this!

Likes
As evidenced by my rating, I didn't like much. I have to give some brownie points to the fact that there was an air of mystery to the story, including the disappearing children and how it related back to the main plot. The idea of a "deal with the devil" mentality that Josh fell victim to was also intriguing. I thought the changelings were an interesting addition, as I haven't seen that in too many faeire books before, and it worked with the overarching storyline that was being portrayed. I liked Lexi the most character-wise and I thought she was commendable for not giving up on her friend and facing some really difficult choices. There was also a minor LGBT moment that appeared to have done well.

Dislikes
Unfortunately, there were a lot more dislikes in this one for me. I am surprised that I didn't DNF this title, as it did take me about 50% through the book for me to become interested in what was going to happen next. The first half is just really weird. First, Josh and Ksenia's relationship. I... don't even know what to say. It was cringey and the 'baby' petname weirded me out. The relationship seemed obsessive from Josh's side and uncomfortable from Ksenia's. I was disappointed with the lack of world-building. I have to say here that I have read other books with the faerie realm and so I have experience with this sort of world. I didn't feel anything from the faerie characters and Prince didn't even grow on me like the villainous faeries usually do. There was also confusion surrounding what was real and what was not; this may have been the intention but, like Ksenia, I was confused trying to figure it out. I didn't feel any connection with the characters much at all. This is really important to me in a novel and I just didn't get that feeling of actually caring what happens to them, I desperately was left wanting more from this book due to my expectations but it just fell flat.

DNFed this at about 25%. WTF did I just read?

The synopsis of this is not actually what this book is about, and I found it completely misleading. So if you are all screaming, "OMG, this sounds just like The Cruel Prince!!", STOP right there because this is NOTHING like The Cruel Prince and likening this to that glorious piece of fantasy fiction is extremely offensive.

I had such a hard time following along what the heck was actually happening and who these characters were supposed to be. The writing and its descriptions were completely confusing. Porter tried to create this fantastical world but I kept going "huh?". It was too unrefined, too all over the place. I felt like I was on some sort of drug induced high trying to read this.

And then there was the awkward plot of the story. Two foster siblings who had an unhealthy codependency on each other. Josh, who was completely in love with this foster sister, in an extremely unhealthy way, and Kezzer who just let it happen. There were other serious tones to this plot that didn't seem to add up to its "fantasy" label. Even 25% in we are barely introduced to this "fairey court". I was waiting for it, but by that point if we haven't seen it, I don't feel like sticking around for the chance that it will.

Also for those young readers who do read this and have been abused or assaulted or have been in unhealthy relationships, there should definitely be some sort of trigger warning of that from the author.

I couldn't bring myself to read part 2, and soon as I got to it, I decided that this book was just not for me.

Absolutely loved this book! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. Will definitely be recommending to customers at my work!

I received this book as an ARC from Macmillan-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Usually Gothic fantasy does not strike me as much as YFantasy/Romance does but after the first few pages I was hooked in and could not stop reading. This book just got more dramatic as you read on with every twist and turn imaginable. Dark Faeries seem to be very popular amongst our young adult patrons and this book is full of them left and right including the back story of Josh and Ksenia (very cool name by the way and I really would like to know how to pronounce this name) and how they met Prince and his obsession to stop at nothing to possess them. This book will be enjoyed amongst young adult teens everywhere and is sure to do very well at our library.

We will consider adding this title to our young adult fantasy collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

REVIEW WILL BE PUBLIC ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GOODREADS MARCH 12TH

This book will not be for everyone. It is dark. It is confronting and it has some pretty dark and twisted undertones. **POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING**

Never Contented Things tells the story of Ksenia, Josh and Lexi from each of their point of views alternating between their voices throughout the book.

Ksenia and Josh are foster siblings with a borderline incestuous relationship that only isn't based on the ideal that they're not blood relations. This makes the beginning of the book very uncomfortable and the dialogue can get incredibly cliche.

Josh is a flamboyant, polygamous character that starts off very self assured (and obsessed with Ksenia)

Ksenia is an alternatively elegant, androgynous, pansexual girl that starts off broken after being abandoned by her drug addict mother, who lied about who her father was and resulted in Ksenia going into foster care where she was raped by her previous foster brother and the rape covered up by her then foster parents who blamed her, protected their rapist son and kicked her out.

