You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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
All I can think about right now is the ending--holy shit she got me thinking I had another page.
In the beginning third of the book she really expected her readers to have retained every minutiae of the previous books which had me struggling to gain confidence at the start. I did a lot of wiki-ing.
I loved the different cultures she developed on the islands and I'm wondering if we'll hear more about their history in the next books.
In the beginning third of the book she really expected her readers to have retained every minutiae of the previous books which had me struggling to gain confidence at the start. I did a lot of wiki-ing.
I loved the different cultures she developed on the islands and I'm wondering if we'll hear more about their history in the next books.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
slow-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
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I spend so much time in dense reading for work, I tend to gravitate toward guilty pleasures like these as a mental break. This was just more work.
Seven chapters in, I gave up trying to remember every character and location that Violet name-drops in her exposition. Yarros' writing style pushes forward with dialogue and action instead of fully describing context, place or setting, and I found myself at a loss for how to visualize where she is and who's with her in any given place. Very few times in the story I actually felt immersed in the world, which is my goal for fantasies like this.
The plot of this book was filler - a bridge between the first and second half of the series with side quests that keep the story arc moving at a glacial place. Hundreds of pages in the book are explicitly referred to as "Quest Squad goes to x new location - and chaos and adventure ensures!" Despite all this, answers to mysteries laid out previously remain unanswered. Many times the narrative leaves the reader behind, struggling to keep up - this culminates in the last battle, which was downright confusing to read. Too many times the POV changes (sometimes unnecessarily), and too many secrets and too much context is left behind for the reader to follow what's actually happening. The fact that the payoff of the second book's cliffhanger only lies in the last fifty pages speaks to how much the story was merely setup for the future.
On a positive note, a strength of Yarros is her ability to create good character moments, and Vi's squad shone here. Ridoc especially was great comic relief but also a critical presence as a platonic friend concerned for Violet's boundaries. Sawyer's grief and journey with disability felt very real, and I wanted more scenes with him and Violet grappling with this. On the contrary, I found the romantic leads lacking. A comment I've had since the first book is I find "less is more" when it comes to romantic angst and declarations of love, and Xaden/Violet were anything but in this installment. Though there's mention of Violet committing more consistently to training when she's at Basgiath - and Xaden spends most of this book hiding/restraining his undead abilities - our two leads are still ridiculously overpowered. It was a little disappointing to discover that they're not the only ones overpowered - most of the Tyrrish rebellion children possess a second signet, a strategy maintained by their dragons that bonded to their earlier kin. What are the limitations of power and magic in this world? Without them, there are no real stakes.
Like the rumors I've heard of Yarros being burnt out meeting this book's deadline, my enthusiasm for this series has dimmed considerably. I will probably read through the series, but will likely wait until it's completely done to do so.
Seven chapters in, I gave up trying to remember every character and location that Violet name-drops in her exposition. Yarros' writing style pushes forward with dialogue and action instead of fully describing context, place or setting, and I found myself at a loss for how to visualize where she is and who's with her in any given place. Very few times in the story I actually felt immersed in the world, which is my goal for fantasies like this.
The plot of this book was filler - a bridge between the first and second half of the series with side quests that keep the story arc moving at a glacial place. Hundreds of pages in the book are explicitly referred to as "Quest Squad goes to x new location - and chaos and adventure ensures!" Despite all this, answers to mysteries laid out previously remain unanswered. Many times the narrative leaves the reader behind, struggling to keep up - this culminates in the last battle, which was downright confusing to read. Too many times the POV changes (sometimes unnecessarily), and too many secrets and too much context is left behind for the reader to follow what's actually happening. The fact that the payoff of the second book's cliffhanger only lies in the last fifty pages speaks to how much the story was merely setup for the future.
On a positive note, a strength of Yarros is her ability to create good character moments, and Vi's squad shone here. Ridoc especially was great comic relief but also a critical presence as a platonic friend concerned for Violet's boundaries. Sawyer's grief and journey with disability felt very real, and I wanted more scenes with him and Violet grappling with this. On the contrary, I found the romantic leads lacking. A comment I've had since the first book is I find "less is more" when it comes to romantic angst and declarations of love, and Xaden/Violet were anything but in this installment. Though there's mention of Violet committing more consistently to training when she's at Basgiath - and Xaden spends most of this book hiding/restraining his undead abilities - our two leads are still ridiculously overpowered. It was a little disappointing to discover that they're not the only ones overpowered -
Like the rumors I've heard of Yarros being burnt out meeting this book's deadline, my enthusiasm for this series has dimmed considerably. I will probably read through the series, but will likely wait until it's completely done to do so.