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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
Complicated
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The pace is too slow for me and the characters aren’t interesting enough to make up for it.
Not attached to any of the characters. Progression of the story felt awkward, forced at times. Just wasn't engaged with any one aspect enough to keep going. Disappointed, I was looking forward to this one.
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
Rich world building and a slow burn enemies to lovers sapphic romance. Gripping from start to finish. A tender exploration of the ways that our families, both born and found, shape us but do not have to define us.
I throughly enjoyed this book. It explores trauma and the ways that abusive relationships affect our thought patterns with nuance and compassion. The four main characters are endearing and lovable, if a little underdeveloped at times. My biggest critique of this book would be the pacing. It was hard to judge the passage of time and I think characterization suffered a bit as a result. Pacing issues are common in debut works though and this book had enough heart to make up for the parts that could have been cleaned up more.
I throughly enjoyed this book. It explores trauma and the ways that abusive relationships affect our thought patterns with nuance and compassion. The four main characters are endearing and lovable, if a little underdeveloped at times. My biggest critique of this book would be the pacing. It was hard to judge the passage of time and I think characterization suffered a bit as a result. Pacing issues are common in debut works though and this book had enough heart to make up for the parts that could have been cleaned up more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence
DNF'd at 109 pages. Not because of anything those top reviews are blathering about because they're pretty much entirely fearmongering without any substance, but because the author needed a better and more experienced editor to help them make this book shine.
The Ones We Burn is very much a first novel. It falls into the expected trap of the story being shoved forward because it needs to be as opposed to allowing the characters, their circumstances, and the pressure of the world around them to naturally guide the story forward. The perfect example to this is the abysmal treatment of Ranka, the main character. It is through Ranka's eyes that we see the world, experience her point of view and learn about its complexities and beauty. Except that everyone in the story, including Ranka, treat his ignorance of an entirely separate culture as idiocy. She has no knowledge of this other culture and she's treated as stupid for it by the narrative. She makes the decision to help people who are purported to be her enemy, because she can't think of anything else to do. She has no reason to trust these people, they repeatedly lie to her, disparage her, entrap her, but she wants answers these people refuse to give her and we're supposed to ignore this treatment. Ranka as a character is a good one, she's honest, forthright, protective, insightful, but even the author refuses to either give her a break or help her shine in the story. The woman who's supposed to be her love interest, repeatedly insults, gives her a disparaging nickname, watches her get beaten up under the pretense of assisting her with her powers (while trapping her with the only treatment to help stabilize it) and Ranka just accepts it? She doesn't try to help herself out, to really learn anything from it?
And unfortunately the story itself doesn't help. Often scenes happen just to happen, because that's the only way the author sees to push the story forward, and the trajectory of the story is more of a hobble from plot point to plot point to get to the end of the book. There's no real build up or intrigue to the situation because the scenes that break up revelation/mystery deepening scenes don't really connect to the over all plot itself. There is no slow build up of secrets, character development or sense of impending doom. Things just happen. People are killed after half-revealing secrets because the author wants to keep the mystery alive but doesn't know how to subtly lace the secret into the world itself. It feels very much like a video game at points. Ranka starts in her room and then picks the in-game event of the day. One day she chooses to explore the grounds and there's an enemy encounter. Another day she chooses to talk to her fiance and they go on a parade of the city and it triggers an in-game event scene. There is very little grounding in the characters and the overall plot. The characters outside of Ranka lack depth and therefore the ability of the reader to connect to anyone outside of Ranka is hobbled.
And don't get me started on the world itself. As soon as we exit the forest the whole world-building aspect stutters to a halt. The desert city wants a blood witch as part of a tribute? But she's also supposed to eventually be the queen? Except she's not really respected? If someone marries the crown prince it's generally expected that they'll become a princess and eventually queen. But in this instance Ranka is viewed as little more than an animal? But then the main character's mother is a blood witch and they're treated with respect/legitimacy so why is Ranka treated like a feral child? None of that is fleshed out in the story at all. None of that is explained, at least by the point I stopped, but it also didn't seem like it was going to be, at least not the reason why Ranka is treated poorly and the former queen wasn't. It seems like a lapse in worldbuilding overall.
