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sassmistress's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
A YA fantasy novel with no magic? It's a first for me, but it reads exactly like a traditional fantasy novel in a creatively-crafted desert world. The world building is thorough and imaginative, the action fast-paced, and the character arc nicely wrapped up with a bow at the end. If your YA is into good-vs-tyrant, mustache-twirling antagonists, and a Robin Hood style sub-plot, this book is for them.
As an adult who's a fan of fantasy, I have to qualify this by saying it's not masterpiece level. It sometimes feels as though the world-building details are crammed in too obviously, and the plot is completely predictable if you're familiar with fantasy tropes. You'll see multiple "twists" coming a mile away. Characters are a bit low-dimensional. I even found one homophone misspelling in my used copy; I hope that's been fixed in later prints!
All that to say, I almost quit early, but actually really enjoyed it once it got rolling. It's an exciting adventure with a lot of imagininative details!
As an adult who's a fan of fantasy, I have to qualify this by saying it's not masterpiece level. It sometimes feels as though the world-building details are crammed in too obviously, and the plot is completely predictable if you're familiar with fantasy tropes. You'll see multiple "twists" coming a mile away. Characters are a bit low-dimensional. I even found one homophone misspelling in my used copy; I hope that's been fixed in later prints!
All that to say, I almost quit early, but actually really enjoyed it once it got rolling. It's an exciting adventure with a lot of imagininative details!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, Child death, and Death of parent
Minor: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Blood
Content-wise, the first thing I would note is the romance plotline. It's tame as such things go, but if your YA is not ready for gateway romance, this is it. Feeling the heat off his body as they lay together under the stars, pressing his muscles against her during fight training sequences, the trope where one tackles the other after goofing around and they have a "moment" before separating, noticing eyes and moving hair, an almost-kiss interrupted, and
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