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alexga's review against another edition
This book is extremely poorly written. It's overwritten, dialogue structure abysmal, inner monologue repetitive and full of badly offered exposition. 41% of the book and more than half of it is filler. Something happens only like 5% of the time, everything else is just description and description and description. Her every action is followed by page long report of her thought process and explanation on why she did it. Every time she feels something, there is another page long description of exactly how she feels and why she feels this way.
Imagine me telling you a story about how I get to work every day and it's this:
I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning because that's when I need to start getting ready to go out. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth since I want to get rid of unpleasant smell and feeling I get in my mouth every time I wake up from nightly sleep. I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I wash my hair because it has been 2 days since the last time I did it and my hair usually gets dirty by this point. I check my social media on the phone which was a gift from my older brother who I grew up with and who terrorized me my whole childhood. Unexplainable sadness strikes my heart when I think about my brother. The feeling starts as a flicked of pain and slowly spreads to my throat, my head and down my limbs. We have not talked in a long time.
I try to distract myself from thoughts about my family by making myself busy. I put on a kettle and turn on my toaster so that I can make myself a toast. While the water is getting hot and my bread being toasted, I scroll through twitter and Instagram. No notifications and I'm not surprised because I don't talk to a lot of people. Once the toast is toasted and coffee ready, I put my device aside and enjoy my breakfast. When I was a child I couldn't have a toast because we didn't have a toaster. Once I moved out from my family home toaster was the first thing I bought from my new place which I rent... You get the gist. This is not art. This is a Writing part of foreign language test where you are trying to show off your knowledge, so you include as much unnecessary information as possible.
Yes, exposition is necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot, but it should be done properly. The Blood Trials is a perfect example of how you should not do it. Except for battle scenes you will not find a single page where there is no exposition. It's in dialogue, it's in inner monologue; it's in games and trials.
The book tried to set specific tone. I guess it was going for "An Ember in the Ashes" kind of vibe but it failed miserably. Every time out FMC does anything badass it was cringe. The way she talks to her instructors is cringe. They don't owe you shit. They are your higher ups. Why are you talking to them as if you raised them?
Ikenna is a terrible protagonist. Again, author tried to make her strong, opinionated, smart and angry but she is not smart. Smart people try to get a lot of information before they draw any conclusions. She does not:
"The reasons Brock gave me for his suspicions are good enough as proof of guilt, ..." this is part of her inner monologue about Reed and wanting to kill him. She suspects Reed of murdering her grandfather. Now, what were the reasons Brock gave her that convinced her that Reed indeed murdered her grandfather? I'm glad you asked:
"He's the prime suspect. As leader of Gamma, he worked closely with Verne on a lot of initiatives, and Verne had a meeting with Reed on his calendar the day he dies. They met in the apartment two hours prior to his death. ...
This is all the information she had before she decided to kill Reed. And she deemed it good enough. This is the same person who later on judges others on how they don't value human life.
The amount of death during trials to become Praetorians makes no sense the same way it didn't make in Fourth Wing. Why are Praetorian instructors murdering people? We know that Mareen has a regular army so why in god's name would Chance murder trainees instead of just sending them away? Because the writer uses unnecessary gore and violence to set the tone of the book. Oh, right, just remembered, major trigger warning. There is very descriptive account of cooking and eating a human in chapter 8. That was so so so unnecessary. Also why did no one warn these poor aspirants that they would be taken out if they don't manage to plank for a long enough time after doing 400 burpees? Remember, most of these people are legacies. You want to tell me that these military families don't value their offsprings' lives highly enough to at least warn them that they would most likely die in training? At least in Fourth Wing this was a known fact. In The Blood Trials this is the warning our FMC Ikenna got from her grandfather's best friend:
..."After Commencement, senior Praetorians will put you through challenging trials. They will test your mettle more than your academy instructors and classes ever did."
... "The trials are designed to exert every effort to break you."
On the positive, the idea of the book sounds interesting.
Imagine me telling you a story about how I get to work every day and it's this:
I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning because that's when I need to start getting ready to go out. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth since I want to get rid of unpleasant smell and feeling I get in my mouth every time I wake up from nightly sleep. I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I wash my hair because it has been 2 days since the last time I did it and my hair usually gets dirty by this point. I check my social media on the phone which was a gift from my older brother who I grew up with and who terrorized me my whole childhood. Unexplainable sadness strikes my heart when I think about my brother. The feeling starts as a flicked of pain and slowly spreads to my throat, my head and down my limbs. We have not talked in a long time.
