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emtees 's review for:
Beneath the Citadel
by Destiny Soria
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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:
Yes
Cassa and her friends dream of bringing down the council that rules their home city of Eldra, manipulating prophesy to keep the people oppressed and under control. Even though the rebellion that rocked the city for a century ended four years ago - and took Cassa’s parents, its leaders, with it - Cassa is determined to keep its legacy alive. But when she and her friends are betrayed and arrested while breaking into the Citadel at the center of the city to investigate a series of mysterious deaths, their focus turns from overthrowing the government to keeping their own lives. Fleeing into the tunnels beneath the Citadel ahead of their executions, Cassa and her friends discover a whole labyrinth of caves and passages, a potential ally, and a secret that promises to help them take down the council for good. But the deeper they get into the council’s secrets, the more conflicting goals and loyalties threaten to tear their group apart. They all may share a common goal, but some of them have more to lose than the others, and Cassa may be the only one willing to give up everything to see the council destroyed.
I liked this book, especially the second half. There’s a lot to like about it. I didn’t love it, though, and I think that comes down to a mix of unfair expectations and some unnecessarily complicated writing that undermined the strengths of the book. But I want to focus on the good stuff first, so:
Characters: I loved all the characters in this book, but Cassa was probably my favorite, if only because Soria wasn’t afraid to make her real, even if it also made her frustrating and at times unlikeable. She’s what a rebel leader should be - strong, brave, committed but also ruthless, angry and willing to make morally grey choices. I’ve seen some complaints that the “found family” vibes didn’t work for this book because the characters didn’t really like each other, but that only applied to Cassa, and even with her, I didn’t get the impression the other characters didn’t like her, just that they understood, correctly, that they didn’t come first for her. It’s a bold choice to write a book centered on teamwork and found family and then make your main character someone who you’re never sure won’t just let everyone else die if it helps her achieve her goals, but it was a smart move with Cassa and made her really stand out in the sea of YA fantasy heroines. None of the other characters were as distinctive but I still found them all interesting. Actually, Chancellor Dane, the enemy-turned-maybe-ally might have been my second favorite. He was an interesting guy even if he was also a terrible person.
The characters were also nicely diverse - a mix of ethnic appearances, mental health and disability rep (including possibly the first hypermobility disorder rep I’ve seen in a fantasy book?), a range of sexual orientations, body size, etc.
Relationships: All of the relationships were enjoyable. There’s one romance, which was very sweet, but there were also a lot of strong, complicated friendships. One of my favorite things in fiction is when platonic relationships are given the same complexity and emotional depth as romantic relationships and that was definitely true here. Cassa’s relationships with her ex, Evander, and his sister Alys were probably my favorites. There was such a mix of love and frustration and hurt feelings and loyalty in both of them.
Magic: The concept of this world is so interesting. Eldra is a city that runs on prophecy, passed down from ancient seers who predicted the future of the city. Over the centuries, prophecy has gone from a means of helping people to a tool of oppression. The Council has been able to completely control the people of the city by leaning on supposedly infallible prophecies. The description of an entire section of the city being massacred because a prophecy said there would be an uprising there - the unfairness of it and the way the people have no recourse - was chilling. There are also multiple other types of magic in this world and the way they interact with each other is really interesting and makes the council a formidable foe for the heroes. How do you fight someone who can know your thoughts just by seeing your face, and can steal your memories so that they end up knowing more about your own plans than you do? (The memory stealing was my favorite part of the magic; Soria used it in really intriguing ways to complicate the plot and add twists.)
The ending: I won’t spoil it, but the ending was extremely satisfying on both a plot and character level, and just technically, the writing of it was done really well.
Okay, so those were the strengths. Now, the weaknesses. First off, this is not a heist book. I love heist books, I always give them a ratings bump, so while it’s not necessarily a flaw of this book, it was a disappointment. There is a heist, but it happens before the book begins; the actual opening is the main cast being sentenced for their part in it. Later, there is a lot of sneaking in and out of the Citadel and coming up with intricate plans but it never rises to the heights of a truly good heist.
My biggest issue with the book, though, is the structure. As I said, it starts right after something exciting has happened. The first third or so is the team escaping from prison after be arrested for their break-in, and the story then rushes forward, introducing mysteries and unreliable characters and leaving a lot for the reader to figure out. Perhaps realizing that she’d established this group and their goals without letting us see any of that happening, Soria uses a series of flashbacks, scattered through the story, to show how the characters met and became a team, and also how some of the antagonists got involved in the plot. These flashbacks are the weakest parts of the book and really dragged it down for me. The ones focused on character relationships are boring and don’t tell us anything we couldn’t figure out from context in the main storyline, and the ones focused on the antagonists end up making their story feel less important than it actually is. The flashbacks also end up really confusing the timeline and making the plot more difficult to follow instead of less - so many things happened “four years ago” that it didn’t seem possible they could all be happening the same year. And the use of flashbacks to events “years ago” made the young ages of the characters seem even less realistic than they were.