Ultimately my issues with The Ones We Burn lie in its amateur execution and poor characterization. I think this book would have been much better had someone been able to work with the author to help flesh out the world and the characters and had been able to ask the author "why are the characters doing this? Why is this person being treated this way? What's the backstory of the city?" Making the author think of and give reasons for the actions of their characters really helps develop them and it tends to be reflected in the work. I really wanted to like this book. I think the author has a strong, engaging voice and I really enjoyed Ranka as a character, but they need to work on giving characters multi-faceted aspects to their characters and then working on how their characters fit into and manipulate their world. So it's a two star from me for now, but I'll keep an eye out for their future work. With time I think they'll improve immensely.
The Ones We Burn is very much a first novel. It falls into the expected trap of the story being shoved forward because it needs to be as opposed to allowing the characters, their circumstances, and the pressure of the world around them to naturally guide the story forward. The perfect example to this is the abysmal treatment of Ranka, the main character. It is through Ranka's eyes that we see the world, experience her point of view and learn about its complexities and beauty. Except that everyone in the story, including Ranka, treat his ignorance of an entirely separate culture as idiocy. She has no knowledge of this other culture and she's treated as stupid for it by the narrative. She makes the decision to help people who are purported to be her enemy, because she can't think of anything else to do. She has no reason to trust these people, they repeatedly lie to her, disparage her, entrap her, but she wants answers these people refuse to give her and we're supposed to ignore this treatment. Ranka as a character is a good one, she's honest, forthright, protective, insightful, but even the author refuses to either give her a break or help her shine in the story. The woman who's supposed to be her love interest, repeatedly insults, gives her a disparaging nickname, watches her get beaten up under the pretense of assisting her with her powers (while trapping her with the only treatment to help stabilize it) and Ranka just accepts it? She doesn't try to help herself out, to really learn anything from it?
And unfortunately the story itself doesn't help. Often scenes happen just to happen, because that's the only way the author sees to push the story forward, and the trajectory of the story is more of a hobble from plot point to plot point to get to the end of the book. There's no real build up or intrigue to the situation because the scenes that break up revelation/mystery deepening scenes don't really connect to the over all plot itself. There is no slow build up of secrets, character development or sense of impending doom. Things just happen. People are killed after half-revealing secrets because the author wants to keep the mystery alive but doesn't know how to subtly lace the secret into the world itself. It feels very much like a video game at points. Ranka starts in her room and then picks the in-game event of the day. One day she chooses to explore the grounds and there's an enemy encounter. Another day she chooses to talk to her fiance and they go on a parade of the city and it triggers an in-game event scene. There is very little grounding in the characters and the overall plot. The characters outside of Ranka lack depth and therefore the ability of the reader to connect to anyone outside of Ranka is hobbled.
And don't get me started on the world itself. As soon as we exit the forest the whole world-building aspect stutters to a halt. The desert city wants a blood witch as part of a tribute? But she's also supposed to eventually be the queen? Except she's not really respected? If someone marries the crown prince it's generally expected that they'll become a princess and eventually queen. But in this instance Ranka is viewed as little more than an animal? But then the main character's mother is a blood witch and they're treated with respect/legitimacy so why is Ranka treated like a feral child? None of that is fleshed out in the story at all. None of that is explained, at least by the point I stopped, but it also didn't seem like it was going to be, at least not the reason why Ranka is treated poorly and the former queen wasn't. It seems like a lapse in worldbuilding overall.
Ultimately my issues with The Ones We Burn lie in its amateur execution and poor characterization. I think this book would have been much better had someone been able to work with the author to help flesh out the world and the characters and had been able to ask the author "why are the characters doing this? Why is this person being treated this way? What's the backstory of the city?" Making the author think of and give reasons for the actions of their characters really helps develop them and it tends to be reflected in the work. I really wanted to like this book. I think the author has a strong, engaging voice and I really enjoyed Ranka as a character, but they need to work on giving characters multi-faceted aspects to their characters and then working on how their characters fit into and manipulate their world. So it's a two star from me for now, but I'll keep an eye out for their future work. With time I think they'll improve immensely.
