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Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Crystal Crowned by Elise Kova

1 review

nadiana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

2.25


Wow, an ending I wasnt completely spiteful towards... good job Kova. 

By far, 'Crystal Crowned is my favourite installment out of the whole main 'Air Awakens' series, closely followed by the first book. 

I loved the part where our main rag-tag group has to navigate through the world together, the end war, Vhalla griping with the fact that she now is bonded with Mr. Bad Guy and so on and so forth. 

I'll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with how they handled the pregnancy-scare in the middle of this book. I was close to tossing my phone across the room when I first heard the typical fiction-ey warning signs alluding the pregnancy. However, I'm still a bit bothered by the fact that they didn't explain the deus ex-machina incarnate character that Vhalla seems to be stalked by. First she gets her powers back (although with that came a great sacrifice i.e. her unborn child) and then her life is restored at the cost of... willpower I guess? Not that she had to sacrifice willpower and become depressed for the rest of her life, but that she had to just express that she's willing to still be alive in order to get magically resurrected...?
Idk, this thing is full of shit being pulled right out of the MC's ass. 

AND THEN DANIEL!
AAAAAH DANIEL MY POOR BOY WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU!? I understand that we want to have horrible things happen to beloved characters, but again, my critique is that this is not the type of book for those kinds of subjects. It just seems so out of place and honestly quite lazy at times. I feel like all the characters who've lost their "purpose" to the story got disposed of them in the meanest ways possible. It just comes out as lazy and not as impactful as the author might've intended it to be... hence Daniel. Gosh, Kova really did him dirty didn't she? As soon as we got a conclusion of where Daniel and Vhalla's relationship was headed, we just made him go through some off-screen torture that made him delve into madness. Again, it all seemed as a shallow excuse to get rid of his character all together without really killing him off since we've already done that to 99,9% of the other now useless characters.


Now for my fifth and final complaint of this series' pacing. Go figure: it goes too fast. Let me tell you what happens in this 400 page book:
We have a quest across the country, south to east to west with our main group, a wedding, Vhalla getting her powers back in another mini quest, a war, Vhalla becoming evil for a sec (?), then the finale and an additional epilogue that seemed quite the obnoxious ribbon to this box of... stuff, tons and tons of stuff.
It's just too many things happening in such a short span of time.
I was really intrigued by Vhalla getting corrupted by Mr. Bad Guy and her potentially harming her friends, but that storyline get resolved so badly...


ALSO ALSO I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS!!!

So, after Vhalla gets bonded with Bad-Man, she's pushed to the point of being suicidal. Knowing that her life might be tied to Bad-Man, Vhalla makes the conscious decision to... GIVE HERSELF UP TO BAD-MAN IN HOPES HE COULD UN-BOND THEM AND KILL HER KNOWING IT WOULD MAKE HER LOSE THE WAR. WHAT?! 

Oki, oki, oki, oki, oki. Again, lives of two bonded pairs is constantly alluded to being tied together. If one dies, so does the other as long as the bond is still in action. Vhalla... darling... The only thing you need to do in order to win the dang war is to kill Bad-Man. If he's bonded with you and you're so plagued by it to the point of being suicidal, why not just kill yourself right then and there for a chance of making him go down with you? WHY DID YOU DECIDE THAT THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION WAS TO GIVE YOURSELF UP TO THE GUY IN HOPES HE COULD UN-BOND AND THEN KILL YOU!? YOU KNEW THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THAT! EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE WILL DIE JUST SO THAT YOU'D... GET TO BE UNBONDED FOR LIKE A SLIGHT SECOND? Such a huge inconsistency, probably the worst one I've read throughout this whole book. And you know what the worst part is? Kova could've easily fixed this huge plot hole by having Vhalla try to physically kill herself in-camp instead of offering herself up with the same outcome.
It's such a stupid mistake for an otherwise entertaining story...
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