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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
The world in this story (or at least the main culture we're introduced to) is inexplicably cruel, and I wish the way it ran made more sense. If there'd been an explanation for the cruelty, it could've been less about random callousness and more about survival instinct.
Amazing
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
The Descendants is for YA and up. Great storyline, can't wait to read the next in the series ASAP.
The storyline is like none I have read before, and I read ALOT.
I love the characters, within pages you start to care about them and want to jump into the book to help.
Fast read... because you won't want to put it down! I read it in about 2 hours. :)
The storyline is like none I have read before, and I read ALOT.
I love the characters, within pages you start to care about them and want to jump into the book to help.
Fast read... because you won't want to put it down! I read it in about 2 hours. :)
Amazing
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
Really good storyline
I have really enjoyed reading this book. It is different. The FMC has been through the ringer and I believe there are some secrets there that will come out. This society that she is part of is horrid. It is completely backwards and seriously messed up. The Wild Lands.... that sounds like where she should be. The "villian" is horrible, he makes my skin crawl. Honestly the structure of this "lawful" society makes my skin crawl. The FMC is pretty complex. Definitely read this book. It is absolutely fantastic!
I have really enjoyed reading this book. It is different. The FMC has been through the ringer and I believe there are some secrets there that will come out. This society that she is part of is horrid. It is completely backwards and seriously messed up. The Wild Lands.... that sounds like where she should be. The "villian" is horrible, he makes my skin crawl. Honestly the structure of this "lawful" society makes my skin crawl. The FMC is pretty complex. Definitely read this book. It is absolutely fantastic!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
One Sentence Summary: Just like every other person in Lytonia, Rayah is sent to Monroe Academy to learn and to level up her light magic, except she can’t get her light to manifest, so endures constantly bullying, until she starts to spend her nights dreaming of impossible places and an impossible man.
My thoughts:
The Descendants is the first in the series of the same name. It follows Rayah, a citizen of Lytonia, as she nears the end of her years at the academy all children are sent to. Unfortunately, the reader is only treated to a short amount of time with Rayah as this felt more like just the first quarter of a whole book. The ending leaves the reader hanging quite a bit, though it does nicely finish off the main story of this part, namely whether the man Rayah meets while she’s sleeping is real or not. There is definitely a larger story, though, which was a big part of the story, but is clearly far from finished. I really liked how darkly dystopian this world is, but some of it, especially when it came to the characterizations, puzzled me.
The Descendants tells the story of Rayah, a young woman approaching her twentieth birthday, which is when every student must level up their magic to a certain level or else become enslaved. It’s definitely looming on the horizon for her, especially since she has never been able to manifest light so is called a null. Being the only null, she’s short on friends and practically mobbed by people, teachers and students, who despise her. Life at the academy isn’t easy for her, but things seem a little better when she starts to fall asleep and find herself in another place. Out in the Wild Lands things are different, but she’s certain it’s only a dream. There she meets a young man, Soren, who is a gods child, who have different colored light and the capability of turning dark, and a horse who takes a liking to her. But they’re in just as much danger as Rayah is at the academy. And her deadline is still looming.
As this felt like the first quarter of a larger book, most of The Descendants is world building. The reader is introduced via some info dumps and Rayah’s own experiences to the highly civilized and dystopian world of Lytonia as well as the Wild Lands that lie beyond. In this world, everyone is capable of manifesting light and the color of the light determines which group they belong to. It’s a fascinating concept, one which directly contributes to the stratification of society as only one group is highly preferred. But I do love the idea that the academy more or less equalizes everyone, meaning if they, no matter which color light they have, cannot level up to a certain level by the time they turn twenty, they are automatically enslaved. Their whole society felt quite rigid, which was a direct contrast to the Wild Lands, which are, aptly, wild. Full of nature and people who live with a great deal more freedom, there’s also a sense of lawlessness as there are individuals called depleters who deplete the people they capture of their magic. However, despite how interesting and fascinating the world is, I failed to get a real sense of what Lytonia looked like. Even the academy felt more like a jumble of buildings and training areas, but I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of a school. The Wild Lands felt more detailed and I definitely would have loved to spend more time there.
The one thing I didn’t quite understand about this world was all the pain students are put through. I think it was mentioned that pain is supposed to help with their powers, but it’s not an idea that’s reinforced, or even one that the reader actually gets to see much of. So it makes the pain and torture on the pages present just to make this into dark fantasy. There are torturous and disturbing scenes, but the students, and even the adults around them, seem relatively well-adjusted, capable of forming close relationships and enjoying whatever passes for normal life there. With early separation between parent and child in this society and all the pain and torture they all undergo for years, I’m surprised there’s any kind of loving relationship these people can form so some of the relationships the reader gets to see feel a little off. I would expect more hardened, calloused, and probably traumatized people wandering about regardless of how well-meshed this idea and practice is in society.
I did, though, enjoy the diversity as there seems to be a strong, diverse gene pool in Lytonia and I liked the villain’s characterization. Rayah herself puzzled me a little. Heavily bullied, I expected her to either be more meek and frightened or keen on fighting back. She, however, seemed to be in neither camp. Instead, she endures it and seems to hope for the best, though her looming deadline creates a good deal of anxiety even if I didn’t think she tried hard enough considering she has less than a year. Overall, she felt a little too even tempered and even keeled, so it left me wondering a bit about the necessity of having her so despised and so tortured. There is a nice glimpse of why at the end, though, which is tantalizing.
But much of the story revolved around Rayah and her powerless self and the world she visits in her sleep. I loved seeing her and her mysterious man together. They felt like old friends and Soren was just such a carefree and friendly man that I think it helped even things out in terms of the kinds of people in Rayah’s life. It was nice to see her with someone who didn’t live under the dictates of Lytonia’s society. But this story feels like a typical story of a powerless individual ending up being super powerful and everything will later on depend on them. The predictability is a little disappointing, but I like a lot of the details about the world.
The Descendants has an interesting concept and an unoriginal story, but, while a part of it puzzles me, I think it was executed well enough to give the reader a sense of the world and the story. Some threads are given closure and others are left wide open, so the ending wasn’t the terrible cliff hanger it could have been. It does make this book feel like it was all about the world building and the story is more of an after thought, but they work hand in hand most of the time so I hope the rest of the books really get into the meat of the story.
Thank you to the author for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Amazing
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
This book popped up in my recs and I am so glad it did. Such a good book. Looking forward to reading more.
At first, I got really distressed by the slavery thing, and the pain enduring sessions, all that because they could… well but that aside the story starts to grow on you, and I finished in on a couple of hours, we learn way before the MC that she is not exactly a null, but instead she is kind of a harry potter, she does have power, but she doesn’t know how to draw them out, so its easier to think and act like if she doesn’t have any powers… it was a good read, and I think I want to read what comes next ^__^
thank you Vibe Reviews for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
thank you Vibe Reviews for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
fast-paced
I received a free copy in return for a review.
I enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. However, it need some editing/proofreading. The spacing seemed to change every couple so often. It would go from double space to single space with no rhyme or reason. It kept throwing me off.
The books pacing seemed a little fast for the plot but for being such a short book, it didn’t really bother me much.
I enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. However, it need some editing/proofreading. The spacing seemed to change every couple so often. It would go from double space to single space with no rhyme or reason. It kept throwing me off.
The books pacing seemed a little fast for the plot but for being such a short book, it didn’t really bother me much.
This is good good read, however the characters need a little more work, the story really ends without much ending (I assume book 2 gets you closer to the end?) The characters are often found doing things out of character for them. Overall a good book but definitely needs a little work