Reviews

Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

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arianamadison's review

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adventurous 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? No

5.0

alexiab's review against another edition

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2.0

There are basic aspects of this book I like but overall I did not enjoy reading this, so I’m not positive on how to rate it. It’s not good, but I can’t decide exactly how bad it is.

The writing style is very juvenile. It’s very fast paced and often skims over scenes without leaving room for characters to think. Lore doesn’t ask enough questions - even internally - about the brand new super shocking world she finds herself thrust into. She doesn’t do much thinking at all, and rushes into every choice she makes. While this feels fairly typical for a YA book (which… this isn’t) it makes the main character seem very naive and frankly stupid.

I do not understand why this is a love triangle, or why *this* is how it was executed. The second romantic option comes out of nowhere and feels pointless to the overall story. The chemistry is nonexistent with either guy, but at least the one has significant reason for existing.

Dialogue that repeats inner monologue, saying the same thing twice in different ways, and telling how a character feels instead of showing are all big and distracting issues with the writing. I caught more than one “his stride ate up the distance” and “she could eat this every day forever” eventually I have to assume the author only knows so many phrases.

A lot of the time the characters avoid natural conversation in high pressure, plot important moments and are constantly making stupid choices. It feels like the author has too many ideas that she’s trying to squeeze into one book and doesn’t allow anything to properly be addressed. It makes it very hard to root for Lore when she doesn’t act like a normal human with a brain.

I don’t think this is good storytelling in any capacity, and I can think of many simple ways to make it a much more exciting story, but the concept was intriguing enough to get me to read it so I suppose that’s something.

girlreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

This had the making of something really fantastic and while it was enjoyable enough, for me, it sadly didn’t reach its full potential.

The plot, characters, world etc. were all intriguing and compelling, the problem for me was the pacing. Everything happened so quickly. From the first page, the plot moved forward at rapid speed, leaving no room for depth or anticipation. The sheer number of events and reveals in this book could have filled a whole trilogy but instead we got one book with so many ‘things’ happening, that nothing really felt especially momentous.

That being said, I’m not sorry I picked this up. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the characters, I just wish I’d had a moment to breathe to get to know them and the world on a deeper level.

daisdu's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

2.0

This book frustrated me deeply. The climax is an extremely messy pile of completely unforeshadowed twists. The book even goes so far as to state that there had been chatter about these things at a time and place featured earlier in the book. What frustrates me more than anything is that the author could have edited these earlier scenes to actually foreshadow the end of the book, but instead just lied and said it was there. It would have even improved the reveal by having the pieces come together over time instead of just laying them out seconds before putting them together. I really just feel like this book was really insufficiently edited more than anything

sarahnoelle27's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Great first book from a debut author! I really enjoyed Lore and the world the author created. The plot was engaging and believable and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next! Can’t wait for book 2 to find out what happens next.

Minor things but…There are a few spots in the book where a new chapter starts and it feels like a huge time jump happened-that was pretty weird. There were also a few things that the author made a huge deal of (like her repeatedly stating she was needing to find cream for her hair) that seemed like they may be an integral part of the story but then was never mentioned again. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the reveal at the end…it seemed like a last minute change by the author and didn’t mesh with what we had known to be true-but I’m excited to see how that all plays out in book 2!

Overall a wonderful first book and I can’t wait to read more! Huge fan of the writing style and flow as well as the character/world descriptions. So much life was breathed into this book and it’s like it had a source all its own

catreadspaper's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Strong first third then it loses coherence. In spite of significant issues with pacing and character development, this is still a wonderful adventure and a promising author. Would read a sequel for just for the little sprinkles of Finn and Lore grumpy-sunshine joy. I'll just be filling in the many gaps on my own and praying for a new editor who doesn't try to discourage epic length is what really ought to have been an epic fantasy. I'm convinced this book would have been stunning with twice as many pages.

Although the default skin tone is brown (yay!), the fairy tale elements follow standard European storylines and the treatment of the race/caste dynamic is, like many other elements of the book, abrupt. Perhaps the significant difference is that the lower caste comes about through some unknown cosmic accident and are essentially refugees. Hoping this either gets a lot more development in the next book or simply becomes part of the world building. The in-between felt like it lost both goals.