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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
idk why this book took me so long to finish but once i got into it, was a quick read. so many things to love; wlw, a mystery, a group of unlovable characters on a quest, fmc who is lowkey not self aware and brooding, YEARNING, “sunshine” love interest! chefs kiss
Saints, did the synopsis of this have me hooked. However, my overall consensus is that of mild disinterest.
The creatures (wildeleute) were fantastical, and description of the environment and aether/magic were wonderful. I was mostly intrigued by the FMC being a folklorist, and while some of the folklore snippets were great, they were interspersed in a very contrived manner that did not feel authentic to the natural flow of the story.
The majority of the characters were insufferable, but I had a particularly difficult time remaining invested in the FMC. Lorelei struggles with rampant unresolved trauma and internalized anti-semitism to the degree that her nickname is the “viper” for how cruelly she lashes out at others. It’s a challenge to find redeemable qualities or root for her during the story. I love an academic rivalry and opposites attract, but it didn’t present genuinely when **SPOILERS** the manic pixie dream girl harboured unrequited amorous feelings for the FMC, even after being viciously betrayed by her.
The creatures (wildeleute) were fantastical, and description of the environment and aether/magic were wonderful. I was mostly intrigued by the FMC being a folklorist, and while some of the folklore snippets were great, they were interspersed in a very contrived manner that did not feel authentic to the natural flow of the story.
The majority of the characters were insufferable, but I had a particularly difficult time remaining invested in the FMC. Lorelei struggles with rampant unresolved trauma and internalized anti-semitism to the degree that her nickname is the “viper” for how cruelly she lashes out at others. It’s a challenge to find redeemable qualities or root for her during the story. I love an academic rivalry and opposites attract, but it didn’t present genuinely when **SPOILERS** the manic pixie dream girl harboured unrequited amorous feelings for the FMC, even after being viciously betrayed by her.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this one. I like Lorelei a lot and I appreciated how much worldbuilding went into this. The world felt rich and vibrant.
I really liked the intro to the folk tales always being the same (Back when wishes still had power...) because it marked a clear point where the actual narrative stopped and the story Lorelei was telling us started. I understand why I've seen some critics call it repetitive, but when you're talking about a folk tale in a fantasy world, the clear marker was very helpful. We also do the exact same thing with folk tales and fairy tales (Once upon a time...) so it didn't feel out of place or awkward.
4 stars due to a few typos and errors, I feel like this could have done with one final sweep from an editor. I also wasn't a massive fan of the ending - the two characters talking about marriage at the end didn't know each other well enough romantically to get married IMO and I really dislike the "disappears for months only to suddenly reappear and propose" trope.
I really liked the intro to the folk tales always being the same (Back when wishes still had power...) because it marked a clear point where the actual narrative stopped and the story Lorelei was telling us started. I understand why I've seen some critics call it repetitive, but when you're talking about a folk tale in a fantasy world, the clear marker was very helpful. We also do the exact same thing with folk tales and fairy tales (Once upon a time...) so it didn't feel out of place or awkward.
4 stars due to a few typos and errors, I feel like this could have done with one final sweep from an editor. I also wasn't a massive fan of the ending - the two characters talking about marriage at the end didn't know each other well enough romantically to get married IMO and I really dislike the "disappears for months only to suddenly reappear and propose" trope.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book wants to do many things, and while you could argue that it does them all, it somehow does them all wrong.
It doesn’t deliver the dark academia it promises at all. The atmospheric writing is there, but it moves us further and further away from the academic world, and the discoveries being made aren’t grounded enough for the reader to actually care about the way the world is configured or the creatures that inhabit it, which, while creative, aren’t fully fleshed enough to make you understand the stakes, and just leave you confused most of the time. The murder mystery is perhaps the most interesting part about it, but the way they go about investigating it is not the best either.
The romance is not that unbelievable, but as a reader you have a hard time rooting for the relationship when the main character’s insecurity makes her bitter and unapproachable while the love interest acts like a perfect saint time and time again—which is fine, I have no issues with unlikeable characters… unless they’re also stupid, which our main character definitely is.
The secondary characters are an amalgam of stereotypes that could, again, manage to be well-fleshed if they had more room to breathe or if most of the relationships between them weren’t already formed at the beginning of the book—definitely to make you and the main character feel like outsiders, but at their detriment,
All of those collide in the world building, which could make for a way more thought-provoking story. It sets up a politically conflicted world that could develop into a very interesting game of power with many parts in place,
All in all, they do go on an adventure, and there’s a murder and huge disagreements, and a sapphic romance, and none of it it’s satisfactory whatsoever.
