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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book a lot, it made me feel many emotions, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the exploration of moral greyness and how there are more than two sides to any situation, the exploration of how much of you are in control of your own destiny, particularly in the face of literal future seers, and how just cause you can see the future doesn't mean you can change it, and also a consideration of who we are and what we can do with or without our memories. I enjoyed the plot and the twists and turns this story took (although part of me kinda wanted Cassa to kill the chancellor in a cathartic action, but also I like the prophecy defying action and I did like the discussion of who is Cassa without her revenge). I also loved all the main characters and how real they were, normally I get annoyed at YA "only the teen-agers do what is right" but in this book I enjoyed it because it justified it in a way that felt right to me, with the devastating crushing of a rebellion that drove these kids on while also breaking their parents, making the broken previous generation feel real. I also liked that they had conflicts of interests in terms of motivations, in terms of goals, in terms of what they were prepared to do, Vesper's moral conundrum felt very real. Similarly I liked the teenager-yness of the characters that just felt reminiscent of my own teenage years, alys' panic attacks and how paralysing they can be and yet , evanders crush on both Cassa and newt, the concept that you can break up with someone not because someone has done something wrong but because it wasn't quite right, and how you can still have feelings for the person but know you're happier now. This is a book that I really wish I'd read as a teenager tbh given its themes and characters, but I'm glad I read it now. It didn't grip me in s way some of my 5* have which is holding me back in terms of rating but I would gladly recommend it to anyone and everyone who asks me about it.
I...did not like this book. Honestly, I'm not certain why I finished it - other than the fact that I said I would and I don't like not doing something I say I will.
Anyway, pretty much every problem I had with this book is because I did not like the writing style. It's very... description and dialogue light and heavy on the internal musings. (Also, apparently we need to know things like how certain characters first met, as that gets their own, interrupting, chapter. Also, flashbacks to what happened five minutes ago.)
There so little major world building and yet, every minutia that even tangentially affects our 'heroes' is described way more than need be. And yet, I don't know anything about the greater workings. I don't even know if the Citadel's township is a city-state, part of a larger country, the only town in existence, ect. (Is it said? After a certain point I started skimming because I had to return this book to the library and with how bored I was, I would have never made it in time if I had to read page after page of text blocks. There is a reason it's said people seldom skip dialogue.)
I thought, after the first chapter - which was an external pov and was so fun - that the book was going to be awesome. The characters all seemed quirky and unique, even their first chapters made it seem like they were going to be a fun bunch. They're not quirky and unique, they're boring and...really, rely on their diversity to fake building personality. (Seriously, one of them seems like their whole personality is panic attacks.) (Also, on the author's page here it says something about 'an excess of witty banter'. ... Yeah, there's none of that here.)
What makes it worse for me, is that these are supposed to be friends. I only felt it a little - which could have been helped by witty banter. You know, the way friends are.
The other reason I didn't like the book was Cassa. She's just...a terrible person and a horrid friend. So having her as their leader was lots of fun. ('I've lost everyone, I have nothing left.' Carefully doesn't look into the eyes of her 'friends'.)
Finally, I did like Evander. He had a little more liveliness to him than the rest and was at least closest to what I thought he was at the introduction.
Final note: Also, this book was a lot darker than I thought it would be, so... Yeah. If you're wanting a fun, lighthearted fantasy romp, don't look here.
Anyway, pretty much every problem I had with this book is because I did not like the writing style. It's very... description and dialogue light and heavy on the internal musings. (Also, apparently we need to know things like how certain characters first met, as that gets their own, interrupting, chapter. Also, flashbacks to what happened five minutes ago.)
There so little major world building and yet, every minutia that even tangentially affects our 'heroes' is described way more than need be. And yet, I don't know anything about the greater workings. I don't even know if the Citadel's township is a city-state, part of a larger country, the only town in existence, ect. (Is it said? After a certain point I started skimming because I had to return this book to the library and with how bored I was, I would have never made it in time if I had to read page after page of text blocks. There is a reason it's said people seldom skip dialogue.)
I thought, after the first chapter - which was an external pov and was so fun - that the book was going to be awesome. The characters all seemed quirky and unique, even their first chapters made it seem like they were going to be a fun bunch. They're not quirky and unique, they're boring and...really, rely on their diversity to fake building personality. (Seriously, one of them seems like their whole personality is panic attacks.) (Also, on the author's page here it says something about 'an excess of witty banter'. ... Yeah, there's none of that here.)
