A review by dlrosebyh
The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

adventurous dark slow-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

1.0

Well, there’s always a first in everything. 
 
The Court of Broken Knives is unfortunately my first 1-star-read of the year. Which is so disappointing as the premise looked so promising. I love an assassin main character, but this novel was just not for me. 
 
My first issue is the writing style. If you know me, you know that I love a good writing style. It’s like the main connection between the novel and I. The Court of Broken Knives felt like a twelve-year-old wrote this and uploaded it to Wattpad thinking it has some sort of angst. I know the author wanted it to be grippy and fast-paced, but honestly the periods every word was just killing me. And honestly, I was even shocked that Anna Smith Spark has a PhD in English literature because this felt like the first draft. You don’t need to end every chapter with “Death! Death! Death”. This isn’t 2014 Tumblr. (Her poems were ass, too.) 
 
Secondly, I didn’t really like the characters. Honestly, all of them were annoying to me. If this novel wasn’t my cousin’s favorite book, I would’ve DNF’ed it already. 
 
Thirdly, the world building was horrible. I appreciated the map and everything, but I was just confused throughout the entire book. Some sections of the book really did not make sense, as the world building was so weak that you feel like you’re just reading a combination of every European countries ever. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings