Reviews with content warning for Torture - Air Awakens

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Air Awakens by Elise Kova

11 reviews

kassidyreads's review against another edition

1.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book left a lot to be desired. The world and magic were barely explained, the writing was awkward, and the characters were hard to like. I found Vhalla especially annoying. She's supposed to be intelligent, yet she is constantly saying and doing the dumbest things. The love interest Aldrick was such an asshole; I couldn't stand him. There was a lot of telling and not much showing. Vhalla claims to be childhood friends with Sareem, yet they are hardly friendly towards each other. Whenever she was with him, she seemed to always want to get away. Also, Vhalla was weirdly racist. She mentioned multiple times how she thinks lighter skin tones are more attractive. There were so many grammatical errors that it was painful to read. The story had potential, but it needed a lot more refining. I'm curious to see if Kova's writing has improved in her more recent books.

Content Warnings

danchuchie's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense 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: Complicated

“They were sending her to war, so she would go and become something they had every right to fear.”

Synopsis:

The story follows Vhalla Yarl, a library apprentice, that has spent half of her life in the library of the Empire’s capital. Like every one else, she has been taught to fear sorcerers and the Tower, the sorcerers’ quarters, is a place she never wished to be in. That is, until she unknowingly saved the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of the world, the Crown Prince Aldrik.

It is by that seemingly small gesture that Vhalla finds herself entrenched in the sorcery world, making her question everything – herself, the empire, society, friendships. Now she must decide: embrace her power or eradicate it and remain as she was before. Who she always has been.

Every day of indecision is a step closer to danger and she will find out just how much her indecision will cost her.

Review:

Damn.

There is something about 2010s YA fantasy books that truly have a richness to it that 2020s YA fantasy books try to reach but very few achieve.

Was it the best fantasy book I read? No.

Was it really good? Yes.

I think the key is coming to it with low, nearly non-existing expectations, almost even negative ones, and you’ll be surprise with how much you’ll enjoy yourself.

This was an incredibly quick read. The pages flew as I read them and I finished them in three nights, pretty much. The story was fast paced, easy-to-read simple writing with no major purple prose. Basically, the author didn’t try to reach beyond her scope (with this one) – made it simple, easy and entertaining.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say the development of the bond between Vhalla and Aldrik wasn’t what entertained me the most. It was really well done; it was a slow burn that, at some point, I wondered if anything was even going to happen in this book.

The story felt so similar to ‘Avatar’ in some ways – the usage of elemental magic with different regions representing different ‘elements’

with the main character being the last person in the world to be able to manipulate air/wind

. Regardless of the similarities, it didn’t feel like a cheap copy – it felt inspired, sure, but not a copy.

The plot differs from ‘Avatar’ quite a lot. It is a YA novel from the 2010s so it does use a lot of normal YA tropes/clichés. However, it doesn’t make it any less good.

The world building was slow, in the sense that is not explained to you in the first few pages. It’s laid out gradually as the plot develops and the need for the reader to know the context of X or Y grows.

Which, I believe, it’s a smart choice.

I’m constantly tired of having to power through 50 or more pages of almost only world building before the actual main plot starts and I can start enjoying the characters.

The character development is gradual and steady. Vhalla starts as a naïve know-it-all, insecure about herself, and by the end, she has acquired knowledge [outside of books], has understood context and complexity and has found strength within herself.

Most side characters were interesting and kept you engaged as they interacted with the main character. Aldrik, the love interest, was surprising at the third interaction. I loved how the author didn’t make him a total asshole throughout 70% of the story and then completely changed him. No. She made him complex whilst remaining through to the idea he is reserved, always an asshole but caring.

I completely loved how some things that I often see on YA fantasy books were ignored for the sake of, well, me and my sanity.

I will not read the 2nd book right away because I’m afraid that too much YA in a grow is going to break the magic this book created but I’ll definitely continue this series and I can’t wait to see how Vhalla, and Aldrik, manage everything.

Content Warnings

avvamapia's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I wasn't sure I was even going to finish this book. I'd say for about 70% of it the vibes I was getting was just a more beige and euro-centric atla which was sooooooo boring. Then things actually got interesting.

With Valla being sent to war I hope the interest and tension keeps building.

I might have to check out the next book.

Content Warnings

blacksphinx's review against another edition

1.5

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Where do I begin... The protagonist's name being two random Norse words? The chapter that is Divine Rivals But Worse? And actual dialogue tag that is "demanded gently"? The love interest asking the protagonist if she's ever fucked a man or masturbated two pages after calling her a child? (She's seventeen by the way.) The way the love interest's entire personality changes chapter to chapter? (And no, the protagonist thinking "the two halves of his personality don't seem to fit" does not fix that.) Why does this love triangle have so many sides when it's crystal clear who she is going to end up with!

I literally only finished this due to a reading challenge. The back 40% was better than the first 60%, but I cannot get over how bad it was.

