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thelibraryfromscratch 's review for:
The Age of Scorpius
by Audra Winter
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hey so fun fact- I can’t currently post a review on GoodReads! So this is currently only listed on StoryGraph.
————
To the author, Audra, if you read this- please know this is not meant to be a review to hurt your feelings. I’ve been a young girl obsessed with writing and with my own fantasies. I still have my writings from all those years ago and would probably be just as excited as you are / were to get published. Please understand that I’m trying to be objective.
———
The Age of Scorpius was a book I was highly excited for. The first third of the book was honestly pretty enjoyable, having me hovering at a 3/5. However, the quality issues truly never improved and the plot slowly became that of a book I truly didn’t care for.
I wrote many notes after finishing The Age of Scorpius, mostly in the form of bullet points. I’ll do my best to repeat them here.
Grammar. This has been repeated many times by people making video essays and reviews. It’s bad. Pretty bad in some places, ignorable in others. And honestly, a good round or two with a solid editor and some ARC readers would have solved this.
Pacing. The Age of Scorpius is simultaneously having nothing happen, and everything happen, all at once. It’s a very “and then this happened, then this happened, and this happened” etc., which can be both exhausting on a plot level and destructive on a pacing one. Spending a page or two having events happening non-stop that ultimately mean nothing just makes the reader bored. I sadly spent the second half of the book just hoping /something/ major would happen that didn’t involve the MC and being Deus Ex Machina’d into being a super special person.
Relationships. I hate Avia. Chase is a blank slate love interest for Avia. Kaia starts strong but fades into irrelevance pretty quickly. Reika… I don’t hate her that much. The secret immortal people that everyone seems to be related to are just plain annoying. Narah is honestly my favorite. The presence of romance in the plot honestly doesn’t feel warranted, except maybe for Reika. But we also see nearly NONE of their falling for and being in love with their partner for most of the book, so how strongly they’re connected doesn’t feel realistic. And honestly, it isn’t needed.
Sexual Conversation / Cursing. It isn’t needed. No spicy scene thankfully, but telling people to “practice safe sex” and dropping curse words randomly (only towards the end) really reflects either this book being a crude edit to a rough draft from childhood having adult aspects shoehorned in, or frankly a really badly written YA plot. Without the sexual content and cursing, this book for the most part might have fit in well at my old middle school.
Dialogue. Horrible. The sentences themselves honestly just need rewritten and formatted. They don’t sound human or natural. I’m neurodivergent myself, and while I may sometimes communicate in the ways the MCs do, it’s not a daily or regular basis. It comes across very robotic, which for many readers is not going to make them enjoy it. And frankly, it’s dry. There’s a ton of repeating info immediately after finding something out. My “favorite” non-dialogue line involves “… and understanding myself. I’m understanding how to understand to be understood.” If you read the ebook on iPhone is on page 471/478, approximately.
The Ending. Not spoiling it, but I frankly hated it. A bunch of nothing that led to a scene that would have been a great ending if the plot was completed and there wasn’t a need for future books. If this was just one book all tied up plot wise, this would have been cute. Instead, it felt like there was more chapters missing.
Honestly, I don’t want to add much more here.
Again, this isn’t meant to be hurtful to the author or the subset of people who enjoyed this. I liked the first third but as it drug on I really became bored.
The Age of Scorpius gets a 1/5- possibly my first ever. After this book gets relaunched, perhaps it will be better and earn a higher rating. But for now, this is where the Zodiac Wheel stops.
———————————————————————
Thank you for reading this review of The Age of Scorpius. This marks my 30th book in 2025, completing my reading challenge (I also passed 10k pages earlier this year)!
If you’d like to read more reviews like this one, follow us at TheLibraryFromScratch. We own over 1,600 physical and 100 digital books.
My goal was to read 30 books this year, ignoring Manga, and when accounting for 3 audio books this year, I’ve reached my goal!
