Reviews with content warning for Death - Zatvorska vidarica

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, it cured my reading slump with its fast pace and easily digestible prose. On the other, I didn't connect with the characters deeply enough, leaving the emotional depth the author was attempting to create feeling forced.

The story quickly sucked me in and was very engaging throughout the first 100 or so pages, but I started to get bored and speed read the second half of this book. If the trials aspect of this book appealed to you most, prepare to be disappointed. They were extremely anticlimactic, required no actual effort or skill from Kiva, and she only survived them because one person directly helped her all four times (I'd hardly call this a spoiler--it's the first book in a series, the main character was always going to make it out alive).
The four trials were incredibly lackluster:

trial 1: a really long, impossible jump at a tall height. The prince saves her by breaking her fall.
trial 2: survive for 10 minutes without burning alive inside a crematorium. The princess gives her a magical necklace that keeps her from burning.
trial 3: tied to the bottom of a water pit for 15 minutes. surprise! Jaren has magic and saves her.
trial 4: escape a tunnel maze. Jaren gets thrown in with her as punishment and uses his magic to literally just show them the path out.

A lot of this book felt very flimsy. Even though life in the prison is harsh for the prisoners, they have a LOT of freedom--they're allowed to roam around the grounds however they please, are never subjected to pat-downs or security searches of any kind. There were never many guards around, and when they were present, the inmates weren't handcuffed or bound in any way. It also felt way too convenient that this infamous traitor queen was so casually placed in the infirmary with only a few healers and one guard at a time on watch. With her importance and high number of enemies she's said to have, why didn't anyone try to break in and harm her? Kiva was also always conveniently saved or favored by powerful people without much reason.

With all this being said, the reveals at the ending shocked me, and the cliffhanger was good enough to make me interested in giving book 2 a try.

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hannahlois's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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jessannderson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

I did start getting frustrated with Kiva’s repetitive thoughts but it all makes sense now…damn that ending was so good! amazing plot twist, literally making me doubt everything I just read.

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teri_b's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This was quite the roller coaster of a YA fantasy romance novel in a rather gory setting.

Loved the beginning and the introduction into the world, then I felt, the story got a little bit of a lull until it picked up pace towards the end again.

Loved the main character and her storyline through the book.

Some twists I did see coming, others not at all.

Star rating during reading was anything between 3 and 5, in the end I settle for a 3.

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