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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Familiar, by Leigh Bardugo, begins by telling us that if things had happened slightly differently on the day that Doña Valentina Ordoño discovered that there was something uncanny about her scullery maid, Luzia, nothing that followed would’ve happened. Luzia knows better. Years earlier, her mother warned her that her ambition would lead to her ruin. Once her secret is discovered, Luzia finds herself walking a fine line between glory and destruction. This book had me hooked from page one; I had to know which way things would go for our protagonist...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Here's the thing: her Grishaverse books are masterful in their complete mediocrity; it's like they were designed by a marketing department and written by a skilled writer to make them as broadly appealing as possible. Then Ninth House and its sequel came along and it was so spiky and smart and layered; it really got me on the Bardugo bandwagon. I thought she was super-talented and had indeed intentionally written Grishaverse to be best-sellers; I mean I know all authors want to sell but I thought she was really clever to figure out to produce something so perfectly aligned to the middle of the market, and Alex Stern was her showing what she could really do.
But... there's a comment on her page that she intended to write 12 Alex Stern books, but they "take so much research" so she's only going to write 3, and in the meantime THIS has come out. And like, it was fine; the prose is good but the plotting is not, and persecution angle felt... off? Like, as the book points out the Inquisition was a threat to everyone, not just Jews, and what gets Luzia in trouble has nothing to do with being Jewish, so the unique, heightened peril to her that the book tried to sell me on never felt real.
So now it feels like Bardugo is capable enough to write books as good as Alex Stern but it's too hard so she's not gonna bother? Which sucks.
But... there's a comment on her page that she intended to write 12 Alex Stern books, but they "take so much research" so she's only going to write 3, and in the meantime THIS has come out. And like, it was fine; the prose is good but the plotting is not, and persecution angle felt... off? Like, as the book points out the Inquisition was a threat to everyone, not just Jews, and what gets Luzia
Spoiler
and her auntSo now it feels like Bardugo is capable enough to write books as good as Alex Stern but it's too hard so she's not gonna bother? Which sucks.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I wasn’t sure if this would be something for me but gave it a go because I liked the author’s other books and I’m so glad I did. Loved it!
I listened to the audiobook and found the narrator to be very good.
I listened to the audiobook and found the narrator to be very good.
(3.5 stars) the storyline felt like if you played a 20 person game of telephone with hunchback of notre dame and then made it 21st century historical fantasy, with a sprinkling of addie la rue. it was by no means a bad book, but it wasn’t nearly as captivating as some of leigh bardugo’s other works (ninth house, you have my heart). it just didn’t feel very deep to me (which isn’t necessarily a critique of the book itself, not all literature has to be); stuff just kinda happened. i kept waiting for the hidden undercurrent of the plot to take over and it never did. i did enjoy my reading experience though
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated