misskatt's review
4.0
3.5 stars
“What We Devour” is a dark, gritty book full of morally grey characters. Everyone is trying to do the right thing in the worse way.
In this world, some people are cursed (blessed?) with either a Noble wright, or a Vile one. Or, in our protagonist’s
case, dual-wrought. Using their power is not without fault, however. Sacrifices must be made.
When Alistair, the bloodthirsty prince, comes to arrest the town’s head, Lorena enters a bargain to give her betrothed’s father a fair trial. The deal is that she will help the Vilewrought prince repair the door that keeps the Vile gods at bay. The price is high, but she’s determined to save her world.
This book was very hard for me to get into. I love dark fantasies, but so much is thrown at you in the beginning that it gets a little hard to understand. Once I got hooked, I devoured it until I slowed again towards the end. Then it picked up at the last bit. Overall a good story, just be prepared for the vast amount of information.
Check your trigger warnings.
Thank you SourcebooksFire for the ARC!
“What We Devour” is a dark, gritty book full of morally grey characters. Everyone is trying to do the right thing in the worse way.
In this world, some people are cursed (blessed?) with either a Noble wright, or a Vile one. Or, in our protagonist’s
case, dual-wrought. Using their power is not without fault, however. Sacrifices must be made.
When Alistair, the bloodthirsty prince, comes to arrest the town’s head, Lorena enters a bargain to give her betrothed’s father a fair trial. The deal is that she will help the Vilewrought prince repair the door that keeps the Vile gods at bay. The price is high, but she’s determined to save her world.
This book was very hard for me to get into. I love dark fantasies, but so much is thrown at you in the beginning that it gets a little hard to understand. Once I got hooked, I devoured it until I slowed again towards the end. Then it picked up at the last bit. Overall a good story, just be prepared for the vast amount of information.
Check your trigger warnings.
Thank you SourcebooksFire for the ARC!
craftymxlibrarian's review
4.0
3.5, but rounded up because the main character is asexual, and aces don't get enough representation.♠️ And also, eat the rich.
ark99's review
3.0
~I received an arc from netgalley~
This was a really interesting book and it had soo much potential but it was just so confusing!
I am just gonna go with what I liked then what I didn't like.
Likes:
-I loved the idea of this, just the whole plot sounded really interesting.
-I liked the characters, at least the characters that I could keep up with.
-AND the potential, there could've been a really cool second book with the way one of the characters was revealed towards the end.
-I did like some of the parts where it touches on the main character's asexuality ONLY SOME lol
-I liked the way the author wrote the characters, like their dialogue.
Dislike:
-SO this whole book was just so confusing. I was constantly turning pages back to figure out just what exactly is happening. And then I thought I got all the characters down but then some of them kept dying and not that one character that always does, but just in general and I couldn't keep up with who was still alive or not. it seemed like a lot of stuff just wasn't really explained
-I also did not really like how the main character was portrayed as asexual, yes I liked that she was, but the way she was portrayed I didn't really like. she was written very robot-like in some places and while there were some nice scenes that were really nice especially towards the end of the book, it kind of got on my nerves how she kept,, like explaining why she was the way she was it just didn't seem necessary because as the reader you can already tell by her actions.
-Also the whole vilewright and noblewright stuff wasn't really explained enough I was very confused and it was only touched briefly on in the beginning then just started like you already know everything about it.
-And then finally, just the world in general seemed kind of confusing. Like yes, there is a map, but is this kingdom the only place in this world? Why couldn't they just leave the kingdom? idk just kind of confusing
-Also the prince/heir in the synopsis was noted as a very "bloodthirsty" prince, but when we actually see his character, even in the beginning he doesn't really seem like that at all like.. even in the beginning his character just doesn't really match up to what he is explained as.
Overall this book had a lot of potential but it was just way too confusing
This was a really interesting book and it had soo much potential but it was just so confusing!
I am just gonna go with what I liked then what I didn't like.
Likes:
-I loved the idea of this, just the whole plot sounded really interesting.
-I liked the characters, at least the characters that I could keep up with.
-AND the potential, there could've been a really cool second book with the way one of the characters was revealed towards the end.
-I did like some of the parts where it touches on the main character's asexuality ONLY SOME lol
-I liked the way the author wrote the characters, like their dialogue.
Dislike:
-SO this whole book was just so confusing. I was constantly turning pages back to figure out just what exactly is happening. And then I thought I got all the characters down but then some of them kept dying and not that one character that always does, but just in general and I couldn't keep up with who was still alive or not. it seemed like a lot of stuff just wasn't really explained
-I also did not really like how the main character was portrayed as asexual, yes I liked that she was, but the way she was portrayed I didn't really like. she was written very robot-like in some places and while there were some nice scenes that were really nice especially towards the end of the book, it kind of got on my nerves how she kept,, like explaining why she was the way she was it just didn't seem necessary because as the reader you can already tell by her actions.
-Also the whole vilewright and noblewright stuff wasn't really explained enough I was very confused and it was only touched briefly on in the beginning then just started like you already know everything about it.
-And then finally, just the world in general seemed kind of confusing. Like yes, there is a map, but is this kingdom the only place in this world? Why couldn't they just leave the kingdom? idk just kind of confusing
-Also the prince/heir in the synopsis was noted as a very "bloodthirsty" prince, but when we actually see his character, even in the beginning he doesn't really seem like that at all like.. even in the beginning his character just doesn't really match up to what he is explained as.
Overall this book had a lot of potential but it was just way too confusing
forestsapphicc1's review
dark
mysterious
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
3.0
As much as I would love to give this book more stars, I can't.
