Scan barcode
anna_333's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Wtf have I read and why did I like it?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Grief, Blood, Gore, Racial slurs, Cannibalism, Death, and Racism
Moderate: War, Slavery, Violence, and Torture
This is definitely not ya. Be prepared for graphic and intense content.tattooedbibliophile's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
I’m mad that this book isn’t absolutely huge. It’s just as good as The Hunger Games or Fourth Wing, but it hasn’t been promoted by the publisher nearly enough. It’s absolutely amazing!
Beware, don’t get too attached to anyone. Nobody can be trusted.
Beware, don’t get too attached to anyone. Nobody can be trusted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Classism, and Gore
Minor: Cannibalism
abiofpellinor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Sexism, War, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Classism, Police brutality, Torture, and Self harm
micaela_ru's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Lots of potential and lots of disappointment with this debut. Sub-par writing drags down an otherwise compelling story.
Story: 3 stars. Engaging and entertaining most of the time, though chapter one is a struggle to get through after the initial scene in the bar. It is long, but it does do a good job in setting up the rest of the story. Unfortunately, this story felt like a slog up until the 40% mark where I feel like the story really started to get its footing. The trials themselves were disappointing, which the exception of one, I felt like they weren’t creative or interesting to read, and no amount of action scenes or gore made it better. It overall, this book felt both overstuffed but also underdeveloped. It is a bit predictable at times too, but there is one scene near the end that I didn’t expect and I would give a whole star just for that reveal alone.
Worldbuilding: 4 stars for the ideas. 2 stars for the execution. The blood magic was very cool. Fantastic ideas but the execution of those ideas felt flat and rushed. The blood magic was definitely cool and I liked how the moons played a part in that, but so much of the worldbuilding is filtered through walls of text including large swaths of awkward dialogue that was obviously meant to provide exposition and not much else. Everything about the Pantheon gods was interesting but the way it was delivered wasn’t interesting and made me want to skim. We really don’t get to experience the world they live in because they’re always indoors most of the time. The most refreshing scenes were when they were outdoors in the wilds, especially during that one crazy trial (seriously, best section of the book, I wish the entire book had been like that section). There are moments where the worldbuilding shines, but they’re so far and few in between because of the way the author chose to deliver the information. Speaking of worldbuilding, Ikenna dealing with racism is a huge point for this book but I felt it was too simplistic and detracted from the worldbuilding because -isms (any kind of oppression) has to have context, and there is no context for why people with dark brown skin are discriminated against and what info the book does provide isn’t enough. And while it is obvious that this story is using these fantasy races as stand-ins for real-world races (particularly white and Black), I feel like the story needed its own basis for why racism existed without relying on the real world. I felt like that was a missed opportunity with the worldbuilding that took away some texture and made the race stuff fill forced and over-the-top. Not to mention, the various names for the different ethnic groups/races/countries(?) was a bit confusing and hard to follow and remember the distinctions. Also, the reasoning behind why the trials exist didn’t make much sense. Even a character in the story points this out and it is brushed away.
Writing: 1.5 stars. My biggest issue with this book was the writing style, the pacing, the walls of text, the way that the writing bogged down everything, even managing to turn sex and fights into something tedious. The writing is the primary reason this book has 3 stars instead of the 4-5 I would’ve given it otherwise. It feels like unpolished YA. First-person present tense aside, which I’m not a fan of in SFF for practical reasons, this book’s writing created a very uneven reading experience to the point of distraction. Characters’ dialogue felt out of character sometimes and overly formal. Nobody had a distinct voice. They would switch from speaking in a normal, casual, realistic way to sounding robotic and using words that felt unnatural. Word choice, sentence structure in the prose was sometimes hard to get through because it felt so uneven and choppy. Since this story is first person, it should’ve felt like Ikenna was doing the talking in her own narration, but there was always a distance there and I think that it was because of the choppy writing. This book needed better editing. There was also cringey phrases that became repetitive or seemed out of place. Bottom line: the writing voice in this book is why I couldn’t give it more stars. The writing is also so heavy-handed and bloated at times that reading felt like a slog. There was so much repetition and too much time spent in Ikenna’s head when she was doing her sleuth thing. Also description was lacking for most of the book (though the description of the outside settings like mountains, moons, etc. was pretty solid). Impossible to know what the characters looked like, which created even more distance between the reader and the characters. The writing overall had a choppy, unpolished, and muddled quality to it. As stated earlier, the commentary on race and sex felt very surface-level. Using fantasy settings to explore bigotry isn’t new, and this story didn’t dig deep enough to make that exploration feel fresh or meaningful. We also didn’t need to be constantly told that something was racist or sexist. Let readers figure it out on their own.
