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4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I went into this book completely blind. I didn't know anything about the premise or the characters. I think that actually made this book much for interesting. This book did not hold back. It starts with a character dealing with a very traumatic event. I will be vague, but it wasn't something I was expecting. I found the world incredibly interesting and the way that N.K. Jemisin decided to tell the story was very interesting. I have read quite a few books this year, and this one was a fresh take on multiple POV's. I can't wait to start the second book, and depending on that book, I might update my rating, but as of now, it is a 4.35. I could see it jumping to 4.5 if I like the second book.
Spoiler Thoughts
- Typically don't like multiple POV, but having all of them be the same person was a really cool twist. I thought that each character was going to meet in some way, but I didn't expect them to be the same girl.
- This book did not hold back by starting with the death of a child. If I were Essen, I would have broken as well. The death of a child is so traumatic, but the way the child died, being beaten by her husband, is heartbreaking. She is completely justified and hope she gets her vengeance.
- I didn't love Alabaster and Syenite's relationship. What I mean by this is two people are being forced to sleep together by the Fulcrum to Syenite to conceive a child by a 10 ring. This alone, the Fulcrum needs to end, but what bothered me a bit was the trope of a girl and a guy having to work together through something, but the girl is always constantly upset and annoyed by anything the guy does. Is Alabaster the easiest person to deal with? Absolutely not, but Syenite seemed to be annoyed by everything Alabaster did. This is a trope that happens quite a bit and one that I personally don't care for, but again, that is just a personal preference.
- I really liked Hoa and didn't think that he would be a stone-eater. Also, the fact that he is the narrator of this tale was pretty crazy and means that he Essun told her everything that happened in her life, this also means that I think Essun most likely dies, and Hoa is one of the few remaining who can share her tale.
- I grew to really like Alabaster. I think that despite the circumstances I think that he grew to love Syenite in his own way. I think that they both loved each other in their own way but I felt that Alabaster loved Syenite more than she loved him.
- When he is taken by the stone eater at the end, I knew he would be back, but his life sounds horrible. It sounds like both he and Essun had hard lives.
- Syenite decides to kill her child rather than give her child to Fulcrum. She then connected with the obelisk to destroy pretty much everyone there. The scene of her floating in the water face up and her body face down was so haunting to me.
- Alabaster and Essun reunion. Alabaster telling Essun that he understood why she did what she did, but he would never forgive her.
- Alabaster reveals that he is the one responsible for the crack in the continent and asks her if she has ever heard of a moon. What does that mean? I'm so curious where the second book is going to go.
- This was heavy, and I wasn't expecting some of the dark things that happened in this book, but it was still a really good book.
Spoiler Thoughts
- Typically don't like multiple POV, but having all of them be the same person was a really cool twist. I thought that each character was going to meet in some way, but I didn't expect them to be the same girl.
- This book did not hold back by starting with the death of a child. If I were Essen, I would have broken as well. The death of a child is so traumatic, but the way the child died, being beaten by her husband, is heartbreaking. She is completely justified and hope she gets her vengeance.
- I didn't love Alabaster and Syenite's relationship. What I mean by this is two people are being forced to sleep together by the Fulcrum to Syenite to conceive a child by a 10 ring. This alone, the Fulcrum needs to end, but what bothered me a bit was the trope of a girl and a guy having to work together through something, but the girl is always constantly upset and annoyed by anything the guy does. Is Alabaster the easiest person to deal with? Absolutely not, but Syenite seemed to be annoyed by everything Alabaster did. This is a trope that happens quite a bit and one that I personally don't care for, but again, that is just a personal preference.
- I really liked Hoa and didn't think that he would be a stone-eater. Also, the fact that he is the narrator of this tale was pretty crazy and means that he Essun told her everything that happened in her life, this also means that I think Essun most likely dies, and Hoa is one of the few remaining who can share her tale.
- I grew to really like Alabaster. I think that despite the circumstances I think that he grew to love Syenite in his own way. I think that they both loved each other in their own way but I felt that Alabaster loved Syenite more than she loved him.
- When he is taken by the stone eater at the end, I knew he would be back, but his life sounds horrible. It sounds like both he and Essun had hard lives.
- Syenite decides to kill her child rather than give her child to Fulcrum. She then connected with the obelisk to destroy pretty much everyone there. The scene of her floating in the water face up and her body face down was so haunting to me.
