Reviews

this is just like the upcoming megamind 2 movie that looks awful. except megamind was good and adsom was mehhh.

it took me a lot of effort to psych myself into reading this. i was eagerly waiting this series since i finished the series which was like 2019. which you know is also crazy considering i've been waiting since 2018 for victorious ughhh. i have a hate hate relationship with schwab which consists of me just reading her books with high expectations and getting absolutely crushed every time.

plot/prose
schwab always tries to do way too much. high ambition but the execution? not really there. it feels like after the timeline hopping in Vicious schwab saw the people liked it and decided to add it to every single book afterwards. like it worked in vicious bc schwab put thought and heart into that book. i won't say i 100% hated it here. in fact, things like rhy's wedding flashback were helpful. but other things like jumping back and forth between years for tes and kosika? it was like a rollercoaster. to be fair, it's not like i have any better suggestions for how to pace it, i'm just saying it was whiplash. also, the millions of POVs. bc there's already so many characters, but schwab always feels it is necessary to jump into the head of literal randos that sure, affect the plot, but it becomes too much. i've also heard that victorious will have 8 POVs and yeah she tries to do so much with her books it gets overwhelming. as for the pacing, yeah overwhelming. at the beginning, things were happening but at a slower pace than normal, because we kept jumping into the past. but when the Big Reveal happening and the action starting picking it up, it felt like we were speedrunning it for no reason?? it felt so rushed especially with

kell. ok he got his magic back and we have 2 paragraphs with rhy. nothing with lila who has apparently spent seven years trying to get it back for him. ok that's great!

. the Final Battle too was so anticlimatic. i mean, i guess the setup for the next book was ok but i blinked and the suspense was over. no excitement or anything, just facts about what happening. we are told a lot of things, someone said something, saw something, felt something and then we were rushed right along. like ok damn let me sit here and stew in this for a bit longer please??

characters

lila bard: i have such a controversial view of her. ok i 100% understand why almost everyone hates her, i do. in ADSOM especially because schwab was pushing the Not Like Other Girls thing way too hard. we GET THAT SHE'S LIKE A KNIFE AND LIKES POINTY THINGS OK. but i can't help myself, i really do like lila bard. maybe it's her humor, the way she jumps head first into danger. but idk i like her and ok, i also understand the criticisms but i have my own too. in this book, i think we get a little bit less of the Not Like Other Girls gimmick but maybe it's bc i haven't read ADSOM in so long i've forgotten how annoying she could be. here, she was more of a doer than an annoyance. now, the criticisms! i'm sick of her descriptions, we get it, enough with the wicked crooked grins WE GET IT. i've seen a critique that she's mean to kell for no reason and it doesn't even feel like a loving relationship. totally in the former series it felt like that at times. here, i like their dynamic a bit better. she's still prickly of course she is, but she begrudgingly loves kell. like ok for her it's hard to do but she does it in her own way. and especially when she helps him adjust after his magic loss. and that she'd do anything for him to get his magic back even when he gave up. but it does feel like schwab can't figure out if she hates lila or loves lila either.

kell maresh: i have no thoughts about kell literally. i love that he loves rhy/lila and hates alucard. he's a very genuine person and i do wish him the best. he's just also not too interesting to me.

rhy maresh: tell me why i thought this series would be all about RHY. we still get him but i could always do with more rhy. i mean, he's frustrating and annoying. but he's also empathetic and funny and i do love him. but sometimes i want to take him by the shoulders and shake him. i was so glad when nadiya said just bc he can't die, doesn't mean she, their daughter, or alucard can't die. like stop being so naive and self-destructive. but yes i love rhy.

alucard: i still have yet to read their short story oops. my favorite thing about alucard is that he is very much a doer like lila. there's a problem? he goes and finds out about it. i appreciate that in a character. i also live for his bickering with kell bc it brings out a bit of personality in kell lol. and too often, the main characters are all friends and the siblings are also besties their sibling's love interest but the dynamic here makes for some interesting character interactions. which you know was great after the kinda blahness of red london.

tes: new character #1. she's someone who can see the threads of magic like alucard except that she can actually touch them and by that, fix them. that's such a cool power. i think the way she has such a strong sense of creativity and self-preservation really made me like her. she wasn't insufferable like lila could be at times. she just wanted to fix things and not destroy the world. i'm glad she got that ending bc she deserved it.

kosika: new character #2. literally the only interesting chapters. i'm a big fan. after holland's death, she becomes queen of white london and tries to restore the dying magic of all the londons. i like her potential, that she could bring back life and a spark to all the worlds, i just am suspicious of how her motives could be manipulated. and i love narsi and lark too. why? i'm a big fan of loyalty. but am i getting a hint of a polyamorous relationship?? it is refreshing to finally have two women and one man instead of the usual two men and one woman i've read before. i'd be so down for it, except for the fact that i'm pretty sure kosika is like 14 in which case both narsi and lark are way older than her. so idk what schwab is implying!

nadiya: new character #3. i feel like schwab is trying to make up for the single (1) important woman in ADSOM being lila. ok i love nadiya and i'm so mad at everyone who makes her life difficult. she literally just wants to keep her family safe and do her experiments. woohoo women in science! i have no idea why schwab likes to pit successful women against each other bc there's no reason for her and lila to not get along. they are the same person and ik that's what lila said but ok you both want to keep the maresh family safe don't you?? and nadiya is the most reasonable person ever why is lila losing her cool over her. because sure, nadiya is intense with the whole keep the family safe but so is lila and in fact lila goes way over the top with what she does. schwab wrote nadiya super suspicious so idk if she's going to do a Betrayal arc in which BOOOOO, but lila does so many sus things too in the name of Protecting Kell. i'm a nadiya defender.

but yeah i don't know if schwab loves or hates lila for real. bc in one moment she's funny and competent, but then the next schwab is trying way too hard to convince us she's not a softy. ok great that doesn't mean she has to act like a complete monster devoid of human empathy. does schwab love lila too much and try to get the reader to do the same by making her Bold! and Different! or does schwab secretly hate lila by not letting her act like a normal person. or this secret third option that schwab just doesn't care and is bad at writing a fully convincing lila bard.

anyway it's not like i didn't have fun reading this. there were definitely parts i enjoyed and others where my eyes literally glazed over.

of course she brought holland back. OF COURSE SHE DID. she couldn't let him go could she. yeah i love holland but just let him rest in peace please. and anyway why is ghost holland so suspicious. i feel like kosika is being misled by him especially since she admires him so much as her saint. but we'll see i guess.

i will be reading book 2 but i hope the pacing does improve. those last 20 pages i couldn't even process what was going on and then it was over soooo the excitement really got killed for me.

jarahsane's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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