Character: 2.5 stars. While I liked Ikenna’s bad-assery, she felt one-note after a while and there was something lacking about her character development. Also, her bad-assery and lack of emotional response to things made her feel like she wasn’t a fully fleshed out character at times. Even though this story was first person present, I always felt distanced from this character despite being in her head all the time. Also, because the MC is basically immune to damage, I never felt afraid for her, so it affected my ability to care about what happened to her or the people around her. She also seems to never be afraid either, so if the MC doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, why should I? The rest of the cast were forgettable, and I didn’t care about what happened to them. They were interchangeable names with bland personalities.
Romance and relationships: The supposed “enemies-to-lovers” trope also felt bland because Ikenna and the love interest barely have scenes together, and there’s one thing that comes out of nowhere (avoiding spoilers) that, while nice and spicy to read, felt random given the fact that their prior interactions lacked sexual tension or much of anything at all. Ikenna’s relationships with most of the other characters also felt one-note and when people were killed off, I didn’t care because there was no connection to them even when the author tried to force a connection right before a character would die.
One last thing: I was hoping this book would buck the trend of Black characters being tokens in their own space. I understand some of the necessity of that given the worldbuilding but there were ways to do that and not have her being a token. Between that and the way other Black characters are dealt with and how white characters are redeemed when they don’t deserve it, it definitely put a sour taste in my mouth a little bit.
Overall, despite my issues with this debut, I am going to read book 2 because book 1 ended with the promise of something more though I am disappointed in some of the choices made (especially with certain racist characters being conveniently redeemed). I found this reading experience to be uneven, sometimes a chore, and a bit disappointing after having such high hopes for this title. I feel like the weakest part of this series (other than the writing) is the actual trials that they participated in, which is sad to say, especially when they take up so much of the story. Everything going on outside of the trials (like the murder mystery and impending war) felt more compelling and interesting than anything going on within the trial scenario. Since it is a debut, I know that the sky is the limit for this author to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Story: 3 stars. Engaging and entertaining most of the time, though chapter one is a struggle to get through after the initial scene in the bar. It is long, but it does do a good job in setting up the rest of the story. Unfortunately, this story felt like a slog up until the 40% mark where I feel like the story really started to get its footing. The trials themselves were disappointing, which the exception of one, I felt like they weren’t creative or interesting to read, and no amount of action scenes or gore made it better. It overall, this book felt both overstuffed but also underdeveloped. It is a bit predictable at times too, but there is one scene near the end that I didn’t expect and I would give a whole star just for that reveal alone.
Worldbuilding: 4 stars for the ideas. 2 stars for the execution. The blood magic was very cool. Fantastic ideas but the execution of those ideas felt flat and rushed. The blood magic was definitely cool and I liked how the moons played a part in that, but so much of the worldbuilding is filtered through walls of text including large swaths of awkward dialogue that was obviously meant to provide exposition and not much else. Everything about the Pantheon gods was interesting but the way it was delivered wasn’t interesting and made me want to skim. We really don’t get to experience the world they live in because they’re always indoors most of the time. The most refreshing scenes were when they were outdoors in the wilds, especially during that one crazy trial (seriously, best section of the book, I wish the entire book had been like that section). There are moments where the worldbuilding shines, but they’re so far and few in between because of the way the author chose to deliver the information. Speaking of worldbuilding, Ikenna dealing with racism is a huge point for this book but I felt it was too simplistic and detracted from the worldbuilding because -isms (any kind of oppression) has to have context, and there is no context for why people with dark brown skin are discriminated against and what info the book does provide isn’t enough. And while it is obvious that this story is using these fantasy races as stand-ins for real-world races (particularly white and Black), I feel like the story needed its own basis for why racism existed without relying on the real world. I felt like that was a missed opportunity with the worldbuilding that took away some texture and made the race stuff fill forced and over-the-top. Not to mention, the various names for the different ethnic groups/races/countries(?) was a bit confusing and hard to follow and remember the distinctions. Also, the reasoning behind why the trials exist didn’t make much sense. Even a character in the story points this out and it is brushed away.
