Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Song of the Marked by S.M. Gaither

2 reviews

falafellaa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Gods, Magic and a mysterious illness.
I was hopeful starting this book. And i‘m not disappointed but also not really satisfied. 
The concept of gods and magic in this book is promising if kind of rudimentary. But i can work with that if the story is good. 
Sadly, the story is only mediocre. Several of the plot points were soo predictable. I thought there was going to be plot twists because the foreshadowing was so obvious you couldn’t call it foreshadowing anymore but just telling what is going to happen.
Another point are the relationships. The main character has friends she constantly misses and a mom she loves and she builds up a romantic relationship with the captain. But none of these really get to the reader. I felt no emotional connection to her friends and just a little to her mom. We didn’t really see them together. So i didn’t and don’t really care what happens to them.
The captain is another story. Their relationship felt a little rushed to the end. One moment she hates him and the next she’s all vulnerable and open. I personally think the author should have stretched out certain aspects about their relationship over more than one book.
The book was entertaining enough that i didn’t dnf it and i did start reading the second book already but i really don’t know if i will finish it and looking at my track record with cases like this it’s unlikely.

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fairyelle's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The ending was a HUGE twist, like I figured out the one part and was focusing on trying to figure how it all fit together I completely did not see the other big reveal coming. The ending was incredible and the problems it complicates for the next books is exactly what I needed. 
The character development and emotional.

The character development and emotional connection was lacking for me for a majority of the book though, I wanted to feel more for the characters than I did but towards the end I felt like it was starting to deepen so I have hope for that to become a lot stronger in the next books (I really hope that's the case because characters mean a lot to me). 
Which is why I’m giving the book four stars. I am hoping based on that great ending, the second book and onward will be incredible—kinda like acotar—it was good but the acomaf and acowar were truly what made the series incredible (maybe sorta acosf though the story could’ve been paced better). 
So I’m really hoping to care more for the characters and also for their journeys. It’s third person limited solely focused on Casia but I would’ve like more if it switched the “perspective” to Elander too. I think it’s hard to be with only one perspective when it’s in third person limited 

The ending blew me away though so it’s making up for my complaints 

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