Compared to the description and what we got I was completely disappointed and by 25% have given up. If you are planning on reading this because it is being geared towards fan of The Cruel Prince, I would suggest not too. NEVER-CONTENTED THINGS and THE CRUEL PRINCE are in two different realms content wise.Though I liked Porter's writing style that was all I could really say I did enjoy about this book. In what I read I was't expecting the strange and complex relationship that Josh and Ksenia have. For a book that is suppose to be about the fae from the 25% that I read there is no fae. None are even mentioned. Sadly this one wasn't for me.

I wasn’t aware of the hard topics that are in this book when I requested to read it. The synopsis didn’t let on that there would be these topics. I was expecting something similar to The Cruel Prince but this was MUCH darker.
After the first part, I decided that I can’t force myself to read any more of it.

3.5 “If you let yourself feel how empty the sky is, you know you’re always falling into an enormous hole.”

To start, if you are looking for a book like a certain cruel, wicked, and fae driven YA series (I was), this book will NOT make you happy. If you are looking to read something that has non-traditional main characters, dark fairies as an accessory, and a very dark magical Labyrinth (yes my age is showing) feel to it, then you will LOVE Never-Contented Things.

The relationships are unhealthy at best. There are betrayals, secrets, and lies. But at the heart of this story it’s kind of a question of forgiveness. Like how can we love someone who has wronged us? Can we forgive someone for wrongs they’ve done when they aren’t really themselves? Especially when it’s someone you can relate to so well. Someone who understands you on another level that no one else does.

“How can everything become nothing, just because someone did something wrong?”

Personally this story did not work for me. It may simply be because I had expectations from the synopsis that were in no way close to being met. I think this is a GOOD and unique story. One that hasn’t been told over and over in the YA world. I think being “fresh” works in Never-Contended Things favor. I grasp what the author was going for, and think that there is a very niche group of people who will LOVE this book. Sadly. I can’t sit at their table, because I didn’t love it.

I’m given this book a 3.5, and rounding up to 4 for goodreads because it is well written, unique, and takes you on a crazy dark (YA standard) ride. I don’t feel right rating it lower simply because it doesn’t appeal to me. That being said. I’d maybe edit the synopsis. In my opinion it is SERIOUSLY misleading to anyone who has read a certain other YA series.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter is a YA Fantasy style novel set in modern times. Two foster siblings become involved in an odd group of what seem to be hippies in the forest and what ensues is a fight for soul survival.

I found this book a little too left of field for me. It was hard to engage with the characters and become involved in the story when I was constantly thinking what the? thats weird? I don't understand?

Some readers of Fantasy may enjoy this but I didn't really.

I think Sarah Porter has a very specific audience for her books. If you like sort-of incestuous romance and no particular plot to speak of, you will enjoy this book.

Reading this book was a big challenge for me. First of all, I deceived myself by believing Never-Contended Things would be similar to The Wicked King. But Never-Contended Things is a story under an absolutely different sauce. It's a tale of two foster kids Josh and Ksenia, who love each other more than anything, bordering on obsession. Faeries are just a side dish to Josh's and Ksenia's story.

Secondly, if you look deeper you'll see a story of codependents and almost-incest, though Josh and Ksenia are not blood-related, it still felt like their feelings for each other were too twisted for the average sibling relationship. Faeries were just an instrument to create a surrealistic atmosphere where everything is a turned upside down reminiscent version of our world, swirling around Josh's and Ksenia's feelings.

I was never a fan of surrealism or magic realism, so I was not able to grasp the concept of this story and to enjoy it fully. I was standing away like a passerby, observing the poisonous circle of lies, love, obsession and redemption, but I was not sympathizing with or feeling for Josh and Ksenia.

The language was lush and darkly alluring, the atmosphere electric with eeriness and magic. Sarah Porter masterly created a world full of magical and psychological references that blend together seamlessly. But in my opinion, it is a story for a narrow circle of readers who will be able to appreciate and understand the aforementioned references. Unfortunately or fortunately I am not that kind of reader.

Verdict: not my cup of tea!

