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A review by savannahleigh2005
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
"'It is truly a tragedy that those we love most in the world must often bear the burden of our errors'"
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Yeah, I don't know how to feel about any of this. I've gotta say, I am honestly so sick of adult fantasies, sci fis, etc. feeling like they need to make every single character have the worst ending possible cause it's an adult book and for some reason that means no one is allowed to be happy in the end, INCLUDING ME! I also don't like endings that don't actually fully wrap everything up and just leave their characters in weird places for, again, the sake of tragedy. Slight out of context spoiler here, but either the character is dead or they aren't, choose in the book and call it a day, PLEASE!
Basically the gist of my feelings about this book are that I loved the first maybe 500ish pages, maybe a little more, of the book and honestly hated a lot of, if not all of, the finale, so it's really hard for me to translate those feelings into an actually accurate rating. So this rating will probably change as I think on this more.
But, yes, the rest of the book was great. There were still a couple pov chapters I was less interested in (present day balam and okoa specifically), but overall I liked the plotlines of each character and found their stories/arcs throughout this book to be really compelling. I still love all of the characters I loved before (specifically iktan, Xiala, and serapio), but I did genuinely enjoy the other characters as well. And in a very shocking turn of events, I kind of liked okoa by the end?? Idk, he kinda grew on me. And I was kicking my feet and giggling at the iktan and naranpa and the serapio and Xiala content in this book; as little as there was, the scenes with those ships were amazing.
The ending though... kind of hated that. I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail cause a) I don't want to make this review even longer than it already will be and b) I don't want to spoil anything and have to tag this review for spoilers, but I just didn't like where any character ended up in this ending. It basically included every tragic/sad/bittersweet ending trope in series that I absolutely hate when it's done with characters I love, so it was a little miserable to read, ngl. A lot of parts felt rushed, specifically with character deaths. Like, a character would die with no build up to their death scene whatsoever and then we (the readers) would just be forced to move on from it immediately cause there was more shit happening elsewhere. As well, I really don't like that some characters ended up having finale battle scenes that actually didn't help anything whatsoever and actually just ruined said character's life (iykyk). In general, I just can't say there's a single part of the ending that I'm happy or feel a slight bit of joy at. It's all depressing. I'm depressed.
Part of me feels like there could be more books added to this world later, and the other part of me thinks that I'm just really hoping there will be to make up for the parts of this ending I really didn't like. But idk. Adult fantasy series' endings always fuck me up it seems. I hate unwarranted tragedies.
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Bonus quotes 🌊
"The failure to act makes cowards of the brave"
"You were not only my sun and moon. You were the entirety of my heavens. What is there now for me but darkness? What is death but a desire long denied?"
"I would know you in the dark, the reflection of my heart, the mirror to my soul"
"I have saved a place for you, my love, in the quiet spaces between the stars"
-------------------------------------
Yeah, I don't know how to feel about any of this. I've gotta say, I am honestly so sick of adult fantasies, sci fis, etc. feeling like they need to make every single character have the worst ending possible cause it's an adult book and for some reason that means no one is allowed to be happy in the end, INCLUDING ME! I also don't like endings that don't actually fully wrap everything up and just leave their characters in weird places for, again, the sake of tragedy. Slight out of context spoiler here, but either the character is dead or they aren't, choose in the book and call it a day, PLEASE!
Basically the gist of my feelings about this book are that I loved the first maybe 500ish pages, maybe a little more, of the book and honestly hated a lot of, if not all of, the finale, so it's really hard for me to translate those feelings into an actually accurate rating. So this rating will probably change as I think on this more.
But, yes, the rest of the book was great. There were still a couple pov chapters I was less interested in (present day balam and okoa specifically), but overall I liked the plotlines of each character and found their stories/arcs throughout this book to be really compelling. I still love all of the characters I loved before (specifically iktan, Xiala, and serapio), but I did genuinely enjoy the other characters as well. And in a very shocking turn of events, I kind of liked okoa by the end?? Idk, he kinda grew on me. And I was kicking my feet and giggling at the iktan and naranpa and the serapio and Xiala content in this book; as little as there was, the scenes with those ships were amazing.
The ending though... kind of hated that. I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail cause a) I don't want to make this review even longer than it already will be and b) I don't want to spoil anything and have to tag this review for spoilers, but I just didn't like where any character ended up in this ending. It basically included every tragic/sad/bittersweet ending trope in series that I absolutely hate when it's done with characters I love, so it was a little miserable to read, ngl. A lot of parts felt rushed, specifically with character deaths. Like, a character would die with no build up to their death scene whatsoever and then we (the readers) would just be forced to move on from it immediately cause there was more shit happening elsewhere. As well, I really don't like that some characters ended up having finale battle scenes that actually didn't help anything whatsoever and actually just ruined said character's life (iykyk). In general, I just can't say there's a single part of the ending that I'm happy or feel a slight bit of joy at. It's all depressing. I'm depressed.
Part of me feels like there could be more books added to this world later, and the other part of me thinks that I'm just really hoping there will be to make up for the parts of this ending I really didn't like. But idk. Adult fantasy series' endings always fuck me up it seems. I hate unwarranted tragedies.
-------------------------------------
Bonus quotes 🌊
"The failure to act makes cowards of the brave"
"You were not only my sun and moon. You were the entirety of my heavens. What is there now for me but darkness? What is death but a desire long denied?"
"I would know you in the dark, the reflection of my heart, the mirror to my soul"
"I have saved a place for you, my love, in the quiet spaces between the stars"