Reviews - Blade Breaker | The StoryGraph

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This is a difficult one to rate. I'd say this was probably a 3.5, but I'm fine rounding up. I was pleasantly surprised by the last half because holy cow the first half drug on and on. I was about 200 pages in when I had the thought "wow, glad it's finally picking up". Yeah, 200 pages. That was rough.

I'm a longtime reader of Victoria Aveyard. She consistently delivers solid world-building, political drama and intrigue, and fight scenes. So it makes sense that those were the best parts of this book. The problem was that even in the last 100 pages, when tensions were highest, I still wasn't fully connected with the characters. The most engaging character in the whole series so far is Erida, and at this point I'd kind of understand if she managed to accomplish her goal of world domination. She's kind of earned it tbh. Not that the Companions aren't great. They bring found family vibes all the way. But individually, they all fall a bit flat for me. I would get little glimpses of emotion from each but it was never enough to grip me. Sorasa came close but every time we got a little bit of growth from her it was time to switch POVs and we lost the traction we had gained. Outside of general fear and worry I don't really know what makes any of them tick. At least not enough for it to be memorable after I walk away. I ended the book feeling like I was still on the outside looking in, as opposed to being in the trenches with our heroes, praying for victory. And that's the best part, so I was kind of disappointed to not have that experience this time.

All that being said, I did still end up enjoying this book. The action-packed ending is truly movie worthy, and Erida is compelling enough to carry readers through the slower parts. Which is high praise considering I rarely (read: never) root for the villain. I'm just not a girl who goes for the baddie I guess. I'm committed to finishing the series; I just really hope I get more connection with the heroes in the next one.