What makes it worse for me, is that these are supposed to be friends. I only felt it a little - which could have been helped by witty banter. You know, the way friends are.
The other reason I didn't like the book was Cassa. She's just...a terrible person and a horrid friend. So having her as their leader was lots of fun. ('I've lost everyone, I have nothing left.' Carefully doesn't look into the eyes of her 'friends'.)
Finally, I did like Evander. He had a little more liveliness to him than the rest and was at least closest to what I thought he was at the introduction.
Final note: Also, this book was a lot darker than I thought it would be, so... Yeah. If you're wanting a fun, lighthearted fantasy romp, don't look here.
I loved this book a lot! The pairing is just so sweet even that it is easily able to counteract the darker parts of the story toward the end. I 100% got the Six of Crows vibe as soon as I started reading, but there are definitely some major differences and plot turns that caught my eye as well.
The beginning was rather confusing, it felt like I was missing some key points. The confusion was fixed very quickly because of the few flash-back chapters and the characters talking and thinking about what had happened before the book started. I am a big fan of when books switch the POV chapter to chapter and in this case, it was great because I actually enjoyed reading each of these characters. There were no chapters that I just wanted to skip to get to the character that I really liked reading.
I was so excited to see that this has a really cute MM pairing! Was not expecting this when I started the book, but dang it was a nice discovery. A lot of MM stories end up focusing so much on it being a book with gay characters that the story line ends up suffering a bit for it. But not this one, it kept me engaged the entire time.
It’s so hard to find a book with sweet MM fluff that still has good action and real plot to it. ☹
The beginning was rather confusing, it felt like I was missing some key points. The confusion was fixed very quickly because of the few flash-back chapters and the characters talking and thinking about what had happened before the book started. I am a big fan of when books switch the POV chapter to chapter and in this case, it was great because I actually enjoyed reading each of these characters. There were no chapters that I just wanted to skip to get to the character that I really liked reading.
I was so excited to see that this has a really cute MM pairing! Was not expecting this when I started the book, but dang it was a nice discovery. A lot of MM stories end up focusing so much on it being a book with gay characters that the story line ends up suffering a bit for it. But not this one, it kept me engaged the entire time.
It’s so hard to find a book with sweet MM fluff that still has good action and real plot to it. ☹
3.5 stars
read on my blog
The summary for Beneath the Citadel was really the thing that caught my eye. Rebels, prophecies, and a ragtag group of misfits? Sounds like my kind of thing. Unfortunately, I did not love this book as much as I thought I would, although I did find it an enjoyable read.
I liked the world building, with its four subsets of magical (idk the word tbh) beings: seers, rooks, diviners, and sentients. It was interesting reading about a land that ran on prophecies. However, other than that, there wasn't much world building. Why do the people depend on prophecies? That was never really explained; we just had to go with it.
There were five different main points of view, which I liked. Each character had distinctive voices, which is always a good thing in my book. Also! Two of the characters had on-the-page representation using the words, which is so rare in fantasy. Alys is asexual, and her brother Evander is bisexual; Newt is never explicitly said, I don't think, but he has a thing with Evander so. Also! Alys has anxiety and is fat.
A lot of what I didn't care for was the writing and the pacing. The four of them would plan something, and then literally in the next chapter, their plan would be wrecked. I mean, that's fine and all, but that happened like three or four different times, and I got tired of all the changes they had to make.
The pacing was weird because we literally jump right into the plot. The first four chapters are each of the four being sentenced to death. And then? I thought we would flash back to why and how they started their plan, but we just kept going with a sentence or two to explain what happened before they were caught. It threw me off a little because it made it feel like the whole book had a middle and an end, with no beginning.
If you know me at all, you probably know I'm a sucker for romances, even in books where they're not really centered in the plot. However, I thought the romance in this book was a bit superfluous. Like, I did not care at all. I just wanted to move through the plot but we would get scenes of **spoilers** Newt pining for Evander and vice versa. And then after a major thing happens at the end, and you'd think we'd get chapters with them dealing with it? Barely any of that but we do get two full chapters of Newt and Evander getting together. Honestly, at that point I didn't even care anymore and just skimmed those two chapters.