A big thanks to YABC for providing a copy to review.
Bloody and brilliant.
The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix is a YA fantasy novel about Ranka, who wants nothing more than to be left alone to live her life in peace. But when her coven sends her off as a treaty bride to the human kingdom of Isolde, they give her the single order of kill him. Which is quite easy, as she has a magic trained on bloodlust. Yet, when she meets the prince, he is nothing like her coven told her. He is quiet and kind, unlike his sister who is the real threat. But when witches start turning up dead from a magical place, Ranka must forge alliances and make a deal with the princess to not only find a cure for the plague but to help reign in her bloodied magic.
I felt like this book had a bunch of potential. (Mostly due to this being the author's debut). And though at times it lived up to the hype, some parts of it did not. But hey, that's just how books are.
What I really liked about this book, is it's world building. I feel like the setting was unique, and the way Mix literally mixed a fantasy setting with some more technological advances created a unique place for this story to take place. Though I do wish some of the technologies were more fleshed out, as they kinda appeared with no explanation. But that's happens with most book anyways. Plus I just really liked how this story dived right into the action without a moment of hesitation. Which showed a lot about Ranka's bloodied characterization.
One thing that did keep throwing me off, was the rush of scenes. I feel like this book was very plot driven. Which was perfect in some sense. But that just made the characters lack the depth needed for me to truly cheer them on. Out of all the characters, Aramis was the most developed. Which I wasn't too sad about, because she was the coolest.
Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking for something bloody and action packed, with just enough heart to make you cry.
Bloody and brilliant.
The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix is a YA fantasy novel about Ranka, who wants nothing more than to be left alone to live her life in peace. But when her coven sends her off as a treaty bride to the human kingdom of Isolde, they give her the single order of kill him. Which is quite easy, as she has a magic trained on bloodlust. Yet, when she meets the prince, he is nothing like her coven told her. He is quiet and kind, unlike his sister who is the real threat. But when witches start turning up dead from a magical place, Ranka must forge alliances and make a deal with the princess to not only find a cure for the plague but to help reign in her bloodied magic.
I felt like this book had a bunch of potential. (Mostly due to this being the author's debut). And though at times it lived up to the hype, some parts of it did not. But hey, that's just how books are.
What I really liked about this book, is it's world building. I feel like the setting was unique, and the way Mix literally mixed a fantasy setting with some more technological advances created a unique place for this story to take place. Though I do wish some of the technologies were more fleshed out, as they kinda appeared with no explanation. But that's happens with most book anyways. Plus I just really liked how this story dived right into the action without a moment of hesitation. Which showed a lot about Ranka's bloodied characterization.
One thing that did keep throwing me off, was the rush of scenes. I feel like this book was very plot driven. Which was perfect in some sense. But that just made the characters lack the depth needed for me to truly cheer them on. Out of all the characters, Aramis was the most developed. Which I wasn't too sad about, because she was the coolest.
Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking for something bloody and action packed, with just enough heart to make you cry.
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
If you're on TikTok as much as I am, you've probably heard some things about this title. My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a shot. As a person of color, I was pleasantly surprised that the "reverse-racism" rumors were untrue. The conflict is between humans (of all races, genders, and sexualities) and witches (of all races, genders, and sexualities), not racial groups. Other reviewers have done a great job highlighting this with textual evidence, please take the time to read through their thoughts too.
As for the anti-Semitic accusations, I was not aware of them until I went to write this review. I cannot say with certainty whether it is a part of this book or not because I did not read it with that in mind; however, I looked into what others were saying about blood libel (a new concept for me) and was unable to find connections to it within the book based on the definitions I found in my research.
As for the anti-Semitic accusations, I was not aware of them until I went to write this review. I cannot say with certainty whether it is a part of this book or not because I did not read it with that in mind; however, I looked into what others were saying about blood libel (a new concept for me) and was unable to find connections to it within the book based on the definitions I found in my research.