Reviews - The Book of Azrael

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7.56k reviews for:

The Book of Azrael

Amber V. Nicole

4.07 AVERAGE

ellieeisreading's review against another edition

5.0

5✨ - I didn’t know what to expect going into this but I thoroughly enjoyed this! Dark fantasy is definitely for me

khammond9's review against another edition

3.5

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

couchpot4to's review against another edition

5.0

Not gonna lie, it did take me a while to get through the first chapter, thanks to the tongue twister names and such (normal occurrence in a fantasy novel, tbh), but after getting into it it was SOOOOO GOOOOOD

The enemies
The lovers
Them
The trauma
The power
The badass FMC
Badass side characters
The EVERYTHING

Now I'm still heartbroken from everything that happened in the last two chapters and might need some ice cream, staring at the ceiling, questioning the meaning of life but hey, is it really a good book if you don't keep thinking about the book instead of doing normal mundane mortal human tasks?

lex_cd71's review against another edition

5.0

Written really well, book had great world building. Not much spice in this slow burn but the fantasy aspect was great. Will recommend to anyone wanting a good fantasy read. Dianna and Liam’s relationship/ drama can be felt through the whole book. Spoiler is it ends on a cliffhanger!

shoegazesecondhand_books's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

That. Ending.

I'm going to blame my wavering ability to focus on this book on my going back and forth between the audiobook and eye-ball reading it. Although approachable and modern, The Book of Azrael is dense high-fantasy with a million names and complicated places and I would have had a better time just eye-ball reading it.

Now that you have your PSA:

"I didn’t remember how long we talked, but somewhere amidst her laughter and smiles, I decided I would rip the world apart for her."

• We've got a MORALLY GREY FMC y'all! No dainty mortal maiden or malnourished street-kid here, we’ve got POWER. Dianna is a force to be reckoned with in a way that really shouldn’t be this refreshing but it is. Her powers are clear and exciting and we stannnnn.
• I absolutely adore an overly formal fish-out-of-water God-type, and Liam (Samkiel?) fits that bill perfectly.
• Surprise to no one, our characters have *trauma* but it feels real and worth exploring as opposed to shoehorned-in tragic backstories.
• For how long it is, The Book of Azrael has great pacing and character development, and the world building (set in a sort of modern/near-future, post-Gods War Earth) is seamless.

I am going to be filing this under "fantasy books that have dialogue like Star Wars or Marvel movies" - this isn’t a critique but a calling out of the specific vibe that exists in a lot of the most popular fantasy series (that is also really hard to execute well). It can occasionally feel too unserious, but in Dianna's case it’s actually really refreshing to have such realistic and funny banter amidst such heavy plotting (example: having our main tell someone to go fuck themselves was GREAT). It also effectively makes Dianna and the other earth-bound folks stand apart from our Very Special God-Prince.

TLDR; If you like a complex, modern, action-packed fantasy that manages to keep the overarching plot in the foreground (as opposed to falling too far into the trappings of the romance - although that's hot too), this is the right series for you.
Really looking forward to diving into the next book, because holy shit what a cliffhanger!