There are also some weaknesses in the worldbuilding - while I liked the magic system a lot, the world really didn’t hold up for me, especially for a stand-alone fantasy where it won’t be fleshed out further in other volumes. The “rebellion,” especially, felt like a barely thought-through idea. For one thing, it’s called “the rebellion,” which is extremely generic, and for another it… went on for a hundred years? Without either being stopped or accomplishing anything? And then the leaders were killed so suddenly it’s over except for a couple teenagers? After one hundred years? I kept thinking the long time-frame was there because we were going to find out something about the rebellion’s origins that had been forgotten over all those years, but nope. Plus, for no reason, Soria made the point of explaining that Eldra is just one city in a larger nation, which has a queen and a population who care nothing about the council or prophecies. In which case, why don’t people just… move? There doesn’t seem to be any evidence they are being stopped, or any explanation for why this one city is worth dying for, and again, they’ve had one hundred years.
I liked this book, especially the second half. There’s a lot to like about it. I didn’t love it, though, and I think that comes down to a mix of unfair expectations and some unnecessarily complicated writing that undermined the strengths of the book. But I want to focus on the good stuff first, so:
Characters: I loved all the characters in this book, but Cassa was probably my favorite, if only because Soria wasn’t afraid to make her real, even if it also made her frustrating and at times unlikeable. She’s what a rebel leader should be - strong, brave, committed but also ruthless, angry and willing to make morally grey choices. I’ve seen some complaints that the “found family” vibes didn’t work for this book because the characters didn’t really like each other, but that only applied to Cassa, and even with her, I didn’t get the impression the other characters didn’t like her, just that they understood, correctly, that they didn’t come first for her. It’s a bold choice to write a book centered on teamwork and found family and then make your main character someone who you’re never sure won’t just let everyone else die if it helps her achieve her goals, but it was a smart move with Cassa and made her really stand out in the sea of YA fantasy heroines. None of the other characters were as distinctive but I still found them all interesting. Actually, Chancellor Dane, the enemy-turned-maybe-ally might have been my second favorite. He was an interesting guy even if he was also a terrible person.
The characters were also nicely diverse - a mix of ethnic appearances, mental health and disability rep (including possibly the first hypermobility disorder rep I’ve seen in a fantasy book?), a range of sexual orientations, body size, etc.
Relationships: All of the relationships were enjoyable. There’s one romance, which was very sweet, but there were also a lot of strong, complicated friendships. One of my favorite things in fiction is when platonic relationships are given the same complexity and emotional depth as romantic relationships and that was definitely true here. Cassa’s relationships with her ex, Evander, and his sister Alys were probably my favorites. There was such a mix of love and frustration and hurt feelings and loyalty in both of them.
Magic: The concept of this world is so interesting. Eldra is a city that runs on prophecy, passed down from ancient seers who predicted the future of the city. Over the centuries, prophecy has gone from a means of helping people to a tool of oppression. The Council has been able to completely control the people of the city by leaning on supposedly infallible prophecies. The description of an entire section of the city being massacred because a prophecy said there would be an uprising there - the unfairness of it and the way the people have no recourse - was chilling. There are also multiple other types of magic in this world and the way they interact with each other is really interesting and makes the council a formidable foe for the heroes. How do you fight someone who can know your thoughts just by seeing your face, and can steal your memories so that they end up knowing more about your own plans than you do? (The memory stealing was my favorite part of the magic; Soria used it in really intriguing ways to complicate the plot and add twists.)
The ending: I won’t spoil it, but the ending was extremely satisfying on both a plot and character level, and just technically, the writing of it was done really well.
Okay, so those were the strengths. Now, the weaknesses. First off, this is not a heist book. I love heist books, I always give them a ratings bump, so while it’s not necessarily a flaw of this book, it was a disappointment. There is a heist, but it happens before the book begins; the actual opening is the main cast being sentenced for their part in it. Later, there is a lot of sneaking in and out of the Citadel and coming up with intricate plans but it never rises to the heights of a truly good heist.
My biggest issue with the book, though, is the structure. As I said, it starts right after something exciting has happened. The first third or so is the team escaping from prison after be arrested for their break-in, and the story then rushes forward, introducing mysteries and unreliable characters and leaving a lot for the reader to figure out. Perhaps realizing that she’d established this group and their goals without letting us see any of that happening, Soria uses a series of flashbacks, scattered through the story, to show how the characters met and became a team, and also how some of the antagonists got involved in the plot. These flashbacks are the weakest parts of the book and really dragged it down for me. The ones focused on character relationships are boring and don’t tell us anything we couldn’t figure out from context in the main storyline, and the ones focused on the antagonists end up making their story feel less important than it actually is. The flashbacks also end up really confusing the timeline and making the plot more difficult to follow instead of less - so many things happened “four years ago” that it didn’t seem possible they could all be happening the same year. And the use of flashbacks to events “years ago” made the young ages of the characters seem even less realistic than they were.
There are also some weaknesses in the worldbuilding - while I liked the magic system a lot, the world really didn’t hold up for me, especially for a stand-alone fantasy where it won’t be fleshed out further in other volumes. The “rebellion,” especially, felt like a barely thought-through idea. For one thing, it’s called “the rebellion,” which is extremely generic, and for another it… went on for a hundred years? Without either being stopped or accomplishing anything? And then the leaders were killed so suddenly it’s over except for a couple teenagers? After one hundred years? I kept thinking the long time-frame was there because we were going to find out something about the rebellion’s origins that had been forgotten over all those years, but nope. Plus, for no reason, Soria made the point of explaining that Eldra is just one city in a larger nation, which has a queen and a population who care nothing about the council or prophecies. In which case, why don’t people just… move? There doesn’t seem to be any evidence they are being stopped, or any explanation for why this one city is worth dying for, and again, they’ve had one hundred years.