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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
The jewelry-based motif of this novella inspired me to pick it up, and I'm glad I did - it's a tense, lush story with female friendship at the heart of it and political intrigue for its bezel. If I have one complaint, it's the same one I frequently have of novellas, forming both its strength and its weakness as a genre - while self-contained, it's almost not quite enough to be truly satisfying for me.
Perhaps the idea of this can work better in a longer format, but under 50 pages seems too short to effectively discuss and unpack the whole 'slaves' thing - this piece as it is left me uncomfortable and discontent. Add on the fact that some parts lost me and were a bit boring with so few pages already when there were more important things to handle better... I was disappointed.
And stories that involve jems have to be damn good to get me past the 'eh why?' query.
And stories that involve jems have to be damn good to get me past the 'eh why?' query.
A very interesting world, but the storytelling itself was too repetitive for me. And I don't just mean how in the audiobook the narrator actually says a line two times in a row on many occasions, at places where I assume there was a break in the book before the thread got taken back up, possibly by the other POV character. But also just repeating the same rules and guidelines for jewels and lapidaries over and over again.
I would certainly give a novel by this author a try.
I would certainly give a novel by this author a try.
A sweet story and a good afternoon read. I don't think I'd read it again, but I would be interested in more stories set in this reality.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Lovely ideas, but this didn't quite gel for me. I'd like to read more in this world.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Prose that ranged from tight to limp, over and over again. Took too much time repeating world building foundation rather than building on top of it. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I would like to read it for myself one day.
I don’t recommend listening to this one on audiobook.
I have difficulty getting into Fran Wilde's style of writing. But this was a very good short story.