This book was confusing but not in the good way. Reading this has left me feeling like junks of the story were missing, as if they had been cut during editing and not been replaced by something else explaining what was going on.
However, as confusing it's been, I do like the (very overt) commentary on capitalism and the class-differences and its consequences. Just like the asexuel rep. There were some incredible lines about how people on the ace/aro spectrum get treated and (almost) dehumanized.
This book was confusing but not in the good way. Reading this has left me feeling like junks of the story were missing, as if they had been cut during editing and not been replaced by something else explaining what was going on.
However, as confusing it's been, I do like the (very overt) commentary on capitalism and the class-differences and its consequences. Just like the asexuel rep. There were some incredible lines about how people on the ace/aro spectrum get treated and (almost) dehumanized.
emmaskies's review
3.0
I'm stuck between a 2.5 and a 3 on this book, so I'll round up since Goodreads is tyrannical in not allowing half stars.
Let's start with the positives:
I was REALLY into the premise of this book. I saw the author talking about it on Twitter and was immediately into it, which is why I ended up requesting the ARC. The set-up is good, I was hooked very quickly, the magic system is unique, I really liked most of the characters, and I was intrigued by the story!
Lore, as a main character, is great. I like her as a person, she's really interesting, I like the way she interacts with everyone else, and I really enjoyed her worldview and how that shaped her whole story. She was very compelling, in a way that was a much needed offset for how the most prominent secondary character just kind of floats along with things.
Despite all that, the reason this is a 2.5/3 star read for me is that it was incredibly hard to follow. I read a lot of fantasy, I read a lot of books about magic and fantastical lands and creatures and monsters and kingdoms created from nothing, so I'd like to think I have a very good grasp on picking things up and running with them in fantasy books. For some time I really did wonder if it was just me; was I just an idiot not picking things up? Was I just unable to wrap my brain around what was going on??? Luckily I saw that someone else I know had picked up the ARC as well and we were able to bounce off of each other and it turns out...not just me. The story is just insanely hard to follow sometimes.
There are two characters whose genders I had swapped for probably a good thirty pages because something about their initial dialogue interaction with each other had me mix up their pronouns and I just didn't notice. A character literally dies at one point, and I didn't realize the extent of what had happened for a few pages. Fundamental stuff that I was just completely lost on.
That feeling stayed with me for a lot of the book. I felt like I was constantly playing catch up and having to use contextual clues in one chapter to realize what had happened in the previous chapter. That can be fun if it's in a "the plot is so intricate and complex and layered that you miss things if you don't look close enough" kind of way, but in this case it just felt like things were never fully explained. I'm struggling to explain what it felt like, but the gist of it is that the story is very very hard to follow and you're really left just accepting that something happened even though you have no idea how it happened, moving on from there, and then repeating that to the end.
I really WANTED to love this book, and given a little more fleshing out of the story I think I would, but it's difficult to truly enjoy something you're struggling to understand. I really love Lore's outlook on her world, her interaction with people at all different levels of society, and how she deals with the injustices she sees around her. She's a great character to carry this story, but I think just about everything around her could just use more...well, more.
Let's start with the positives:
I was REALLY into the premise of this book. I saw the author talking about it on Twitter and was immediately into it, which is why I ended up requesting the ARC. The set-up is good, I was hooked very quickly, the magic system is unique, I really liked most of the characters, and I was intrigued by the story!
Lore, as a main character, is great. I like her as a person, she's really interesting, I like the way she interacts with everyone else, and I really enjoyed her worldview and how that shaped her whole story. She was very compelling, in a way that was a much needed offset for how the most prominent secondary character just kind of floats along with things.
Despite all that, the reason this is a 2.5/3 star read for me is that it was incredibly hard to follow. I read a lot of fantasy, I read a lot of books about magic and fantastical lands and creatures and monsters and kingdoms created from nothing, so I'd like to think I have a very good grasp on picking things up and running with them in fantasy books. For some time I really did wonder if it was just me; was I just an idiot not picking things up? Was I just unable to wrap my brain around what was going on??? Luckily I saw that someone else I know had picked up the ARC as well and we were able to bounce off of each other and it turns out...not just me. The story is just insanely hard to follow sometimes.
There are two characters whose genders I had swapped for probably a good thirty pages because something about their initial dialogue interaction with each other had me mix up their pronouns and I just didn't notice. A character literally dies at one point, and I didn't realize the extent of what had happened for a few pages. Fundamental stuff that I was just completely lost on.
That feeling stayed with me for a lot of the book. I felt like I was constantly playing catch up and having to use contextual clues in one chapter to realize what had happened in the previous chapter. That can be fun if it's in a "the plot is so intricate and complex and layered that you miss things if you don't look close enough" kind of way, but in this case it just felt like things were never fully explained. I'm struggling to explain what it felt like, but the gist of it is that the story is very very hard to follow and you're really left just accepting that something happened even though you have no idea how it happened, moving on from there, and then repeating that to the end.
I really WANTED to love this book, and given a little more fleshing out of the story I think I would, but it's difficult to truly enjoy something you're struggling to understand. I really love Lore's outlook on her world, her interaction with people at all different levels of society, and how she deals with the injustices she sees around her. She's a great character to carry this story, but I think just about everything around her could just use more...well, more.
thortoe's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.0
This book is pretty dense, definitely feels like author did not intend for it to be a YA. I enjoyed it but I could definitely see where people would have some difficulty with it. Also I thought it got a little convoluted at times. I enjoyed the main character though, if you like romance however this book is not for you (which I liked)