It doesn’t deliver the dark academia it promises at all. The atmospheric writing is there, but it moves us further and further away from the academic world, and the discoveries being made aren’t grounded enough for the reader to actually care about the way the world is configured or the creatures that inhabit it, which, while creative, aren’t fully fleshed enough to make you understand the stakes, and just leave you confused most of the time. The murder mystery is perhaps the most interesting part about it, but the way they go about investigating it is not the best either.
The romance is not that unbelievable, but as a reader you have a hard time rooting for the relationship when the main character’s insecurity makes her bitter and unapproachable while the love interest acts like a perfect saint time and time again—which is fine, I have no issues with unlikeable characters… unless they’re also stupid, which our main character definitely is.
Spoiler
Seriously, the letters’ thing pissed me off so bad.The secondary characters are an amalgam of stereotypes that could, again, manage to be well-fleshed if they had more room to breathe or if most of the relationships between them weren’t already formed at the beginning of the book—definitely to make you and the main character feel like outsiders, but at their detriment,
Spoiler
even when you end up siding with them on the big final battle, probably against the writer’s wishes.All of those collide in the world building, which could make for a way more thought-provoking story. It sets up a politically conflicted world that could develop into a very interesting game of power with many parts in place,
Spoiler
yet not only does it not play into that, but it reinforces the colonialism situation presented to us in the beginning, disregarding the very realistic complaints of the countries annexed while at the same time ignoring the issues experienced by a people being abused and often even killed because of their ethnicity, to the point they’re introduced as a background for the main character backstory but not addressed at the end of the book, when she manages to get what she wants and gets away from her roots.All in all, they do go on an adventure, and there’s a murder and huge disagreements, and a sapphic romance, and none of it it’s satisfactory whatsoever.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was solidly okay for me. The beginning felt super slow and confusing and then the end felt very rushed. Lorelei was kind of insufferable with a lot of self sabotaging tendencies and Sylvia was just kinda ditzy. I really didn’t know what was going on until about 50% of the way in and then things picked up but once they found what they were looking for the tail end felt really rushed. It was an okay read I did enjoy the romance and there were some cool twists but it wasn’t my favorite
on hold - to continue after finals
pre-read
13.10.2024
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pre-read
13.10.2024
˚˖
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The fantasy murder mystery political intrigue adventure book you didn’t know you needed.
And yes - all of that is in these +/- 300 pages.
The world building is top tier- the storyline needed more flushing out.
The world was so rich and fantastical, which was so fun to read but on the other hand it felt like the plot needed some more time to fully develop all the ideas that were written into the story. There was a lot going on in a good way but it was all surface level and some things just needed more time to make it more impactful. I don’t think anything in the story should have been cut, I think it could have done with an extra 200 pages to really get into the meat of it so to speak.
The main character is very moody, and Pessimistic- so seeing the world from her POV exclusively kind of downplayed the wonder in this fantasy world. She also like doesn’t love her job- wanting to study something else but being gifted the rare opportunity to study folklore instead really put a damper on things.
I didn’t hate her like I know a lot of other people do, because I think you need to understand what made her so moody in the first place. There is a lot of prejudice in the book for the main characters culture and heritage that heavily impact her choices and behaviour. Her people aren’t allowed to use magic because of other ruling parties hate and misguided sense of justice. And so our main character has magic and can’t tell anyone about it in fear of being killed or attacked. But that doesn’t really play a big part of the story in the end, for something that was insisted upon in the first half of the book.
The magic system wasn’t really explained 100% either, either everyone apparently having water bending ability and that’s it. You’d think that each fictional nation would have their own specialty and that’s why Lorelei’s people were so feared and hunted but no. It felt like that’s what the other was intending to do at times but had to cut it out or changed it to be more simplistic in mind of how dense the rest of the book is.
The story was heavily inspired by real world mythology so a lot of the creatures we encounter don’t get a full description. They just show up with a brief intro and the rest is up to letting you use your imagination and prior knowledge to fill in the blanks which was fun. The book could have used a brief appendix of characters to keep reference as you read as it gets a tad confusing after a bit but not terribly so.