- Alabaster and Essun reunion. Alabaster telling Essun that he understood why she did what she did, but he would never forgive her.
- Alabaster reveals that he is the one responsible for the crack in the continent and asks her if she has ever heard of a moon. What does that mean? I'm so curious where the second book is going to go.
- This was heavy, and I wasn't expecting some of the dark things that happened in this book, but it was still a really good book.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
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
I will start this of by saying that I am just not a massive fan of the trope where you have a species of more powerful superhumans be representative for an opressed minority. To me it just never felt as effectiv or close to reality as people seem to think it is. Still, taking this aside for the moment I do think this story approached this trope with some interesting world building and lore.
This book begins in fragments of a story during the end of the world. It continues then with three prespectives. A child, a young adult and a grown woman. Now here is the thing: this approach (while certainly interesting) makes the creation of an actual plot line rather difficult. What I mean by this is that there is no tension that builds up throughout the story and no established goal of a character that actually leads towards anything. The protagonist as a grown woman wants to find her child (and the husband who killed her other child) but never does and the protagonist as child and young adult dosn't seem to want anything or at leats dosn't know what she wants. This in itself is not necessarily a problem but with nothing else moving the plot forward everything that happanes is sort of left to circumstance. We have a random royal child sneaking into the fulcrum just so our protagonist can figure our more about the secrets they're hiding. We have the protagonist ordered to go on a mission with a guy who just so happens to know a whol bunch about history that is supposed to be off limits. This makes the progression of the plot feel forced. At no point did I wonder what would happen next or how they could resolve a situation (except maybe during battels but those got resolved quite quickly).
Speaking of situations that got resloved too quickly, the fact Alabaster just so happened to be friends with an all powerful stoneeater removed a lot of the tension because if you have an immortal superhuman on your side nothing is all that scary anymore. I also want to say that the character Alabaster really annoyed me. For one, I find the trope of a woman and a man being forced on a jurney together and hating each other (but then ending up falling in love) a bit tiresome, especially if the male character is far more powerful and knowledgable about everything than the female protagonist. Not only is he powerful with his orogeny powers but when they strand on an island and the people there speak a different language he just so happens to speak it too??? He was born and raised in the fulcrum at what point did he have the time to learn a language that is only spoken in regions near the coast? Also, he spends a lot of time explaining things about the fulcrum to the protagonist that they just as well could have tried to figure out together. And the fact tha he has a stoneeater looking out for him all the time really made it difficult to worry about him at all. Having a character with that many skills and that much protection just makes the story boring.
While I liked the various hints at the history and things in the past that are being kept a secret by the government it was incredebly frustrating when a lot of it didn't get resolved? like what was the deal with the obelisks? what do they have to do with the previous society? what was going on in the center of the fulcrum? what actually happend when that one guardian started speaking in somebody else's voice before she got murdered? what was she talking about? what was it that the fulcrum did that was so awful that there can't be any mercy? what was that giant hole in the middle of the fulcrum? (it's ALMOST as if the author wants us to read the second book).
Another thing I found unsatesfying about the ending was the end battle. Because it litterally came out of nowhere and might as well not have happened. Had the protagonist just left the island because she wanted to, something that seemed quite likely at this point, nothing in the actual plot would have changed. Her child and one of her lovers dying therfore felt not only pointless to the plot but didn't leave any lasting emotional impression. They are just gone and then because of the way the story is written we are suddenly back in the future everything is ten years ago and non of it feels all that importand.
I do think the three different times prespective was kind of clever I just dont like what the rest of the story did with it. I also found the writing style annoying at times. It's mostly the repeating of phrases and unnecessary spaces between words that made parts of the pages look like those insta poems everyone makes fun of. This made the tension feel forced instead of naturally created.
This book begins in fragments of a story during the end of the world. It continues then with three prespectives. A child, a young adult and a grown woman. Now here is the thing: this approach (while certainly interesting) makes the creation of an actual plot line rather difficult. What I mean by this is that there is no tension that builds up throughout the story and no established goal of a character that actually leads towards anything. The protagonist as a grown woman wants to find her child (and the husband who killed her other child) but never does and the protagonist as child and young adult dosn't seem to want anything or at leats dosn't know what she wants. This in itself is not necessarily a problem but with nothing else moving the plot forward everything that happanes is sort of left to circumstance. We have a random royal child sneaking into the fulcrum just so our protagonist can figure our more about the secrets they're hiding. We have the protagonist ordered to go on a mission with a guy who just so happens to know a whol bunch about history that is supposed to be off limits. This makes the progression of the plot feel forced. At no point did I wonder what would happen next or how they could resolve a situation (except maybe during battels but those got resolved quite quickly).
