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A review by varlineau
The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
4.0
This review is really tough because I tried so, so hard to love this book - and, for the record, I didn't hate it by a long shot - but I just couldn't. I had too many problems with the writing and the overall structure of the story. CAWPILE had my rating at a 3.5, which I'm rounding up to a 4, if only because the last third of the book had me completely engrossed. I just wish it had been that way the entire time.
The good news is, once the trials DO start happening, they're AMAZING. The monsters Sylvia has to face are described so vividly, and the book becomes very, very fun to read. However, the downside is that it all happened far too fast and I was left wanting so much more. If I were the editor for this book, I'd have cut down some of the filler in act 2 and replaced it with a more drawn-out alcalah sequence. That's where all the mythos that's promised actually shows up, AND where all the political intrigue between kingdoms teased in act 1 starts coming to a head.
Despite the fact that I couldn't tell you how the magic system works or what it does, I loved the whole I-can't-touch-you-without-it-hurting concept between Sylvia and Arin. As someone who adores shows like Pushing Daisies, that was right up my alley. Unfortunately, again, I feel like it happened too fast. Sylvia and Arin are set up as a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers but the burn didn't end up being slow at all.
So much of The Jasad Heir could have been drawn out for the better, but the only thing that was was the act 2 filler. I don't know. I'm very conflicted because the parts I loved, I FREAKING LOOOOVED, but it took so long to get there. It's not a 3-star, but it's also not a hard 4-star. That being said, it's a good debut and I think the series has a lot of potential. Sylvia is a fantastic main character who I wouldn't mind following for another book as long as the plot is there.
Spoiler
The first act was great - I really enjoyed Sylvia and learning about the world and its politics (even though there was some egregious exposition-dropping in the middle of action). After Arin's introduced, however, it just... sort of... flounders for a while. He chooses her as his champion for the alcalah (a Hunger Games-esque sort of trial where each kingdom has a champion and they compete for... something, I honestly can't remember what) and spends time training her and getting to know her, etc. All of this is in anticipation of some really cool competition sequence that I had been looking forward to since the beginning of the book that doesn't happen until around 70% in. That's a long time to wait for something that's marketed in the summary of the book.The good news is, once the trials DO start happening, they're AMAZING. The monsters Sylvia has to face are described so vividly, and the book becomes very, very fun to read. However, the downside is that it all happened far too fast and I was left wanting so much more. If I were the editor for this book, I'd have cut down some of the filler in act 2 and replaced it with a more drawn-out alcalah sequence. That's where all the mythos that's promised actually shows up, AND where all the political intrigue between kingdoms teased in act 1 starts coming to a head.
Despite the fact that I couldn't tell you how the magic system works or what it does, I loved the whole I-can't-touch-you-without-it-hurting concept between Sylvia and Arin. As someone who adores shows like Pushing Daisies, that was right up my alley. Unfortunately, again, I feel like it happened too fast. Sylvia and Arin are set up as a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers but the burn didn't end up being slow at all.
So much of The Jasad Heir could have been drawn out for the better, but the only thing that was was the act 2 filler. I don't know. I'm very conflicted because the parts I loved, I FREAKING LOOOOVED, but it took so long to get there. It's not a 3-star, but it's also not a hard 4-star. That being said, it's a good debut and I think the series has a lot of potential. Sylvia is a fantastic main character who I wouldn't mind following for another book as long as the plot is there.