The romance - again see through our grump main girls POV is ver much in the subtext as our main character won’t notice the signs of flirtation or even friendship related care as she is 1000% sure everyone hates her and wants her dead so all the moments that would be cute pinning is just out main girl being confused. A lot like Katniss Everdeen in the first hunger games book, especially the moment when Peetas dad is like here have a cookie good luck in the games and Katniss is like omg he’s trying to poison me so his son will win. It’s that energy. So it’s hard to see the romance building, and that’s one of the few reasons they needed the other girls POV, to really build their relationship- before and and during the present story- and to show how wondrous the world is from the perspective of someone who isn’t oppressed or fearing for their very existence. She is also in a position of power so that would have bridged the gap in her character to even out her persona and her actual ambitions.
There were a lot of side-main characters in the squad and to be fair they each have their own unique personality and reasons to be suspected of murder so you do t forget about them too much. None of them are likeable except for one- LUDWIG IS A PRECIOUS BB TRUST ME- but we do learn more about them the more our main characters is investigating the murder like a good Clue player.
I will say if you are here for the romance just don’t- it’s more of a murder mystery with a subplot of romance, so far down in the subplot.
All in all though it was an enjoyable read with a surprisingly good amount of action scenes and a decent murder mystery and full of fantastical creatures and settings.
And yes - all of that is in these +/- 300 pages.
The world building is top tier- the storyline needed more flushing out.
The world was so rich and fantastical, which was so fun to read but on the other hand it felt like the plot needed some more time to fully develop all the ideas that were written into the story. There was a lot going on in a good way but it was all surface level and some things just needed more time to make it more impactful. I don’t think anything in the story should have been cut, I think it could have done with an extra 200 pages to really get into the meat of it so to speak.
The main character is very moody, and Pessimistic- so seeing the world from her POV exclusively kind of downplayed the wonder in this fantasy world. She also like doesn’t love her job- wanting to study something else but being gifted the rare opportunity to study folklore instead really put a damper on things.
I didn’t hate her like I know a lot of other people do, because I think you need to understand what made her so moody in the first place. There is a lot of prejudice in the book for the main characters culture and heritage that heavily impact her choices and behaviour. Her people aren’t allowed to use magic because of other ruling parties hate and misguided sense of justice. And so our main character has magic and can’t tell anyone about it in fear of being killed or attacked. But that doesn’t really play a big part of the story in the end, for something that was insisted upon in the first half of the book.
The magic system wasn’t really explained 100% either, either everyone apparently having water bending ability and that’s it. You’d think that each fictional nation would have their own specialty and that’s why Lorelei’s people were so feared and hunted but no. It felt like that’s what the other was intending to do at times but had to cut it out or changed it to be more simplistic in mind of how dense the rest of the book is.
The story was heavily inspired by real world mythology so a lot of the creatures we encounter don’t get a full description. They just show up with a brief intro and the rest is up to letting you use your imagination and prior knowledge to fill in the blanks which was fun. The book could have used a brief appendix of characters to keep reference as you read as it gets a tad confusing after a bit but not terribly so.
The romance - again see through our grump main girls POV is ver much in the subtext as our main character won’t notice the signs of flirtation or even friendship related care as she is 1000% sure everyone hates her and wants her dead so all the moments that would be cute pinning is just out main girl being confused. A lot like Katniss Everdeen in the first hunger games book, especially the moment when Peetas dad is like here have a cookie good luck in the games and Katniss is like omg he’s trying to poison me so his son will win. It’s that energy. So it’s hard to see the romance building, and that’s one of the few reasons they needed the other girls POV, to really build their relationship- before and and during the present story- and to show how wondrous the world is from the perspective of someone who isn’t oppressed or fearing for their very existence. She is also in a position of power so that would have bridged the gap in her character to even out her persona and her actual ambitions.
There were a lot of side-main characters in the squad and to be fair they each have their own unique personality and reasons to be suspected of murder so you do t forget about them too much. None of them are likeable except for one- LUDWIG IS A PRECIOUS BB TRUST ME- but we do learn more about them the more our main characters is investigating the murder like a good Clue player.
I will say if you are here for the romance just don’t- it’s more of a murder mystery with a subplot of romance, so far down in the subplot.
All in all though it was an enjoyable read with a surprisingly good amount of action scenes and a decent murder mystery and full of fantastical creatures and settings.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Violence, Antisemitism, Murder, Classism
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes