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rachelkreadsbookz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Gore, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Xenophobia and Death of parent
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Firstly, what a story! I have to give props to Kalyn Josephson for the plot and pacing because it was really well done. It certainly kept me turning the pages!
The world-building was very good too, although it could be confusing at times. I loved the intertwining of religious belief, magic, lore, and politics (particularly with Kinnism/Judaism), it all came together pretty seamlessly, although, again, it could be confusing occasionally.
The maps and family trees (created by Virginia Allyn) were useful in giving a sense of location and social hierarchies of the world.
The main problems I experienced had to do with character development and writing style, each of which I'll address separately.
I'll start with character development. Although I could see that Josephson did her best, there was a remoteness in the writing that stopped me from fully empathising and caring about the characters - particularly the POV characters of Mikira and Arielle, although I found qualities to admire in both of them. I also couldn't particularly vibe with either of theromantic developments, I just couldn't fully grasp what the love interests saw in each other, particularly with Damien and Arielle. I also couldn't buy into Damien's ruthlessness and tactics of manipulation, even though he was ultimately doing it to create a less corrupt and more equal society. I think there also may have been too many minor characters who only popped up now and again and made the story feel somewhat cluttered.
The writing style was also quite strange, although it did propel the plot forward But some of the phrasing was quite odd, leading me to be unsure as to who or what the text was referring to, and distinguishing between each individual character from scene to scene. There were also a number of spelling, phrasing, and grammatical errors which really should have been picked up by an editor because they were very distracting.
I probably will read the next book in the series because a number of plot elements intrigued me, but on the whole I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
The world-building was very good too, although it could be confusing at times. I loved the intertwining of religious belief, magic, lore, and politics (particularly with Kinnism/Judaism), it all came together pretty seamlessly, although, again, it could be confusing occasionally.
The maps and family trees (created by Virginia Allyn) were useful in giving a sense of location and social hierarchies of the world.
The main problems I experienced had to do with character development and writing style, each of which I'll address separately.
I'll start with character development. Although I could see that Josephson did her best, there was a remoteness in the writing that stopped me from fully empathising and caring about the characters - particularly the POV characters of Mikira and Arielle, although I found qualities to admire in both of them. I also couldn't particularly vibe with either of the
The writing style was also quite strange, although it did propel the plot forward But some of the phrasing was quite odd, leading me to be unsure as to who or what the text was referring to, and distinguishing between each individual character from scene to scene. There were also a number of spelling, phrasing, and grammatical errors which really should have been picked up by an editor because they were very distracting.
I probably will read the next book in the series because a number of plot elements intrigued me, but on the whole I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Grief, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Antisemitism, Drug use, and Xenophobia
Minor: Genocide and Sexual violence
One of the main plot points is a deadly and dangerous horseracing tournament, and horses are injured and/or killed.ezwolf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This Dark Descent follow Mikira, a girl trying to save her family and their horse ranch from a greedy and antagonistic noble and Arielle, an enchanter unregistered with the crown and forbidden, powerful magic. The girls are brought together by a young man, Damien, who makes a deal with both that will give them all something they desperately want.
Arielle and Mikira were both great characters and I'm torn on which one was my favorite. I loved Ari for her connection (and disconnection) to the Jewish religion of this book. I loved Mikira for the love of her horses and her sisters and her desire to protect her family.
There was also a lot of casual queerness (and no homophobia) amongst the background characters and the implication of demisexuality and bisexuality/pansexuality with Ari and Mikira.
The thing I found most interesting about this book was its approach to Judaism. There are so many books that take Christianity and create a fantasy religion based on it, but I've never seen that done with Judaism. And even though this was fantasy Judaism, it was still implicitly Jewish, the way Ari and Damien talked about the foundations of it in their world and the different traditions, was so Jewish. The way golems were used was my favorite. I feel like often in media, golems are used to be scary, but golems are meant to protect and that's a big part of the golems that Ari makes.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Arielle and Mikira were both great characters and I'm torn on which one was my favorite. I loved Ari for her connection (and disconnection) to the Jewish religion of this book. I loved Mikira for the love of her horses and her sisters and her desire to protect her family.
There was also a lot of casual queerness (and no homophobia) amongst the background characters and the implication of demisexuality and bisexuality/pansexuality with Ari and Mikira.