Speaking of situations that got resloved too quickly, the fact Alabaster just so happened to be friends with an all powerful stoneeater removed a lot of the tension because if you have an immortal superhuman on your side nothing is all that scary anymore. I also want to say that the character Alabaster really annoyed me. For one, I find the trope of a woman and a man being forced on a jurney together and hating each other (but then ending up falling in love) a bit tiresome, especially if the male character is far more powerful and knowledgable about everything than the female protagonist. Not only is he powerful with his orogeny powers but when they strand on an island and the people there speak a different language he just so happens to speak it too??? He was born and raised in the fulcrum at what point did he have the time to learn a language that is only spoken in regions near the coast? Also, he spends a lot of time explaining things about the fulcrum to the protagonist that they just as well could have tried to figure out together. And the fact tha he has a stoneeater looking out for him all the time really made it difficult to worry about him at all. Having a character with that many skills and that much protection just makes the story boring.
While I liked the various hints at the history and things in the past that are being kept a secret by the government it was incredebly frustrating when a lot of it didn't get resolved? like what was the deal with the obelisks? what do they have to do with the previous society? what was going on in the center of the fulcrum? what actually happend when that one guardian started speaking in somebody else's voice before she got murdered? what was she talking about? what was it that the fulcrum did that was so awful that there can't be any mercy? what was that giant hole in the middle of the fulcrum? (it's ALMOST as if the author wants us to read the second book).
Another thing I found unsatesfying about the ending was the end battle. Because it litterally came out of nowhere and might as well not have happened. Had the protagonist just left the island because she wanted to, something that seemed quite likely at this point, nothing in the actual plot would have changed. Her child and one of her lovers dying therfore felt not only pointless to the plot but didn't leave any lasting emotional impression. They are just gone and then because of the way the story is written we are suddenly back in the future everything is ten years ago and non of it feels all that importand.
I do think the three different times prespective was kind of clever I just dont like what the rest of the story did with it. I also found the writing style annoying at times. It's mostly the repeating of phrases and unnecessary spaces between words that made parts of the pages look like those insta poems everyone makes fun of. This made the tension feel forced instead of naturally created.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
A womans obsession with closing a volcano leads a disfunctional throuple breaking up.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
4.5 Stars
The writing style is absolutely everything. I love it so freaking much. It’s crazy how much this book made me think. The writing style lends into a well developed and intriguing setting. This is immersive world building at its finest. There are no info dumps, the reader is placed into a new world an expected to piece it together themself, and I love it. It’s a heartbreaking world with tragedy after tragedy. I want to see this world end. I also appreciate the fact that I was able to predict where the story was going even though this isn’t reliant on tropes. It just has good writing. (I wonder how this style will continue in the next book now that the big reveal is done.)
The character(s) are written to be strong, weak, warm, and cold, and it’s done incredibly well. I love Essen. I love Damaya. I love Syenite. Definitely more plot/setting focused than a large cast of characters. But the few characters are complex and endearing. Some parts of the book slow down, but most of the pacing is really good.
A very satisfying sci fi fantasy.
The writing style is absolutely everything. I love it so freaking much. It’s crazy how much this book made me think. The writing style lends into a well developed and intriguing setting. This is immersive world building at its finest. There are no info dumps, the reader is placed into a new world an expected to piece it together themself, and I love it. It’s a heartbreaking world with tragedy after tragedy. I want to see this world end. I also appreciate the fact that I was able to predict where the story was going even though this isn’t reliant on tropes. It just has good writing. (I wonder how this style will continue in the next book now that the big reveal is done.)
The character(s) are written to be strong, weak, warm, and cold, and it’s done incredibly well. I love Essen. I love Damaya. I love Syenite. Definitely more plot/setting focused than a large cast of characters. But the few characters are complex and endearing. Some parts of the book slow down, but most of the pacing is really good.
A very satisfying sci fi fantasy.