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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
inspiring
reflective
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:
Complicated
adventurous
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:
Yes
A real patchwork in terms of pacing and side characters and plot threads, but excellent bones, and it rollicked right along. Lots of DWJ DNA in there. Pretty darn good for someone’s debut; I’ll check out the author’s second book and hope for tighter stitching.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
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
The characters are very charming and bursting with different personalities. Waggoner did a great job setting them apart tonally, with Onna's pov chapters feeling like a mix of academia, regency, and mystery fantasy, while Jeckran and Tsira felt like an interspecies fish out of water/Beauty and the Beast culture clash. Both storylines turn into mystery murder investigations. There's a lot of interesting world building along the way as well, which along with the personalities are basically the bulk of the story. I really liked each character individually, and where their stories were going at first, but things kept changing direction and it didn't feel like there was a overall plan.
The pacing is bad. The intertwining of the two stories takes place at around 80% of the way through the story, which was mostly slower paced before that. There's some investigation work and theorizing as part of the worldbuilding, but mostly conjecture and conversations; unraveling of the mystery and the conclusion of it is rushed into that last ~20%, and it just doesn't really have opportunity to make much sense or wrap things up in a satisfying way.
The story is also weirdly horny, in that the interspecies difference is really emphasized and constantly so, which made all the focus on horniness feel really odd; I still don't know how to feel about it. There was a horny fanfic vibe to some of it which is definitely not a great comparison. I do love all the queer rep and different gender expressions though, which if the troll differences were meant to be metaphors for, great! Just a lot of it didn't manage to land in a cohesive way for me.
This was interesting and huh but in a bad kinda way, and not my cup of tea.
The pacing is bad. The intertwining of the two stories takes place at around 80% of the way through the story, which was mostly slower paced before that. There's some investigation work and theorizing as part of the worldbuilding, but mostly conjecture and conversations; unraveling of the mystery and the conclusion of it is rushed into that last ~20%, and it just doesn't really have opportunity to make much sense or wrap things up in a satisfying way.
The story is also weirdly horny, in that the interspecies difference is really emphasized and constantly so, which made all the focus on horniness feel really odd; I still don't know how to feel about it. There was a horny fanfic vibe to some of it which is definitely not a great comparison. I do love all the queer rep and different gender expressions though, which if the troll differences were meant to be metaphors for, great! Just a lot of it didn't manage to land in a cohesive way for me.
This was interesting and huh but in a bad kinda way, and not my cup of tea.
adventurous