Reviews

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

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bonersniper's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

teenykins's review against another edition

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4.0

This is my first C.S. Pacat book. Will it be my last? Heck no!

The writing was marvelous and I was really swept away in it. Epic Fantasy with lovely imagery, fleshed out characters and an amazing good Vs evil battle BUT but with major twists!!!

Frankly I'm expecting Will

Spoiler

to become the champion and cleanse the sword, because even at the end of this part of the story, he fought off his deep inside dark influences

. As it is, the way the story left us I'm still wondering

Spoiler

who the heck is the villainous evil, because I highly doubt Will would be it. As I said I expect him to become the champion

. I was thinking that maybe Catherine after

Spoiler

touching the sword she'd somehow become evil, but nope, she froze over so *shrugs*

.

Amazing, marvelous narration of a new to me narrator, Christian Coulson. Hoping I'd find him in other LGBTQIA titles, but since Dark Rise is Queer YA, and not technically full on out M/M Epic Fantasy Romance, I have my doubts.

I'm going with 4 stars for a couple of reasons:
- 1. I know there is no parthenogenesis in art, but there is also quite the gap between a story reminiscing strongly of other famous Epic Fantasy stories in a point here and there and doing so frequently. Here we had the frequent kind.
- 2. Catherine was such a cliché! It was exasperating! Even Violet and Elizabeth touched a bit of the street urchin and the bratty younger sister clichés but their roles being so much more dynamic than Catherine's was, it was easier to just bypass those.
- 3. And the last cliché was of course who Will, Catherine and Elizabeth truly were. Although depending on how Pacat will decide to move the story, and let me tell you is quite ambivalent right now, that can actually change.

I will always ship James and Will! And I'm truly curious to fit the puzzle of Simon being engaged to Catherine, because there are pieces missing there!