The thing I found most interesting about this book was its approach to Judaism. There are so many books that take Christianity and create a fantasy religion based on it, but I've never seen that done with Judaism. And even though this was fantasy Judaism, it was still implicitly Jewish, the way Ari and Damien talked about the foundations of it in their world and the different traditions, was so Jewish. The way golems were used was my favorite. I feel like often in media, golems are used to be scary, but golems are meant to protect and that's a big part of the golems that Ari makes.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Grief, Violence, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Antisemitism, and Murder
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Alcohol, and Bullying
chronicallybookish's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This Dark Descent is a Jewish-inspired high fantasy that’s pitched as The Shadows Between Us meets Six of Crows meets The Scorpio Races.
I can see the Scorpio Races comp, but the other two… not so much.
From the very first chapter, this books weaknesses were apparent—not enough development, not enough depth.
The inciting incident of this book happens during the second scene. This is the moment where Mikira makes the decision that sets the plot in motion, the moment of no return. She wagers everything she has to save her father. But because this happens so early on, it packs no emotional punch. We’ve had maybe 5 pages to get to know Mikira, and this scene is the first time we’ve seen or even heard mention of her father. There hasn’t been any development to make the reader care about Mikira or her father, so I couldn’t connect with the emotion of that scene. I wasn’t convinced by Mikira’s supposed desperation to save him. The dramatics of the moment rang hollow to me. Not to mention the fact that the bargain that Mikira makes…doesn’t make sense. She makes a deal that she objectively knows that she cannot possibly win. If she wins, she gets her father back, but if she loses, she and all her siblings are as good as dead. If she wins, yes, she’s better off, but Mikira does not think she can win.
The weak start aside, for the next 30% of the book, I was enjoying myself. The reason why this was happening still didn’t make sense, but as long as I didn’t think about that aspect, I was able to get sucked into what was happening. I enjoyed getting to learn a little about the lore and getting to meet our cast of characters. I especially enjoyed Arielle’s narration in these earlier chapters and getting to know her. I was interested in the race, the building of the golem-horse, and the plot surrounding that.
But at about 30-35%, several new plotlines were added—politics, demonic possession, romantic subplots, war/antiwar, and more. None of it was fleshed out, and none of it meshed together. We jumped from plotline to plotline, nothing really progressing on page, never diving deep into any of them. There was suddenly so much going on, in so few pages, that the story only ever brushed across the surface of these events and aspects of the worldbuilding.
It’s about this point that the romances start to kick in. I really appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation—Mikira is bi and Ari is demisexual/demiromantic. I love seeing rep like that in fantasy, and I really appreciated the inclusion of a discussion about demisexuality/demiromanticism, but the actual conversation was very dry to read. It was like reading the dictionary definition word for word.
I also found it kind of ironic how Ari was like, “now that I’m really getting to know him and connect with him emotionally, I’m starting to be able to fall for him romantically!” because my #1 complaint with the romance in this book is that we never see them interact, and when they do there’s no real depth to it. It’s emotionless. Damien says some pretty words, but they’re just words and because there’s no accompanying depth to the actual interactions, actions, descriptions of feelings, etc, it rings hollow and the words just seem manipulative. There was not a single spark of chemistry between Ari and Damien—or between Mikira and either or her love interests—but it was especially painful to read because Damien and Ari were constantly like, verbally professing their love for each other and I was so completely unconvinced.
It also drove me absolutely mad how this one character is like, so blatantly possessed and either no one cared or no one could figure it out. She’s like “There’s this voice in my head and it’s maybe influencing my thoughts and also I’m starting to lose time.” But she doesn’t like, do anything about it. And neither does the person she tells. Like, THAT FEELS PRETTY FREAKING IMPORTANT TO ME!
Honestly, by the end of this book I could not stand a single one of these characters. They were annoying and their actions and thoughts constantly contradicted themselves and just… made no sense.
The last thing I want to touch on is the worldbuilding. The book takes place in the empirical kingdom of Enderlain (or something like that), but Ari is Kinnish, and the Kinnish people are based on Jewish people. Their religion and magic (Kinnism) are based on Jewish folklore and myths. The development and representation of these people was beautiful. It was so clearly an ode to the author’s love of her religion and culture. The discussions had on this topic were phenomenal and real and had true resonance in a way that… pretty much nothing else in the book had. If everything in the book was executed to that level, it could’ve been a 5 star read. Unfortunately, I think that the level of care, development, and detail that the Kinnish aspects of worldbuilding had made the surface level, bare bones development of all the other aspects of worldbuilding and character even more obvious.