And this is going to be a really random complaint but . . . I felt like this book was trying too hard to be like Six of Crows? It could just be me, unable to read anything with a band of misfits without comparing them to the SoC gang, but honestly there are so many comparisons you could make. Cassa is the leader who the rest of the gang follows and loves but also kinda hates. Newt and Wylan are basically the same character, right down to the daddy issues and crushing on another guy in the gang. The random flashbacks (the only time we would get any real backstory!) felt like it was imitating the pacing in SoC, except the flashbacks here were 4, maybe 5 pages of one-scene backstory while SoC actually built up over time. Yeah, again maybe all of this is just me reading too much into it idk.
Beneath the Citadel is definitely a book you should pick up if you want a dead rebellion, a world built around prophecies, a lovable cast of characters, or all three. It's fast paced and the cast's interactions are nice to read. Check it out October 9!
read on my blog
The summary for Beneath the Citadel was really the thing that caught my eye. Rebels, prophecies, and a ragtag group of misfits? Sounds like my kind of thing. Unfortunately, I did not love this book as much as I thought I would, although I did find it an enjoyable read.
I liked the world building, with its four subsets of magical (idk the word tbh) beings: seers, rooks, diviners, and sentients. It was interesting reading about a land that ran on prophecies. However, other than that, there wasn't much world building. Why do the people depend on prophecies? That was never really explained; we just had to go with it.
There were five different main points of view, which I liked. Each character had distinctive voices, which is always a good thing in my book. Also! Two of the characters had on-the-page representation using the words, which is so rare in fantasy. Alys is asexual, and her brother Evander is bisexual; Newt is never explicitly said, I don't think, but he has a thing with Evander so. Also! Alys has anxiety and is fat.
A lot of what I didn't care for was the writing and the pacing. The four of them would plan something, and then literally in the next chapter, their plan would be wrecked. I mean, that's fine and all, but that happened like three or four different times, and I got tired of all the changes they had to make.
The pacing was weird because we literally jump right into the plot. The first four chapters are each of the four being sentenced to death. And then? I thought we would flash back to why and how they started their plan, but we just kept going with a sentence or two to explain what happened before they were caught. It threw me off a little because it made it feel like the whole book had a middle and an end, with no beginning.
If you know me at all, you probably know I'm a sucker for romances, even in books where they're not really centered in the plot. However, I thought the romance in this book was a bit superfluous. Like, I did not care at all. I just wanted to move through the plot but we would get scenes of **spoilers** Newt pining for Evander and vice versa. And then after a major thing happens at the end, and you'd think we'd get chapters with them dealing with it? Barely any of that but we do get two full chapters of Newt and Evander getting together. Honestly, at that point I didn't even care anymore and just skimmed those two chapters.
And this is going to be a really random complaint but . . . I felt like this book was trying too hard to be like Six of Crows? It could just be me, unable to read anything with a band of misfits without comparing them to the SoC gang, but honestly there are so many comparisons you could make. Cassa is the leader who the rest of the gang follows and loves but also kinda hates. Newt and Wylan are basically the same character, right down to the daddy issues and crushing on another guy in the gang. The random flashbacks (the only time we would get any real backstory!) felt like it was imitating the pacing in SoC, except the flashbacks here were 4, maybe 5 pages of one-scene backstory while SoC actually built up over time. Yeah, again maybe all of this is just me reading too much into it idk.
Beneath the Citadel is definitely a book you should pick up if you want a dead rebellion, a world built around prophecies, a lovable cast of characters, or all three. It's fast paced and the cast's interactions are nice to read. Check it out October 9!
If you like Six of Crows chances are that you will enjoy this book too. But the similarities are what keeps me from giving this one 5 stars, because some of the things in this book were better executed in Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom.
Other than that I absolutely recommend reading Beneath the Citadel, it has awesome characters (again: some of them VERY similiar to those in SoC, especially Evander), the plot is fast paced, the relationships felt realistic (friendships AND romantic relationships) and the writing was good.
It also has one of my favourite tropes EVER.
There´s also some ace representation. I can´t say if it is perfect or not (as I am not ace) but it didn´t seem bad but rather positive to me.