Super excited for the last few months of the year.
Hope to see you around!
Have a great 2025!
- Jillian
————
To the author, Audra, if you read this- please know this is not meant to be a review to hurt your feelings. I’ve been a young girl obsessed with writing and with my own fantasies. I still have my writings from all those years ago and would probably be just as excited as you are / were to get published. Please understand that I’m trying to be objective.
———
The Age of Scorpius was a book I was highly excited for. The first third of the book was honestly pretty enjoyable, having me hovering at a 3/5. However, the quality issues truly never improved and the plot slowly became that of a book I truly didn’t care for.
I wrote many notes after finishing The Age of Scorpius, mostly in the form of bullet points. I’ll do my best to repeat them here.
Grammar. This has been repeated many times by people making video essays and reviews. It’s bad. Pretty bad in some places, ignorable in others. And honestly, a good round or two with a solid editor and some ARC readers would have solved this.
Pacing. The Age of Scorpius is simultaneously having nothing happen, and everything happen, all at once. It’s a very “and then this happened, then this happened, and this happened” etc., which can be both exhausting on a plot level and destructive on a pacing one. Spending a page or two having events happening non-stop that ultimately mean nothing just makes the reader bored. I sadly spent the second half of the book just hoping /something/ major would happen that didn’t involve the MC and being Deus Ex Machina’d into being a super special person.
Relationships. I hate Avia. Chase is a blank slate love interest for Avia. Kaia starts strong but fades into irrelevance pretty quickly. Reika… I don’t hate her that much. The secret immortal people that everyone seems to be related to are just plain annoying. Narah is honestly my favorite. The presence of romance in the plot honestly doesn’t feel warranted, except maybe for Reika. But we also see nearly NONE of their falling for and being in love with their partner for most of the book, so how strongly they’re connected doesn’t feel realistic. And honestly, it isn’t needed.
Sexual Conversation / Cursing. It isn’t needed. No spicy scene thankfully, but telling people to “practice safe sex” and dropping curse words randomly (only towards the end) really reflects either this book being a crude edit to a rough draft from childhood having adult aspects shoehorned in, or frankly a really badly written YA plot. Without the sexual content and cursing, this book for the most part might have fit in well at my old middle school.
Dialogue. Horrible. The sentences themselves honestly just need rewritten and formatted. They don’t sound human or natural. I’m neurodivergent myself, and while I may sometimes communicate in the ways the MCs do, it’s not a daily or regular basis. It comes across very robotic, which for many readers is not going to make them enjoy it. And frankly, it’s dry. There’s a ton of repeating info immediately after finding something out. My “favorite” non-dialogue line involves “… and understanding myself. I’m understanding how to understand to be understood.” If you read the ebook on iPhone is on page 471/478, approximately.
The Ending. Not spoiling it, but I frankly hated it. A bunch of nothing that led to a scene that would have been a great ending if the plot was completed and there wasn’t a need for future books. If this was just one book all tied up plot wise, this would have been cute. Instead, it felt like there was more chapters missing.
Honestly, I don’t want to add much more here.
Again, this isn’t meant to be hurtful to the author or the subset of people who enjoyed this. I liked the first third but as it drug on I really became bored.
The Age of Scorpius gets a 1/5- possibly my first ever. After this book gets relaunched, perhaps it will be better and earn a higher rating. But for now, this is where the Zodiac Wheel stops.
———————————————————————
Thank you for reading this review of The Age of Scorpius. This marks my 30th book in 2025, completing my reading challenge (I also passed 10k pages earlier this year)!
If you’d like to read more reviews like this one, follow us at TheLibraryFromScratch. We own over 1,600 physical and 100 digital books.
My goal was to read 30 books this year, ignoring Manga, and when accounting for 3 audio books this year, I’ve reached my goal!
Super excited for the last few months of the year.
Hope to see you around!
Have a great 2025!
- Jillian