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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Despite kind of flipflopping through the book on whether I wanted to read more, I ended up finishing this pretty quickly —I think the writing is pretty good, and there’s enough going on there that I am interested in seeing where the author goes with it in the next book. 4 because a couple of things felt a little contrived, but not so much that it made me want to put it down.
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
Moderate: Child death, Fire/Fire injury
Book ratings mean little to me — some of my favorite books are rated below 3.7 stars. What surprised me about this book, though, is the amount of positive reviews. Sure, the worldbuilding is interesting, but it is so poorly conveyed that it cannot be this book’s saving grace. The writing is atrocious, heavy (or should I say ‘pregnant’?) with metaphors and unclear descriptions. Other reviewers have gone into more depth with direct quotes that are unbelievably bad, so I won’t do that here.
I will simply say that writing is a deeply undervalued craft, and that having an idea for a book does not automatically mean someone is equipped to write said book. Many authors don’t get to publish their very first novel, and they continue to refine their skills until a publishing opportunity comes along. Those are the authors I’d rather be reading. If you’ll allow some metaphors on my part, the writing in this book is the equivalent of a sentence produced by eagerly pushing auto-correct suggestions on a phone’s keyboard to see what comes out. In other words, the second half of any sentence is both extremely predictable but also incoherent. And for that, it makes the task of reading neither enjoyable nor entirely possible. Also, where were the editors?
I will simply say that writing is a deeply undervalued craft, and that having an idea for a book does not automatically mean someone is equipped to write said book. Many authors don’t get to publish their very first novel, and they continue to refine their skills until a publishing opportunity comes along. Those are the authors I’d rather be reading. If you’ll allow some metaphors on my part, the writing in this book is the equivalent of a sentence produced by eagerly pushing auto-correct suggestions on a phone’s keyboard to see what comes out. In other words, the second half of any sentence is both extremely predictable but also incoherent. And for that, it makes the task of reading neither enjoyable nor entirely possible. Also, where were the editors?
I excited to love it but the writing was all tell and no show
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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:
Complicated
I actually enjoyed this book i loved the way the story was told the concept of the forest spirits and the mayaraki and their codes it was really interesting and I found it a good read will be keeping an eye out for the next installment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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:
Yes
The overall rating for this book is so low and ridiculous! Then I see this book being advertised as Romantasy and Romance, I’m annnoyed!
I can imagine people are picking this up expecting “the bad prince with no sorrow, doing bad things, then a witch turns up and…ensue steamy love”. NO!
This book is a perfect new adult/adult fantasy bridging book. A really dark, gritty fantasy with a lot of uniqueness, vast world, politics. Let that all ramp up in the sequel, please! Sure it’s not perfect but I genuinely can’t wait to read book 2 and see everything fall apart even more!
I can imagine people are picking this up expecting “the bad prince with no sorrow, doing bad things, then a witch turns up and…ensue steamy love”. NO!
This book is a perfect new adult/adult fantasy bridging book. A really dark, gritty fantasy with a lot of uniqueness, vast world, politics. Let that all ramp up in the sequel, please! Sure it’s not perfect but I genuinely can’t wait to read book 2 and see everything fall apart even more!
adventurous
dark
slow-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:
Yes
adventurous
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