This book was ok but it didn't really wow me. I feel that with the multitude of fairy books available atm, you need something different to draw readers in, and this just didn't do that for me. I didn't bond with any of the characters and just felt the whole book fell a bit flat.

I know faerie's are a big thing now, since Cruel Prince has been hyped up and well, I went into this because it seemed like it had the kinds of faeries that I love and personally enjoy. But no, just no. This book... this little book was a hot mess and it seemed like the author was struggling to string together a unique storyline. And the fact that it seemed she was so focused on making the faeries cruel... i think she tried too hard and it had no appeal.

It was a little hard to get into at first but when I did, the story exploded. I really liked it. The world was awesome and the characters were epic.

Review posted on Goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2673442951?book_show_action=false

Before I actually get in to the nitty gritty of it all, I think it’s probably best to start by pointing out that the description of this story is misleading. Given the recent popularity in Fae and Faerie led novels, I imagine a lot of readers will come to NCT expecting something similar to The Cruel Prince or An Enchantment of Ravens, which is where I suspect the majority of negative reviews and DNFs will come from. This novel does not romanticise the Fae mythology as a lot of current novels are wont to do.

Sarah Porter’s NCT is something that reads more in the realms of horror, with Prince, Unselle and their fellow companions being altogether the most sinister portrayal of fae that I have had the pleasure of reading. Porter’s imagery of the havoc that is experienced by Ksenia, Josh and Lexi in both the Fae and human realms is as vivid as it is unsettling.

I was also surprised at how little the fae were ‘on screen’, especially Prince who is essentially billed as the Big Bad in the description. Instead, a lot of the focus is on Ksenia and Joshua and their relationship with each other. This in itself is difficult to swallow at times as although they are foster-siblings, the co-dependency between them is unhealthy and Josh’s romantic and sexual feelings towards Ksenia alongside his treatment and manipulation of her is something I found extremely uncomfortable to read, especially as we learn about Ksenia’s history and past sexual abuse. That said, although it is uncomfortable to read, I don’t think readers should be discouraged.

Porter uses Lexi and Ksenia’s relationship contrasting against Ksenia and Josh’s relationship to illustrate the difference between a healthy and unhealthy relationship. One of my personal highlights was being able to read about Ksenia’s recovery of her time and experience in the Fae realm and how Lexi helps her acknowledge that she needs to fight her personal demons for herself and not because it will make Lexi happy. I think this was one of my key moments for Ksenia as it felt like a lot of her personality and motivations were based around what would make Josh happy.

If I have any negative comments to express about Never Contented Things apart from Sarah Porter’s writing being sometimes hard to follow, it is mainly that in order to illustrate Josh as the ‘Good Sibling’ and Ksenia as the ‘Bad Sibling’ from outsider perspectives, characters like Emma become almost comically villainous in how they blame Ksenia for Josh’s disappearance at the beginning of the novel rather than potentially blaming Josh for Ksenia’s ‘death’. However, I do believe that Ksenia’s treatment by both sets of her foster parents is an excellent commentary on the treatment of sexual assault and abuse victims and survivors by society as a whole.

I received an e-ARC of Never Contented Things from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Josh and Ksenia are foster children, that have grown up together for the last 6 years, however now that Ksenia is turning 18 she is going to have to leave the house and go live somewhere else, and Josh cant have that. Josh is in love with Ksenia and he cant imagine anything he wouldnt do to make sure that they could stay together and make sure he loved her like he really wants to. One night a group of strangers come, and suddenly Josh is gone, and a chance for him to possibly make his wish to stay together with Ksenia arises. What has Josh done, and can Ksenia live with the choices he made to bring it all about.

This book was a bit tough for me to read, at times I think that part of it was due to the main characters both being a bit childish, but then I remembered they are teens so they will act that way, even as much as it is frustrating to read.

What I didnt like about this book:

First let me start with something pretty basic, I really felt like the "bad guys" in the book didnt really get much attention as far as descriptions other than saying who they were and what they looked like. Why were they in the town where Josh was other than just a chance opportunity? WHy did they give Josh the chance to make this world for him and Ksenia? Why did they want the children? Unfortunately none of these questions was answered by this book. It felt like she was maybe thinking about making a sequel but wanted to judge the waters first and not make you feel like you were going to need to invest time and effort for more than one book, but because of this regardless of the answer this made the book a bit flat.

