Reviews tagging 'Grief'

This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson

7 reviews

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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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 the
romantic 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.



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metaphorsandmisc's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.0


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caseythereader's review

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adventurous dark funny sad tense fast-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

3.75

Thanks to Fierce Reads for the free copy of this book.

 - THIS DARK DESCENT is quite a - pun intended - ride. Magic based on Jewish folklore, enchanted horse races, backstabbing elites, murder and romance.
- The race scenes had me on the edge of my seat. It took me a little flipping pages back and forth to follow the machinations of the lords, but once I figured it out I was all in.
- I haven't seen much talk about the queerness of this book, but it is! The characters describe their feelings rather than label them, given the sort of ancient fantasy setting of the world. But Mikira reads as bisexual and Arielle as somewhere on the demi-aroace spectrum. 

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obscurepages's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny tense fast-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? No

4.75

THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT WTF WTF šŸ˜­šŸ˜‚

I've only read middle grade from Kalyn Josephson, so while I was expecting something good, I also didn't know much yet about their writing style in YA. But wow wow wow wow.

<b>The world-building was complex and enchanting, the characters were all compelling, the political intrigue was just suspenseful, the plot was carefully woven and definitely stress-inducing </b> šŸ˜­šŸ˜‚ I was actually a little afraid I wouldn't really connect to this book because it's about horse-racing. But damn, how wrong was I. Because this was more than just horse-racing. It was about the bad and ugly sides of humanity, the immense power that the elites hold, about our own desires, and coming to terms with our own power and growing in confidence. <b> This was just brilliant, riveting, and breathtaking. </b>

(I also just loved seeing aroace/demi rep, as well as bi rep from the two main characters šŸ„¹)


This took me in a rollercoaster ride I never really expected, and for that, this book is one of my favorites this year šŸ˜­

Full review in my blog soon!

(Received an e-arc from the author in exchange for an honest review.)

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ezwolf's review against another edition

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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! 

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chronicallybookish's review

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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 thatā€™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 twoā€¦ not so much.

From the very first chapter, this books weaknesses were apparentā€”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. Weā€™ve had maybe 5 pages to get to know Mikira, and this scene is the first time weā€™ve seen or even heard mention of her father. There hasnā€™t been any development to make the reader care about Mikira or her father, so I couldnā€™t connect with the emotion of that scene. I wasnā€™t convinced by Mikiraā€™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 makesā€¦doesnā€™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, sheā€™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 didnā€™t make sense, but as long as I didnā€™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 Arielleā€™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 addedā€”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.
Itā€™s about this point that the romances start to kick in. I really appreciated the LGBTQ+ representationā€”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, ā€œnow that Iā€™m really getting to know him and connect with him emotionally, Iā€™m starting to be able to fall for him romantically!ā€ because my #1 complaint with the romance in this book is that we never see them interact, and when they do thereā€™s no real depth to it. Itā€™s emotionless. Damien says some pretty words, but theyā€™re just words and because thereā€™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 Damienā€”or between Mikira and either or her love interestsā€”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. Sheā€™s like ā€œThereā€™s this voice in my head and itā€™s maybe influencing my thoughts and also Iā€™m starting to lose time.ā€ But she doesnā€™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 justā€¦ 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 authorā€™s love of her religion and culture. The discussions had on this topic were phenomenal and real and had true resonance in a way thatā€¦ pretty much nothing else in the book had. If everything in the book was executed to that level, it couldā€™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 donā€™t personally recommend this book, and I wonā€™t be continuing with the series.

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chronicacademia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

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