Other than that I absolutely recommend reading Beneath the Citadel, it has awesome characters (again: some of them VERY similiar to those in SoC, especially Evander), the plot is fast paced, the relationships felt realistic (friendships AND romantic relationships) and the writing was good.
It also has one of my favourite tropes EVER.
Spoiler
I´m a sucker for friends to lovers and Newt and Evander are a perfect example of that trope done well.There´s also some ace representation. I can´t say if it is perfect or not (as I am not ace) but it didn´t seem bad but rather positive to me.
Okay I’m definitely lying with my star rating. This is probably more of a 3 star book. Maaaaybe a 2.5 star but that seems kind of low. However, I’m giving it 4 stars anyways because it kind of feels like it’s my fault for the odds being against this book for several reasons:
1. I don’t like fantasy (I’m reading this for a book club)
2. I don’t like multiple POVs
3. I don’t like listening to fantasy or books with multiple POVs as audiobooks…and this has both of those elements (my hold for the physical book at the library never came ☹️)
4. I don’t like heavily plot-based books
You know what, as I’m writing this review, I decided to move my rating down to 3 stars. The beginning was so strong and I just assumed I kind of stopped paying attention in the second half because this was an audiobook and it’s easy to get distracted with an audiobook, but that’s not true. I love audiobook. I think I just got bored with Beneath the Citadel. :(
I really loved the LGBTQ+ representation and I was intrigued by the characters, but things started to drag for me. It definitely wasn’t a bad book, but I wasn’t hooked. I personally don’t think multiple POVs is a strong writing technique unless each perspective is incredibly unique and offers something new to the plot line. But yeah, such mixed feelings on this one. With the first few chapters, I thought this was finally going to be the fantasy book that made me like fantasy. But the same thing happened to be as always when it comes to fantasy—I got bored and stopped paying attention. I’ll leave it as 3 stars for a neutral rating but I am absolutely not the person you’re looking for if you want opinions on the fantasy genre. Boo. I just wanna be like the Cool Kids and enjoy magic and world building and powers and whatever.
1. I don’t like fantasy (I’m reading this for a book club)
2. I don’t like multiple POVs
3. I don’t like listening to fantasy or books with multiple POVs as audiobooks…and this has both of those elements (my hold for the physical book at the library never came ☹️)
4. I don’t like heavily plot-based books
You know what, as I’m writing this review, I decided to move my rating down to 3 stars. The beginning was so strong and I just assumed I kind of stopped paying attention in the second half because this was an audiobook and it’s easy to get distracted with an audiobook, but that’s not true. I love audiobook. I think I just got bored with Beneath the Citadel. :(
I really loved the LGBTQ+ representation and I was intrigued by the characters, but things started to drag for me. It definitely wasn’t a bad book, but I wasn’t hooked. I personally don’t think multiple POVs is a strong writing technique unless each perspective is incredibly unique and offers something new to the plot line. But yeah, such mixed feelings on this one. With the first few chapters, I thought this was finally going to be the fantasy book that made me like fantasy. But the same thing happened to be as always when it comes to fantasy—I got bored and stopped paying attention. I’ll leave it as 3 stars for a neutral rating but I am absolutely not the person you’re looking for if you want opinions on the fantasy genre. Boo. I just wanna be like the Cool Kids and enjoy magic and world building and powers and whatever.
I really enjoyed this book. It's my first time reading this author. The changing perspectives kept the plot interesting and the pace quick. I found the plot very interesting and the characters very believable, and more importantly, likable. It's a solid YA read, and also introduces some diverse characters.
Fast paced, but didn’t really soar. This book drew me in right away, and I liked the diversity of the characters and the setting was interesting. I looked forward to getting to know them, their plight, the bigger cause they fought for. But ultimately I had to rate it 3 stars, though, because I felt like the book didn’t really SAY anything. After the initial rush, I expected more world building or some big reveal to make me see why the conflict really mattered to the characters and their world, but it stayed small. I can even sense the author tried to say something bigger about autonomy vs destiny/prophecy, motivation in the face of hardship, or whatever, but I didn’t quite feel any of that. I didn’t feel much of anything, in fact. By the end when a LOT was happening and I should’ve been raging or in tears, I was just like “huh. Ok, whatever.” So there’s my review.