Reviews

1.50/5 My primary reason for reading this book is the hype around it. I do not understand it.

I usually don’t like fantasy novels where the magic systems is too ‘magicky’. I thought because this book was so popular it might be different. It was not. The magic system and its limits are not once explained throughout the book, so every time a character casts a spell that hasn’t been mentioned before in the book, I was like, “That’s cool, why didn’t we know you could do this.” This also leads to multiple instances where it feels very convenient that a character suddenly reveals a new spell that can conveniently save them from the situation at hand.

I found the characters uninteresting at best. I usually enjoy multiple, but I found with 6 different ones it’s impossible to get to know most characters above surface level. I guess my two favourite characters were Nico and Libby.

I found the ending to be a cheap attempt to make you buy the second book. I will not be continuing with this series.

kimpssble_'s review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

3/5
Not the biggest fan.
I did not like the writing.
The pacing was off (it really dragged at some points).
There was very little plot (I'm a huge plot girl, so just "vibes and thoughts" is not my style).
The magic system was too vague.

The story idea was good.
The characters were interesting (would have liked a bit more backstory on some of them).
The mystery was intriguing.

Overall, it was okay. I probably won't read the second book.

xrider's review against another edition

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3.75

Few notes before jumping in. I made the error of starting this originally as the audiobook. I paused and went back to read it as it was much easier to process that way. I also went in completely blind. It was a rec with no info and I opted to keep it that way till the first page.

Onward

This was one of those moments I could use decimals on a Star. Give it rather a 3.5-.7 rather than the full 4. It was slow getting into. With it being mainly character focused you didn’t have a plot to pull you through but rather the writing. I personally really enjoy this style of writing. For some it may be too much of a word salad and there were definitely some parts where I did want it to pick up pace a bit instead of describing the same thing in a few different ways but the writing is done well enough the majority of the time to keep pulling you through.

With it being a character based book the attempt of diversity was there and it was mostly accomplished. There was however the same baseline where most the characters were difficult to get into until a bit further into the book. For the most part every character feels like a ‘I’m the best with no weaknesses’ bit (well minus Libby and Tristan even they tho had several moments of exception) and each had such an arrogance to them it almost took too long to get into a character. I believe I saw someone else say that once you get past the first chunk it gets easier to get hooked. I agree since this is around the part it gets easier to picks sides with the characters.

I feel like all these feels super negative hold on

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