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questingllama's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
booktrovertreader's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
2.0
emmashemko's review against another edition
wasn’t as ATLA coded as i was expecting. plot and world building was kind of hard to follow. FMC was giving “pick-me” and the MMC was just plain gross (asking the FMC inappropriate questions about her s*x life).
faithtrustpixiedust's review against another edition
4.0
Buddy read this with some Goodreads friends and I definitely had the highest opinion of it by the end, which is kind of a first lol
This doesn’t deserve 4 stars, I’ll say that right now. But rating this 3 stars feels almost rude to the book, especially considering how much I ended up enjoying it, however ironically. I was thoroughly entertained, though I do tend to eat up trash YA fantasy like candy. I was genuinely surprised by some things that happened, in a good way, but over all, this wasn’t good. I liked it anyway though haha
The Writing and Worldbuilding
The very first thing I noticed about this was just how bad it is. The pacing was extremely rushed. Basically no set up is given, we’re just thrust into things, but they aren’t even exciting things so what’s the point? And the syntax itself was really amateur-ish. It’s clear that Elise Kova hadn’t written much before this, or at least nothing critically analyzed. Everything existed in a white room, which didn’t help the pacing. Characters were very poorly developed and she relied heavily on cardinal directions to describe physical characteristics, but she only defined those characteristics a few times at the beginning, so I had basically no idea what anyone looked like. You can’t always say they looked Southern or Eastern when I don’t know what that means.
The world wasn’t anything special. It was basically a merge between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and if that isn’t generic (especially 3-10 years after these properties came out), I don’t know what is. Honestly, the magic system makes no sense whatsoever. Beyond the basic elemental stuff, it’s really undefined.
But I did genuinely like a few things. Towards the end, some things really surprised me in their intensity. This was largely targeted at the younger end of the young adult audience given the writing and situations, but then it suddenly (and I mean very suddenly) went from PG to PG-13, maybe even R. It got dark, fast, and lacked a lot of the appropriate foreshadowing, though I did guess something similar would happen early on when the bare minimum of foreshadowing did show up. But I actually did like the darker parts, however inconsistent they were. I just wish Kova had committed to them a little bit more, but I’ll take what I can get with this kind of book.
The Characters
Aanglina: Vhalla Yarl (which is a stupid name; am I the only one who thinks this? I couldn’t keep a straight face any time it was said) was extremely boring, kind of an idiot, a Mary Sue (but at least a more toned down one, considering) and a generally lame protagonist. She spends the entire book avoiding things and being saved or pushed/forced into action by other people. She waits until the last moment every single time. She has one moment of cathartic action and I loved it, but then it’s kind of reversed because of certain spoilery things that happen. I am interested to see where that goes in the following books, though.
Zuko, the “Fire Lord” Darkling: Aldrik was such a jerk and I really don’t understand why he was a love interest so quickly. He’s a horrible person, and he even says that in the book, and Vhalla still has the hots for him. It wasn’t as obnoxious an attraction as it could have been (she apparently does indeed have a backbone, however flimsy), but the fact that it existed at all was weird. At one point, they’re basically like:
Aldrik: *cold and detached* you were an object to me and I used you gladly because I’m not a good person, but then I realized that you’re actually a human being and also you’re hot
Vhalla:
This doesn’t deserve 4 stars, I’ll say that right now. But rating this 3 stars feels almost rude to the book, especially considering how much I ended up enjoying it, however ironically. I was thoroughly entertained, though I do tend to eat up trash YA fantasy like candy. I was genuinely surprised by some things that happened, in a good way, but over all, this wasn’t good. I liked it anyway though haha
The Writing and Worldbuilding
The very first thing I noticed about this was just how bad it is. The pacing was extremely rushed. Basically no set up is given, we’re just thrust into things, but they aren’t even exciting things so what’s the point? And the syntax itself was really amateur-ish. It’s clear that Elise Kova hadn’t written much before this, or at least nothing critically analyzed. Everything existed in a white room, which didn’t help the pacing. Characters were very poorly developed and she relied heavily on cardinal directions to describe physical characteristics, but she only defined those characteristics a few times at the beginning, so I had basically no idea what anyone looked like. You can’t always say they looked Southern or Eastern when I don’t know what that means.
The world wasn’t anything special. It was basically a merge between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and if that isn’t generic (especially 3-10 years after these properties came out), I don’t know what is. Honestly, the magic system makes no sense whatsoever. Beyond the basic elemental stuff, it’s really undefined.
But I did genuinely like a few things. Towards the end, some things really surprised me in their intensity. This was largely targeted at the younger end of the young adult audience given the writing and situations, but then it suddenly (and I mean very suddenly) went from PG to PG-13, maybe even R. It got dark, fast, and lacked a lot of the appropriate foreshadowing, though I did guess something similar would happen early on when the bare minimum of foreshadowing did show up. But I actually did like the darker parts, however inconsistent they were. I just wish Kova had committed to them a little bit more, but I’ll take what I can get with this kind of book.
The Characters
Aanglina: Vhalla Yarl (which is a stupid name; am I the only one who thinks this? I couldn’t keep a straight face any time it was said) was extremely boring, kind of an idiot, a Mary Sue (but at least a more toned down one, considering) and a generally lame protagonist. She spends the entire book avoiding things and being saved or pushed/forced into action by other people. She waits until the last moment every single time. She has one moment of cathartic action and I loved it, but then it’s kind of reversed because of certain spoilery things that happen. I am interested to see where that goes in the following books, though.
Zuko, the “Fire Lord” Darkling: Aldrik was such a jerk and I really don’t understand why he was a love interest so quickly. He’s a horrible person, and he even says that in the book, and Vhalla still has the hots for him. It wasn’t as obnoxious an attraction as it could have been (she apparently does indeed have a backbone, however flimsy), but the fact that it existed at all was weird. At one point, they’re basically like:
Aldrik: *cold and detached* you were an object to me and I used you gladly because I’m not a good person, but then I realized that you’re actually a human being and also you’re hot
Vhalla:
cutiepie999's review against another edition
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
3.0
jenn_so_far's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
babylon_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I liked the world-building a lot, there were a lot of secrets tho
e_j_cook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? No
3.0
marslz's review against another edition
3.0
Das Buch gibt in erster Linie sehr starke Avatar Vibes, weswegen ich es auch gekauft habe. In der Hinsicht hat es mich nicht enttäuscht, dennoch ist mir der Einstieg sehr schwer gefallen. Die Charakter fand ich nicht sehr greifbar, zwar haben beide Hauptcharaktere etwas mystisches an sich. Um die Handlungen zu verstehen und um sich in sie reinführen zu können hat mir irgendwie etwas gefehlt. Hinzukommt, dass ich beim lesen sehr viel überlesen konnte und mir nichts gefällt hat, es mich eher gelangweilt hat wenn ich jedes einzelne Wort gelesen habe. Zum Ende hin ist es, aber deutlich besser geworden, was größtenteils an der Spannung lag. Den nächsten Teil werde ich lesen, da es mich jetzt interessiert wie’s weitergeht. Kein Must Read und ich bin überrascht, dass es im englischen so gehypt wurde.