If it still interests you, give it a try, but I don’t personally recommend this book, and I won’t be continuing with the series.
I can see the Scorpio Races comp, but the other two… not so much.
From the very first chapter, this books weaknesses were apparent—not enough development, not enough depth.
The inciting incident of this book happens during the second scene. This is the moment where Mikira makes the decision that sets the plot in motion, the moment of no return. She wagers everything she has to save her father. But because this happens so early on, it packs no emotional punch. We’ve had maybe 5 pages to get to know Mikira, and this scene is the first time we’ve seen or even heard mention of her father. There hasn’t been any development to make the reader care about Mikira or her father, so I couldn’t connect with the emotion of that scene. I wasn’t convinced by Mikira’s supposed desperation to save him. The dramatics of the moment rang hollow to me. Not to mention the fact that the bargain that Mikira makes…doesn’t make sense. She makes a deal that she objectively knows that she cannot possibly win. If she wins, she gets her father back, but if she loses, she and all her siblings are as good as dead. If she wins, yes, she’s better off, but Mikira does not think she can win.
The weak start aside, for the next 30% of the book, I was enjoying myself. The reason why this was happening still didn’t make sense, but as long as I didn’t think about that aspect, I was able to get sucked into what was happening. I enjoyed getting to learn a little about the lore and getting to meet our cast of characters. I especially enjoyed Arielle’s narration in these earlier chapters and getting to know her. I was interested in the race, the building of the golem-horse, and the plot surrounding that.
But at about 30-35%, several new plotlines were added—politics, demonic possession, romantic subplots, war/antiwar, and more. None of it was fleshed out, and none of it meshed together. We jumped from plotline to plotline, nothing really progressing on page, never diving deep into any of them. There was suddenly so much going on, in so few pages, that the story only ever brushed across the surface of these events and aspects of the worldbuilding.
It’s about this point that the romances start to kick in. I really appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation—Mikira is bi and Ari is demisexual/demiromantic. I love seeing rep like that in fantasy, and I really appreciated the inclusion of a discussion about demisexuality/demiromanticism, but the actual conversation was very dry to read. It was like reading the dictionary definition word for word.
I also found it kind of ironic how Ari was like, “now that I’m really getting to know him and connect with him emotionally, I’m starting to be able to fall for him romantically!” because my #1 complaint with the romance in this book is that we never see them interact, and when they do there’s no real depth to it. It’s emotionless. Damien says some pretty words, but they’re just words and because there’s no accompanying depth to the actual interactions, actions, descriptions of feelings, etc, it rings hollow and the words just seem manipulative. There was not a single spark of chemistry between Ari and Damien—or between Mikira and either or her love interests—but it was especially painful to read because Damien and Ari were constantly like, verbally professing their love for each other and I was so completely unconvinced.
It also drove me absolutely mad how this one character is like, so blatantly possessed and either no one cared or no one could figure it out. She’s like “There’s this voice in my head and it’s maybe influencing my thoughts and also I’m starting to lose time.” But she doesn’t like, do anything about it. And neither does the person she tells. Like, THAT FEELS PRETTY FREAKING IMPORTANT TO ME!
Honestly, by the end of this book I could not stand a single one of these characters. They were annoying and their actions and thoughts constantly contradicted themselves and just… made no sense.
The last thing I want to touch on is the worldbuilding. The book takes place in the empirical kingdom of Enderlain (or something like that), but Ari is Kinnish, and the Kinnish people are based on Jewish people. Their religion and magic (Kinnism) are based on Jewish folklore and myths. The development and representation of these people was beautiful. It was so clearly an ode to the author’s love of her religion and culture. The discussions had on this topic were phenomenal and real and had true resonance in a way that… pretty much nothing else in the book had. If everything in the book was executed to that level, it could’ve been a 5 star read. Unfortunately, I think that the level of care, development, and detail that the Kinnish aspects of worldbuilding had made the surface level, bare bones development of all the other aspects of worldbuilding and character even more obvious.
If it still interests you, give it a try, but I don’t personally recommend this book, and I won’t be continuing with the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Torture, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent and Grief
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