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booksandladders's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
There weren't "trials," there was barely any fear of being assassinated, and the fact that they get paired together was just convenient rather than being part of what made sense in the story. The ebook is 384 pages and I thought it was close to being done at the like 40% mark because of how fast the book was pacing through the Centennial.
I have so many thoughts about how stupid the characters were in general, but they really don't matter because the worldbuilding, or lack thereof, was so poorly done that I couldn't even focus on how much I hated the characters. The magic system could have been the redeeming part of this story, but instead it was poorly explained, important pieces of information were sprinkled throughout, and for how much they trained Isla to be a warrior, they didn't give her ANY information on the other magical elements or rulers. Beyond that, Isla had apparently been visiting the other magical areas (which is like page 1 of the story so not spoilers) but had so little knowledge of any of the history of the island or how the magic works together.
It just felt like so much of this was multiple ideas sewed together to make a semblance of a story rather than a thoughtful exploration of what it means to learn about yourself, your abilities, and the way you can work together to overcome obstacles. I wanted the negative reviews to just be because of the "controversy" of the novel but instead they were just right about how poorly this book was written and how well it was marketed.
I am going to read book 2, which I have heard basically nothing about. In fact, I didn't even know it was released. This is called a "saga" but I only see two books on Goodreads, so I'm interested to see if it ends up being a duology because of everything that happened.
I can't recommend this one at all. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend The Night Circus or The Crown's Game. I can't believe I let this be the last book I read in 2023.
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Graphic: Vomit and Blood
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
drug use (non consensual), on page sex scene, alcohol consumption, poisoning, drowning, falling from heights, blood, vomitbetweentheshelves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Let's start with the world building. Someone, there's a lot of info dumping, and yet nothing really makes sense? There was a Hunger Games-esque promise with this, but that's not really an accurate comparison for this book. The best comparison is honestly A Court of Thorns and Roses, maybe a little Throne of Glass, and a tiny bit of The Selection. But mostly, Sarah J. Maas. We've got a lot of Sarah J. Maas influence in this book.
But I digress! I finished the entire book, and I still can't explain what exactly the competition was that happened in this book. There were some trials, and at some point they were allowed to kill each other, but to what end? It wasn't exactly clear what they were fighting for, or why they were really having the trials at all. Additionally, there are a lot of random rules for each of these different kingdoms, but again, it is not clear how or why all of these parameters exist. The realm where they only live until they're 25? How is that even sustainable? But you also have realms where they live until they're 500? Having both of these exist in the same world just didn't make sense to me.
I will tell you right now, Grim is basically Rhysand from ACOTAR, and you can't convince me of that otherwise. I actually would go as far as to say that this book is pretty much ACOTAR fanfiction, as there are an astounding amount of similarities. Other books I recognized scenes from are: Divergent, Harry Potter, and The Selection.
I did listen to the audiobook, so I can't speak to some of the writing and spelling errors that were mentioned in some of the other reviews. But if anything, this book could have used a developmental editor for sure. There were sections that needed to be fleshed out, and other sections that took way too much time.
I'm sure there's more I could say about this book, but it really just baffles me overall. I can see why some people are drawn to it, it just needed some overall better editing. In all aspects.
Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Genocide
aiplusyou's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Self harm
Minor: Vomit
_ohheyisabella_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While some of the descriptions and names of objects/places were childish, it was fun to read. I did not need to think too hard and could relax while following along the plot with the main character. Yes, the book has its faults, but I liked it and will most likely be purchasing the next book in the series.
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Genocide, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Medical content
cdoubet's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Cursing, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol
ladymickbeth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and War
Minor: Death of parent and Vomit
I’ll be honest, I didn’t see a fair amount of the plot twists coming. Other than that, there is nothing good about this book. World didn’t feel fleshed out, writing was terrible with its sentence fragments not used very artfully, and the exposition was just dropped in, sometimes very loosely related to what’s going on at the moment and long-winded.sarahfr1end's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
kaetheluise_nckl's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Child abuse
Minor: Genocide, Death of parent, and War
humanmessofaperson's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
0.25
All tell, no show.
Constant explanation of what was being implied instead of just letting the reader understand the implications/piece things together themselves. Poor character depth and very rushed connections between characters. A confused pacing with the characters spending most of their time looking for a particular object in far too many different locations: searches that yielded nothing for the plot or character development, only there to add in tired worldbuilding/lore and fill more pages with words.
A complete over use of clichés and tired tropes, and while this could be true of most books, the author doesn't succeed in making them interesting or fun, meerly laughable.
I have never read a book that felt more like it was in its second or third draft. Characters had no depth, the story felt bored of itself, and things were either not explained enough or completely over-explained. (I couldn't tell you want anyone or anyplace looked like apart from vague, broad descriptors.)
Isla was a character that could do no wrong and was oh so special in the most grating of ways. Boring and plain. The same can be said for her love interests - Oro and Grim - who felt more like vague ideas of a character and less like actual people.
As frustrating, sometimes baffleing, and terribly written as this book is there certainly was a glimmer of something that could potentially be good, but considering this book went through multiple edits and this is the final product, I don't think Aster is the one capable of making it work. At least not without a serious marked improvement in her writing skills.
The half star is for the occasional gasp I had towards a plot twist (admittedly often followed by a laugh) and the memes me and my friend got to make because of this book, we had fun.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Vomit and Death of parent
nicoley3's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The romance confounded me.
The villain’s big reveal at the end actually made me laugh because there were so many inane plot twists shoved into one lengthy monologue. At least 7 and I’m deciding to stop counting there.
I finished the book, so that’s something.
Moderate: Blood and Sexual content
Minor: Violence and Vomit