I felt that the description of the book was a bit misleading, it made it seem like this was going to be a faerie type book, and while it could have been that it really didnt have to be that. Princes people could have just as easily been aliens as faeries, or for that matter old gods or something along those lines considering how much power they had.

What I liked about this book:

There is a point in the book where they are talking about Josh's sexuality and they describe him as liking people, he doesnt like men or women just people. This is by far one of the best book descriptions of Pansexuality that I have read in quite a while, this book should be commended on having those characters. Both Josh and Ksenia are what you might call androgynous and this only adds to the liking people part of the story.

When the book switches to Lexis POV the first time its like a light comes on. Lexi is a much more level headed character than either Josh or Ksenia, she brings something else to the story, and in the end she even adds to the whole equation of just liking people in general. She is by far the most reliable story teller in this book.

Overall a decent book, there are some things that I didnt love about the book but I would call it a 3 star book.

I would recommend this book to anyone that maybe wants a different take on faeries, or magic, and also wants a bit of a queer romance sprinkled with some pain and torture.

I’m a sucker for faeries. Anything with the Fey is an automatic read for me. I really liked the concept and Ksnenia and Lexi. The language was beautiful, and I swear I spent more time contemplating the chapter titles than doing anything else. Nowhere was so beautifully and imaginatively written.

I found Josh completely unredeemable. He was annoying and selfish and awful in every sense of the word. Reading his section was infuriating. That the Delbos family wanted to adopt him makes them awful in my mind, too. He was just the worst and I liked Ksenia a little less for liking him, despite their history. And there were far too many exclamation points when he talked.

I wish Xand’s death had more emotional resonance. I actually wish there had been a lot more reflection on the weight of things as they were happening because the emotions could have been teased out with her lovely writing.

All that said, I really enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read whatever Sarah Porter does next. She is a masterful writer.

Truthfully, I am not sure how to write this review. I was not in love, or even in like, with this book. While there were bits and pieces I enjoyed, they were rather far and few between. Now that isn't to say that this was not a good book, because it was. It just wasn't the book for me. As a side note, I did skim a majority of this book.

Let's start with what I did enjoy: The three main characters were very diverse! Ksenia, often mistaken for a boy, is an androgynous character who likes both boys and girls. Josh is fun and flamboyant, also is interested in both boys and girls. Then finally, Lexi who initially has a boyfriend but then finds herself leaning towards girls. I also found myself enjoying the overall idea of the cruel faeries.

Now, what I was not the biggest fan of: Ksenia and Josh's relationship even though they were foster siblings and not blood-related. I'm not sure if it was the maturity level, the slight age gap, or something else entirely but it just did not sit right with me. The way Ksenia called Josh baby also was not my thing. Granted, this could have been the entire point the author was making with their relationship. Next, Josh as a character. I just couldn't with some of his actions. Not to mention the reactions of some of the characters. With the insanity that was happening, it was like the characters were thinking "well gee this is a little strange, but no big deal". Meanwhile I was thinking "um, this is a big freaking deal... why are you not freaking out more?!". It was too unrealistic to me. Lastly, the descriptions were too overdone for me. I found myself almost hyper-focusing on some of the descriptive words and losing what was even going on.

Again, this was not the book for me but that doesn't mean it won't be the book for someone else. I definitely suggest that you give it a chance and form your own opinion!

I had such high hopes for this book but they were dashed horribly dashed. The story did not live up to the description. The characters were just weird and not likeable at all. The whole fae plot line didn't come about till far into the book and wasn't up to the hype. I am so disappointed with this story. I was really hoping this would be my favorite read of this year.

DNF at 17%. I could not get into this AT ALL. The weird relationship between Josh and Ksenia was extremely cringeworthy. Plus, he didn’t really seem to care that she was freaking out about when he was missing, so that was nice.

At 17% there should have been more fairy involvement than what we got. As a reader, it was easy to tell that their world changed, but to have to wait for Ksenia to figure it out was getting boring.

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.