Content Warnings

aseel_reads's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

MC was a bit annoying at the start but she got less annoying quickly. I absolutely did not see the ending coming at all, otherwise a great read and I really like the world

Content Warnings

koistyfishy's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is like eating a cold slice of pizza at 3 AM after a hard night of drinking. So satisfying in the moment but in the end, you are still waking up from a wicked hangover. Also if SOMEONE could please explain what a gummy throat feels like, I would greatly appreciate it 💕

I have never seen a book squander SO MUCH potential until now! It's all there! It basically oozes off the page begging, pleading, and screaming at the sky to be used - but it's flatly ignored to give us boring inconsistent one-dimensional characters, teenage angst, and unnecessary drama llama all wrapped up in mediocre writing.

This book follows Vhalla, a shy boring nobody commoner who works in a library as an apprentice. One day, low and behold, after saving the broody and mysterious crown prince's life with magic, our boring chosen one is thrust into the world of magic she has been taught to fear.

I had a few problems with this book, so let me try work through them as best I can...

1. The book has a premise that instantly hooks you in and I wanted to love it as it fell into my niche of fantasy romance perfectly but I went in apprehensive based on the vastly juxtaposing reviews out there ranging from 2 - 5 Stars, all from people and friends who's reviews I NORMALLY trust as gospel! As said I absolutely LOVE fantasy romance; however, those that think this is a "Fantasy Romance" are deluded as this is actually a "Romance Fantasy". Let me explain... "Fantasy Romance" is a book where the fantasy is the main plot and the romance is the subplot. These are set in fantastical, magical worlds with an overarching FANTASY plot. This book, romance is the main plot with a slight sprinkling of fantasy. It is almost like the fantasy elements are just used to put our main characters into situations that would cause drama and angst for the ROMANCE. So if you do not like your fantasy books filled with MOSTLY romance, this is not for you.

2. I appreciate a good book just like fine dining and a good bottle of wine, they have class and an air of sophistication. This book is NOT that! This is basically trash TV on the CW or Netflix. The type of show you'll binge-watch for an entire weekend until your brain turns to mush and your eyeballs are rectangles; but still, you can't turn away from the screen because of the teenage angst and drama. It's not only that the book feels like a TV show, but the writing style mirrors this. Its inconsistent plot feels like jump cuts and scene changes. There are a lot of scenes that happen with no clear transision of how the character got there. It's just meant to be accepted that this happened. A LOT of the dialog is quite far-fetched and seems unnatural as it's very witty, quips, and often feels like it skips natural progression in a conversation.

3. Vhalla as a character is shit! She is difficult to describe because I've just read a whole book about her and I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK SHE IS... One second she is innocent as a rose and timid, and shy and scared of you "the prince" and things beyond her ken... (if you got the reference to this I LOVE YOU). She spends almost the whole book feeling sorry for herself, sulking, soapy, crying, and starving herself whilst living the most boring life on the planet...THEN the NEXT second she changes her mind 16 times a minute over the whole "should she/shouldn't she" become a sorcerer. It's frankly EXHAUSTING!!!

4. The writing in general gave me a headache. It was so choppy. It would be 5-word sentences. Every one of them just stops. It was so unnatural. There were pauses when we didn't need them. Breaks that could have been avoided. It was like Elise Kova was so badly scarred from being reprimanded for run-on sentences and comma splicing that she completely avoided making sentences longer than 2 lines and so made it very difficult to get into the writing itself.
An example of this:

“You are fine. See how quickly you are healing now? You will be better than fine soon. I will even teach you myself.” He outright smiled, as though he was bestowing some great honor upon her. But Vhalla did not smile. She took another step away and swayed as the world was suddenly unstable. She had been on her feet for too long. Prince Aldrik was there in a moment, his hands on her upper arms for support. “Stop this foolishness,” he said, his deep voice gentle. “You know you should not be standing. Let me help you back to bed.” His sudden kindness made her want to scream.

I did like the cocky bastard prince, even if he pushed her off a building. He has smirks for days, gushed sex appeal, and created a whole lot of sexual tension you could cut with a knife.

Overall if you take this book too seriously, you are going to have a bad time. It's trashy, over-the-top, extravagant, cheesy and extremely unrealistic. But I had an OK time reading it because it got reactions out of me... Some might have been eye rolls and huffs of anger, but I did appreciate the drama. If you like teenage drama and shows like Reign, Riverdale, and Charmed appeal to you, you might actually like this!

Content Warnings

psydneigh's review against another edition

4.0

emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed this book. There were a few plot points that felt weird or unfinished to me, but overall it was good. One thing I really didn’t like was that Vhalla almost always skipped meals. It came off like she had an eating disorder but it was never looked at like a bad thing. I would’ve rather meals just not been mentioned in the book instead of her starving herself for no reason. On to the next one!

Content Warnings

camiandkitread's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

High fantasy isn’t usually a genre I read, but the promise of a library apprentice and a sorcerer prince was something I couldn’t pass up.

“Air Awakens” had a lot of great ideas and a great magic system. The characters felt a little bland and the book was very slow, but there was a lot of groundwork that needed to be established for the other books in the series.

Content Warnings