Reviews

This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson

clemencebl's review against another edition

3.0

3,5 !

kai_grey09's review against another edition

3.0

That was a thing. I think? It was engaging enough that I didn't struggle getting through my tabbed out days, but I didn't really want to read beyond what I had set aside. I'll definitely pick up the second book just to see how it ends, but it felt very predictable and easy to tell where everything was going

aielylois's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.0

emmettspot's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

morethanmylupus's review against another edition

adventurous

2.5

I'm forever complaining that fantasy novels often drag out the plot into more books than are really needed. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that this book had the opposite problem. There was entirely too much happening here. I think it would have been a more enjoyable read if some of that real estate had been spent on character development instead. We had a lot of plot and very flat characters, which made it difficult to care much about what was happening to the characters during all those plot points. The world-building was nebulous: non-existent in places, left to the reader to fill in with guesses other times, and overall hard to follow. The ending is clearly a cliffhanger setup for the next book, but I'm not invested enough to finish this series. 


 

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. 

em_grubb's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

bookish_julie's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

booknerdkc's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

valericks24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense

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

4.75

becxreadz's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

Liked
*Enchanted horses and golems 
*Arielle's pov and her magic with enchantments
*Characters had depth and personalities

Disliked
*Was wanting more horse races and horse training and it's just not a big part of the story
*Audio narration
*No strong connection to any characters other than Arielle.
*Felt no chemistry in the "romances" 
*Forgettable story