Writing: 1.5 stars. My biggest issue with this book was the writing style, the pacing, the walls of text, the way that the writing bogged down everything, even managing to turn sex and fights into something tedious. The writing is the primary reason this book has 3 stars instead of the 4-5 I would’ve given it otherwise. It feels like unpolished YA. First-person present tense aside, which I’m not a fan of in SFF for practical reasons, this book’s writing created a very uneven reading experience to the point of distraction. Characters’ dialogue felt out of character sometimes and overly formal. Nobody had a distinct voice. They would switch from speaking in a normal, casual, realistic way to sounding robotic and using words that felt unnatural. Word choice, sentence structure in the prose was sometimes hard to get through because it felt so uneven and choppy. Since this story is first person, it should’ve felt like Ikenna was doing the talking in her own narration, but there was always a distance there and I think that it was because of the choppy writing. This book needed better editing. There was also cringey phrases that became repetitive or seemed out of place. Bottom line: the writing voice in this book is why I couldn’t give it more stars. The writing is also so heavy-handed and bloated at times that reading felt like a slog. There was so much repetition and too much time spent in Ikenna’s head when she was doing her sleuth thing. Also description was lacking for most of the book (though the description of the outside settings like mountains, moons, etc. was pretty solid). Impossible to know what the characters looked like, which created even more distance between the reader and the characters. The writing overall had a choppy, unpolished, and muddled quality to it. As stated earlier, the commentary on race and sex felt very surface-level. Using fantasy settings to explore bigotry isn’t new, and this story didn’t dig deep enough to make that exploration feel fresh or meaningful. We also didn’t need to be constantly told that something was racist or sexist. Let readers figure it out on their own.
Character: 2.5 stars. While I liked Ikenna’s bad-assery, she felt one-note after a while and there was something lacking about her character development. Also, her bad-assery and lack of emotional response to things made her feel like she wasn’t a fully fleshed out character at times. Even though this story was first person present, I always felt distanced from this character despite being in her head all the time. Also, because the MC is basically immune to damage, I never felt afraid for her, so it affected my ability to care about what happened to her or the people around her. She also seems to never be afraid either, so if the MC doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, why should I? The rest of the cast were forgettable, and I didn’t care about what happened to them. They were interchangeable names with bland personalities.
Romance and relationships: The supposed “enemies-to-lovers” trope also felt bland because Ikenna and the love interest barely have scenes together, and there’s one thing that comes out of nowhere (avoiding spoilers) that, while nice and spicy to read, felt random given the fact that their prior interactions lacked sexual tension or much of anything at all. Ikenna’s relationships with most of the other characters also felt one-note and when people were killed off, I didn’t care because there was no connection to them even when the author tried to force a connection right before a character would die.
One last thing: I was hoping this book would buck the trend of Black characters being tokens in their own space. I understand some of the necessity of that given the worldbuilding but there were ways to do that and not have her being a token. Between that and the way other Black characters are dealt with and how white characters are redeemed when they don’t deserve it, it definitely put a sour taste in my mouth a little bit.
Overall, despite my issues with this debut, I am going to read book 2 because book 1 ended with the promise of something more though I am disappointed in some of the choices made (especially with certain racist characters being conveniently redeemed). I found this reading experience to be uneven, sometimes a chore, and a bit disappointing after having such high hopes for this title. I feel like the weakest part of this series (other than the writing) is the actual trials that they participated in, which is sad to say, especially when they take up so much of the story. Everything going on outside of the trials (like the murder mystery and impending war) felt more compelling and interesting than anything going on within the trial scenario. Since it is a debut, I know that the sky is the limit for this author to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Gun violence, Sexism, Cursing, Religious bigotry, and Violence
More...