A review by crimsoncor
We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

2.0

I went into this optimistic. Didn't love the last book, but it was a first book and maybe this was going to be better. And it kinda seemed that way. And then it meandered into the middle of the book and it dragged on and on. Ask the characters continued to talk exactly the same (there was a great Reddit post recently on the difference between strategically used bathos and constant quippiness with joss whedon's marvel movies held up as the example where everyone just talks the same as the autuer and it feels so applicable here too). Character arcs tend toward the indecipherable. I still have no idea of why Aya did anything other then the author needed a way to move the story forward. Characters routinely face overwhelming odds and yet remain alive for no discernable reason. There are moments, however brief, where it feels like it might pull something enjoyable out, but it never does. The fight scenes are all gloppy messes, especially anything related to archery, which seem completely inspired by the Legolas nonsense in the LotR movies.