Reviews - Empire of the Damned ARC

2.45k reviews for:

Empire of the Damned ARC

Jay Kristoff

4.53 AVERAGE

clairbear1989's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

abipop's review against another edition

5.0

This review applies to this and book 1, Empire of Vampires:

5/5 story, TRULY unique (EXCEPT a lot of book 1 feels like Last of Us — surrogate daughter/one of a kind miracle child with a bad attitude but a heart of gold who can save the world from ever spreading blight/monsters but only through her death - which is thwarted by jaded surrogate father who lost his bio daughter and chooses to save her and murder her would be sacrificers in spite of the potential cure for mankind)

5/5 characters and dialogue (MAJORITY female main chars except main MC). It can get smutty but like who cares.

The ONLY quibble I have is the story in a story … so 95% of the book is in quotes or double quotes. Feels a bit like [looks out at the audience, breaking 4th wall] “we’re explaining the world building but it’s part of the plot!” which is just a pet peeve of mine; feels like dumbing down. WE ARE TENACIOUS AND ARE READING A 700 PAGE BOOK, WE CAN INFER

Edit: OMG the artwork. Somehow the art is always exactly how I pictured the scene / characters

Edit 2: WHY is everyone red headed (literally anyone who isn’t MC and MCs family) and all the women have beauty marks that are repeatedly noted?? Really breaks suspension of disbelief for me