A review by pencilknot
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

3.0

I have known many human beings with a full soul to their name who do not have half so much compassion or practicality as you.

3 stars

Half a Soul was a great book until the last chapters, where its flaws bothered me so much that I severely dropped my rating. As much as I adored Dora and Elias romance, the plot holes and character contradictions near the end couldn't be overlooked. I ended up disappointed and sad that a story praised by many of my favourite reviewers felt so short of expectations.

Spoiler

The final battle with Lord Hollowvale made no sense to me, likely due to the lack of worldbuilding around the faerie. If Theodora (Dora's emotional counterpart) is not fae, how can she still inherit the Marquess of Hollowvale's title after his death? Dora was the one who killed the lord, not Theodora. Would the fae accept Theodora's claim to power? I found it hard to believe that Dora knew what she was doing when she killed Lord Hollowvale. The ensuing events felt more like a bunch of random actions that luckily came together for the best ending.

I do feel that the final lines further ruined the story for me. For all her talk about helping society, the epilogue suggest that Dora and Elias end up leaving it all behind to live the rest of their lives in faerie. I feel like this severely undermined Dora's character that had been built up throughout the book and was the final nail in the coffin.