I try to distract myself from thoughts about my family by making myself busy. I put on a kettle and turn on my toaster so that I can make myself a toast. While the water is getting hot and my bread being toasted, I scroll through twitter and Instagram. No notifications and I'm not surprised because I don't talk to a lot of people. Once the toast is toasted and coffee ready, I put my device aside and enjoy my breakfast. When I was a child I couldn't have a toast because we didn't have a toaster. Once I moved out from my family home toaster was the first thing I bought from my new place which I rent... You get the gist. This is not art. This is a Writing part of foreign language test where you are trying to show off your knowledge, so you include as much unnecessary information as possible.
Yes, exposition is necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot, but it should be done properly. The Blood Trials is a perfect example of how you should not do it. Except for battle scenes you will not find a single page where there is no exposition. It's in dialogue, it's in inner monologue; it's in games and trials.
The book tried to set specific tone. I guess it was going for "An Ember in the Ashes" kind of vibe but it failed miserably. Every time out FMC does anything badass it was cringe. The way she talks to her instructors is cringe. They don't owe you shit. They are your higher ups. Why are you talking to them as if you raised them?
Ikenna is a terrible protagonist. Again, author tried to make her strong, opinionated, smart and angry but she is not smart. Smart people try to get a lot of information before they draw any conclusions. She does not:
"The reasons Brock gave me for his suspicions are good enough as proof of guilt, ..." this is part of her inner monologue about Reed and wanting to kill him. She suspects Reed of murdering her grandfather. Now, what were the reasons Brock gave her that convinced her that Reed indeed murdered her grandfather? I'm glad you asked:
"He's the prime suspect. As leader of Gamma, he worked closely with Verne on a lot of initiatives, and Verne had a meeting with Reed on his calendar the day he dies. They met in the apartment two hours prior to his death. ...
This is all the information she had before she decided to kill Reed. And she deemed it good enough. This is the same person who later on judges others on how they don't value human life.
The amount of death during trials to become Praetorians makes no sense the same way it didn't make in Fourth Wing. Why are Praetorian instructors murdering people? We know that Mareen has a regular army so why in god's name would Chance murder trainees instead of just sending them away? Because the writer uses unnecessary gore and violence to set the tone of the book. Oh, right, just remembered, major trigger warning. There is very descriptive account of cooking and eating a human in chapter 8. That was so so so unnecessary. Also why did no one warn these poor aspirants that they would be taken out if they don't manage to plank for a long enough time after doing 400 burpees? Remember, most of these people are legacies. You want to tell me that these military families don't value their offsprings' lives highly enough to at least warn them that they would most likely die in training? At least in Fourth Wing this was a known fact. In The Blood Trials this is the warning our FMC Ikenna got from her grandfather's best friend:
..."After Commencement, senior Praetorians will put you through challenging trials. They will test your mettle more than your academy instructors and classes ever did."
... "The trials are designed to exert every effort to break you."
On the positive, the idea of the book sounds interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, and Racism
Moderate: Misogyny
msrae89's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really wanted to like this book and I was excited to read it, but, ultimately, this book just wasn’t for me.
Pros: -The book is pretty well written; it is a little repetitive at times but it makes sense within the narrative.
-The themes the book is exploring are really interesting and done in an unobtrusive way. What I mean by that is I never felt as if the book was preaching to me.
-The themes themselves were really interesting and interconnected with one another seamlessly. Racism, colonialism, military and military propaganda, sexism, classism, trauma, all work together to tell a very interesting story.
-The ending was engaging and set up the second book nicely.
However, that’s about where my enjoyment of the book ended.
Cons: The MC, Ikenna, is 19 and very traumatized, and while it makes sense for the narrative, I found it very repetitive and annoying. This might be, in part, bc I’m in my 30’s and I have an harder time relating to younger MCs. Though, really, I didn’t find any of the characters interesting or engaging. I couldn’t even “love to hate” any of them.
-The book is oddly and aggressively compulsory heterosexual and cisgender. As far as I can tell queer people just don’t exist in the book’s universe, and as a queer person I prefer to read books with queer representation. Even just a passing statement that queer people exist would be more than this book has. Maybe they are in book 2 but after starting it I doubt it based on the little I’ve read so far.
-The “romance” is just bad. First off, it’s unethical. Reed is Ikenna’s superior officer, which he acknowledges. Reed was also the mentee of Ikenna’s deceased grandfather which creates a weird situation for them. It feels a little freudian. Also, Reed is boring! And all of this awkward tension leads to a sudden sex scene. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this just wasn’t for me and I skipped it.
