Reviews

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

jillmarlo's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book suffers from the fact that it was trying to do so much in a very short period of time. And because of that a lot of details seemed to be missing. Character development happened extremely quickly and wasn’t super nuanced so characters seemed quite 2-D. The basic premise is that there is this world where there are normal humans and then a different kind of human that are ‘Fallen’ because they’re related to fallen angels. The Fallen are the lower class people. The story begins with Celeste trying to prove that her sister, Mariel is innocent of a murder of an “Elect” man. And at first Mariel is made out to be this sweet innocent little angel, but then as time goes on Celeste has to confront the possibility that her sister is not as perfect as she has always believed. The character of Celeste was very interesting and her obsession with protecting her sister and treating her sister like a child added some needed depth to the character and the story. The world that was created seems very interesting, I just wish we got a little more time to spend in it to get the entire picture. There was a subplot going on behind the scenes regarding the societal structure and corruption, but the specific details got lost and confusing. There was supposed to be double crossing and ulterior motives, but it was confusing. Anyways it was a quick fast read, but it wasn’t all that solid. 

shehn's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.5

the_booookaholic's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

elizabethvail13's review

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

heathermcintire13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

chilotte's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

sapphiremarie's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

kadomi's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I loved Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and was hoping to get something else to love. I did however not love this novella. The setting is a sort of steampunk wild west in which the ruling class are Divine Virtues, and they are exploiting the Fallen. The Fallen in turn are their miners as they can find Divinity, a source of power, in mines. So far interesting enough. However, that's about all the world building you get. This could have been amazing fully fleshed out, but with the little exposition you get, it mostly left me frustrated and confused. On top of that the main character Celeste was irredeemable for me. Celeste can pass as a non-Fallen and works at a saloon, together with her sister Mariel. But Mariel is found with the body of a dead Virtue. Celeste gets permission to be the diabolus advocatus for her sister because she believes she's not guilty.

In the course of her investigation, Celeste does a lot of frustrating things, and I just could not get behind it, even knowing that this is Roanhorse's attempt a playing with the 'tragic mulatto' trope. Interesting concept, but fell flat for me.

meganstreb's review

slow-paced

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

2.75

Some great elements in here for fantastic world building, so I might check out her other stuff, but this novella is too short to explore them (or she packed too much in and went for breadth over depth). I feel like this would be a good .5 book once a series is established. 

dvmz00's review

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5