Ksenia and Josh form an intense bond that then morphs into something truly terrifying and ugly after Josh is kidnapped and Ksenia becomes the prime suspect of his murder. Until she commits suicide and dies in their arms of their mutual best friend Lexi. Or so some think.

The truth is far more disturbing and a twisted tale of obsession, love, magic, consent, betrayal and friendship.

This book was almost a DNF but I pushed past the initial discomfort and ended up really enjoying this book.

This book is certainly NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED but... 75% of the book is masterfully written, drip feeding us information about our plot and characters and building gradually until reaching a terrifying crescendo and the shattering everything into pieces again.

This book will make you assess who you really are and what makes you human. How many pieces of a person make up their identity and how fluid that sense of self can be and how others can tamper with that.

Overall I would recommend this if you can stomach horror and thriller books because I've seen other reviews have been too disturbed to read this. Dark and twisted is sort of my niche so I could relate to a lot of the content without being triggered but others may not feel the same.

Hol-eeee cow. I don't think I've ever put down a book as fast as this one.

I was a little weirded out by the romance factor between the protagonist and her younger foster brother, especially when he crawled into bed with her and prompted this conversation:

"No, baby, it would be wrong. You're younger....besides, we're basically brother and sister. Incest is frowned upon."
"What about when I'm eighteen?" he'd ask.
...."Maybe when you're twenty-one," I'd finally told him.
..."Oho! So you're saying it won't be incest anymore, once I'm twenty-one?"
"It won't be incest anymore, once you don't need me to take care of you."

Ooooohhhh boy. I think this might be the creepiest dialogue I've ever read in any YA book? For like, so many reasons. Like, maybe don't call your brother-lover 'baby' when he's in bed with you, feeling you up? And also, it won't be incest anymore once you're not a caretaker?! THAT'S NOW HOW INCEST WORKS.

But okay, soldier on, I told myself. Every book has its bumpy moments, and we're still just in the beginning here, and this is an arc, maybe it's still finding it's stride, give it a little more time. And then I ran into this description a few pages later and literally set the book down in shock.

"Sometime on the third afternoon, Josh's friend Derrick corned me outside a gas station bathroom. A lanky redhead with the all-American face you'd expect above an assault rifle: a perfect face for shooting up malls."

We live in a day and age when there are mass shootings regularly on the news, new victims and violence every month. And this is the casual way a character is described, as if 'public shooter' is an archetypical profile along the lines of a mustachioed villain tying women to railroad tracks and not a current, living nightmare that schools have to train for now, that rips people apart, that could happen anywhere, be anyone. Holy...okay.

The fact that the author thought this was an okay way to describe a character, when in fact public shooters are often born from mental illness and bullying, and this perpetuates judging others by their looks and continues to feed into the problem - I realize it is just one line, but at this point my discomfort level reached a record high and I had to stop. DNF at 7%.

Hello, my review will go up on my Instagram, blog, and Goodreads on March 6th, 2019. The review will also be added to Amazon and Barnes & Noble on the book's publication date. Links to reviews will be added when they are public, thank you.

Title: Never-Contented Things
Author: Sarah Porter
Publication Date: March 19th, 2019
Rating: 1 star
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley

Never-Contented Things follows foster-siblings Josh and Ksenia as they become entangled with fairies and find out that their gifts come with a price.

I had a few expectations going into this book because the synopsis mentioned fairies but what I read didn't add up to anything I could have ever imagined and it got weird quick.

The weirdest, most uncomfortable part was the relationship between Josh and Ksenia. Of course, they aren't actually siblings but she puts herself in a caregiver role so it just doesn't seem right. Also, the word baby in this book was used one too many times and was very cringey.

Even if their relationship was not part of the book I didn't like any of the characters. They were flat and Josh was rather annoying. I also thought that Prince would have a much larger role in the story than he did. There was enchantments at work but he was more of a behind-the-scenes guy as were a majority of the fairies. I wanted more fairies and a fairy world but the reality they were in was basically another version of the not siblings house.

Overall, I didn't like this book for many reasons. This is one you have to go in with no expectations and probably without reading the synopsis. I hope others have more success with liking it because there are some great concepts but the execution was not there.