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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I fell in love with the Arcane series and introducing me to Ambessa. This was such a rich story and some little perspective. The audiobook is superb! And C L Clark did an amazing job. I highly recommend!
adventurous
emotional
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:
Yes
I was so excited for this book. I adore the tv show arcane and Ambessa is one of my favourite characters from the show. When I heard there would be a book centred on her backstory I immediately sprung to preorder. However this book fell so short of my expectations and left me disappointed and disheartened. While the events of the book were tense and exciting, and the exploration of inter-character relationships were interesting, the writing made everything fall flat. The pacing was sporadic and focused too heavily on the wrong things at the wrong times, making entire chapters uninteresting and dull where they could have been engaging and exciting. Word choice and sentence structure was clunky and left me disconnected from the narrative. I enjoyed seeing parts of Ambessa’s life and origin that we will likely never see on screen in future Arcane-adjacent projects but this book could have been so much more.
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
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
If I could give this book 100 stars, I most definitely would. My goodness. I already loved Ambessa from watching Arcane, but this backstory is heart wrenching. Seeing her journey to matriarch and the things she’s willing to do for the ones she loves…They could never make me hate this character. The multiple POVs also made the story so intriguing too. Whether Ambessa knows it or not, she got people that are more than willing to ride for her including Mel despite their relationship. I don’t wanna give spoilers, but the fact that Mel and Rell never got to meet is a sin. LEBLANC COUNT YOUR DAYS!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Blood
Minor: Confinement, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it took a sec for me to get invested in this, but woah!! had a lot of fun. really enjoyed seeing the connections to the show and just all the tidbits sprinkled in. i thought this was a great character to explore and will make me think of new things when i rewatch! just a super interesting character exploration i think.i liked the multi povs. and the ending!!!!!! saw that the audiobook is narrated by ambessa’s va so maybe ill have to reread for that version……
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
TLDR: Jesus Christ.
I would not recommend this book if you know literally nothing about League of Legends lore, or even if you only know about Arcane. But if you do know even the absolute basics, I highly recommend this book.
The character work and interactions in this book are so wild and intense- I read it so quickly once I started, and I felt everything so intensely as I read it that I had to take breaks even when I wanted to keep going!
The action was intense, Ambessa was a wild perspective to read from, and this family really stressed me out. The writing is so competent that I got totally absorbed in the scenes and really enjoyed reading it, not getting tired of it even by the end.
Just a really competent book that left me reeling several times throughout it with its brutality and frankly unforgiving writing. Great stuff.
I would not recommend this book if you know literally nothing about League of Legends lore, or even if you only know about Arcane. But if you do know even the absolute basics, I highly recommend this book.
The character work and interactions in this book are so wild and intense- I read it so quickly once I started, and I felt everything so intensely as I read it that I had to take breaks even when I wanted to keep going!
The action was intense, Ambessa was a wild perspective to read from, and this family really stressed me out. The writing is so competent that I got totally absorbed in the scenes and really enjoyed reading it, not getting tired of it even by the end.
Just a really competent book that left me reeling several times throughout it with its brutality and frankly unforgiving writing. Great stuff.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book. It was good to get a bit more depth to Ambessa's character and find out why she is how she is. It was made even better with the audiobook being read by Ellen Thomas, the voice of Ambessa in the show 😊
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I enjoyed the way this book tied together pieces not visited or answered in Arcane, but would like to see more of Ambessa as the leader of the Medardas. Maybe in a sequel?