Overall it was a good idea with flat characters and dense story.
Pros: -The book is pretty well written; it is a little repetitive at times but it makes sense within the narrative.
-The themes the book is exploring are really interesting and done in an unobtrusive way. What I mean by that is I never felt as if the book was preaching to me.
-The themes themselves were really interesting and interconnected with one another seamlessly. Racism, colonialism, military and military propaganda, sexism, classism, trauma, all work together to tell a very interesting story.
-The ending was engaging and set up the second book nicely.
However, that’s about where my enjoyment of the book ended.
Cons: The MC, Ikenna, is 19 and very traumatized, and while it makes sense for the narrative, I found it very repetitive and annoying. This might be, in part, bc I’m in my 30’s and I have an harder time relating to younger MCs. Though, really, I didn’t find any of the characters interesting or engaging. I couldn’t even “love to hate” any of them.
-The book is oddly and aggressively compulsory heterosexual and cisgender. As far as I can tell queer people just don’t exist in the book’s universe, and as a queer person I prefer to read books with queer representation. Even just a passing statement that queer people exist would be more than this book has. Maybe they are in book 2 but after starting it I doubt it based on the little I’ve read so far.
-The “romance” is just bad. First off, it’s unethical. Reed is Ikenna’s superior officer, which he acknowledges. Reed was also the mentee of Ikenna’s deceased grandfather which creates a weird situation for them. It feels a little freudian. Also, Reed is boring! And all of this awkward tension leads to a sudden sex scene. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this just wasn’t for me and I skipped it.
Overall it was a good idea with flat characters and dense story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Classism, Violence, War, Blood, and Colonisation
kc_mellow's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Firstly, I loved that Davenport showed a main character that had a lot of strengths and flaws. I feel like a lot of main characters often go flat in adventure / trial books, but I think Ikenna's internal struggles were laid out well and interwoven with the story beautifully.
I loved seeing the trials, betrayal, and adventure throughout the book. But I thought some plot points felt a little off.For example, I thought the sex scene between Reed and Ikenna was really out of place. Prior to that, she never actually showed romantic interest (or even lustful interest) towards him at all. Usually you might hint at it in order to build up a slow burn between them, but the sex scene was completely out of place in my opinion. I don't know- i dont see them as love interests because nothing was really built between them.
I also felt like the writing became a bit repetitive and the internal thoughts Kenna had about who killed her Grandfather were wayyy too drawn out. I found myself skipping through pages because it was honestly too dense and redundant. Nevertheless, while its not something I'd recommend as a must-read, I really did enjoy the plot twists and the ending! I'll be reading book two.
I loved seeing the trials, betrayal, and adventure throughout the book. But I thought some plot points felt a little off.
I also felt like the writing became a bit repetitive and the internal thoughts Kenna had about who killed her Grandfather were wayyy too drawn out. I found myself skipping through pages because it was honestly too dense and redundant. Nevertheless, while its not something I'd recommend as a must-read, I really did enjoy the plot twists and the ending! I'll be reading book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
lesliehirgelt's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Death of parent, Sexism, Racial slurs, Violence, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, and Cannibalism
Minor: Toxic friendship
jeffknerr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
blakeandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
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
5.0
LFGGGGGG
Why did no one force me to read this sooner?! What’s freaking masterpiece. Ikenna is such a badass who doesn’t take shit from anyone! So much happened from beginning to end — I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The audiobook? So so good! I’m excited to read book 2.
Why did no one force me to read this sooner?! What’s freaking masterpiece. Ikenna is such a badass who doesn’t take shit from anyone! So much happened from beginning to end — I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The audiobook? So so good! I’m excited to read book 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, Violence, Blood, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, and Medical content
Moderate: War
Minor: Slavery
llamameemaw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
gaden35's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The main reason it’s not 5 is because of a honestly pointless sex scene and quasi romance that felt shoehorned in and entirely out of place. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book. The world building could have been slightly more fleshed out, but I don’t think it ruined the experience. We learned enough and could fill in other things as needed. I found the characters grey, which makes them very compelling. And it did keep you guessing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism
ajalexanderreadsromance's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Torture, Racism, War, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Classism, Grief, and Misogyny
Minor: Sexism and Death
cass_cgallegos's review against another edition
This book details violence very vividly. I think the storyline is good, and the characters are very well written, but I can’t stomach the descriptions of mangling and death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Cannibalism, Blood, Murder, Body horror, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Hate crime, and Racial slurs