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A review by peculiarb
A Knot of Lies and Rebellion by J. Collette Smith
adventurous
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
A Knot of Lies and Rebellion by J. Collette Smith tries to tell an inspiring story of a power hungry sovereign being overthrown, but falls flat in its delivery.
In order to secure a better future for herself and her family, Emeuri's biggest dream is to become an attendant to one of this season's debutant Ladies. The first scene, her audition, was dynamic with engaging dialogue and a character that was quick to come up with solutions to problems, but it went downhill from there.
Emeuri present herself as a stubborn yet determined girl, when really she's flighty at best. She reminds herself, and the readers, that she must be a good attendant to give herself and her family a better future but she constantly risks that future even before she goes off to join the rebellion.
As for the rest of the cast, some are more complex than others. I was most intrigued by Kes, Lunal, and Alixe, while I appreciated Beck appearing powerful yet welcoming at first before revealing just how authoritative he is as the book went on. I didn't think Jax or Moran stood out all that much, in fact they are very similar in both their characters and their roles.
As far as character development, Lunal's was the only one that stood out. Emeuri finds herself in situations (both traumatic and not) that don't have much of an impact by the end, while the others were even more marginal.
The fundamental problem with the plot was that it tried to do too much for its length. Emeuri is supposed to mingle on the fringes of high society, fall in love, join a rebellion, defeat the sovereign, and install a new government all in the span of 326 pages. As such, sequences that should have taken chapters and chapters to impact both the main characters and the readers are rushed through, which left me unsatisfied and unable to connect with much happening.
For the next section of the review, I will be going into spoilers regarding the second half of the book, even the climax of the story:
My first major issue with this book was that the goodreads blurb for the Kindle edition gave most of the story away. Instead of keeping it vague the last paragraph goes as far as saying that Emeuri's family is captured which happens in the last 20% of the book. While the book itself is formulaic and a captured family can be expected to a certain extent, putting it in the blurb robbed the story of its tension since I knew what was coming.
My second major issue is that the story lacks continuity during two glaring and very important scenes and here is where I'll be going into a lot of detail because if I caught this, an editor definitely should have:
- The first has to do with the plot twist. Within this society, twins are seen as abominations and the second one born gets banished to a wasteland to die. While Emeuri is training, she learns that her friend Kes was a twin and she also learns that Sovereign Beck was one. However, when the second leader of the rebellion is revealed to be the sovereign's twin, Emeuri doesn't remember what Kes told her and describes the encounter as if it was the very first time she's heard of the banished twin.
- The second has to do with a major character's death. While getting rescued, Moran dies from an arrow to the neck. It's written as a poignant scene where he says goodbye to his loved ones before passing. Later, when Emeuri remembers this she states he was killed from an arrow to the chest.
I'll admit I did skim parts of the book so there could be more continuity errors, but these two jumped out at me immediately, and they are both integral to the plot itself so they should have been caught.
A Knot of Lies and Rebellion by J. Collette Smith has an intriguing premise that overpromised and underdelivered. The book's flaws add up to an unsatisfying read while the glaring mistakes just left me with a bad impression overall.
In order to secure a better future for herself and her family, Emeuri's biggest dream is to become an attendant to one of this season's debutant Ladies. The first scene, her audition, was dynamic with engaging dialogue and a character that was quick to come up with solutions to problems, but it went downhill from there.
Emeuri present herself as a stubborn yet determined girl, when really she's flighty at best. She reminds herself, and the readers, that she must be a good attendant to give herself and her family a better future but she constantly risks that future even before she goes off to join the rebellion.
As for the rest of the cast, some are more complex than others. I was most intrigued by Kes, Lunal, and Alixe, while I appreciated Beck appearing powerful yet welcoming at first before revealing just how authoritative he is as the book went on. I didn't think Jax or Moran stood out all that much, in fact they are very similar in both their characters and their roles.
As far as character development, Lunal's was the only one that stood out. Emeuri finds herself in situations (both traumatic and not) that don't have much of an impact by the end, while the others were even more marginal.
The fundamental problem with the plot was that it tried to do too much for its length. Emeuri is supposed to mingle on the fringes of high society, fall in love, join a rebellion, defeat the sovereign, and install a new government all in the span of 326 pages. As such, sequences that should have taken chapters and chapters to impact both the main characters and the readers are rushed through, which left me unsatisfied and unable to connect with much happening.
For the next section of the review, I will be going into spoilers regarding the second half of the book, even the climax of the story:
My first major issue with this book was that the goodreads blurb for the Kindle edition gave most of the story away. Instead of keeping it vague the last paragraph goes as far as saying that Emeuri's family is captured which happens in the last 20% of the book. While the book itself is formulaic and a captured family can be expected to a certain extent, putting it in the blurb robbed the story of its tension since I knew what was coming.
My second major issue is that the story lacks continuity during two glaring and very important scenes and here is where I'll be going into a lot of detail because if I caught this, an editor definitely should have:
- The first has to do with the plot twist. Within this society, twins are seen as abominations and the second one born gets banished to a wasteland to die. While Emeuri is training, she learns that her friend Kes was a twin and she also learns that Sovereign Beck was one. However, when the second leader of the rebellion is revealed to be the sovereign's twin, Emeuri doesn't remember what Kes told her and describes the encounter as if it was the very first time she's heard of the banished twin.
- The second has to do with a major character's death. While getting rescued, Moran dies from an arrow to the neck. It's written as a poignant scene where he says goodbye to his loved ones before passing. Later, when Emeuri remembers this she states he was killed from an arrow to the chest.
I'll admit I did skim parts of the book so there could be more continuity errors, but these two jumped out at me immediately, and they are both integral to the plot itself so they should have been caught.
A Knot of Lies and Rebellion by J. Collette Smith has an intriguing premise that overpromised and underdelivered. The book's flaws add up to an unsatisfying read while the glaring mistakes just left me with a bad impression overall.