A review by cgreenstein
Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

There was so much potential here, it could've been an adult Tamora Pierce book (or a normal Tamora Pierce book, because although this is marketed as romance, there is 0 romance, not even a kiss, not even romantic pining, so no explicit adult rating needed... There is way more romance in Tamora Pierce books than in this book, TBH), but the incredible world-building was dragged down by the author's decision to keep her readers and her main character almost entirely in the dark about everything. I'm okay with being thrown into the deep end of a fantasy world and having to find my footing as we go along to a certain extent, but that works only if I am given info that lets me make sense of what's going on, and there was a limited amount of that here. The main character was constantly asking for explanations, and all of the big people in charge kept saying "you are too ____ to know this" or "it's too dangerous to tell you" or "you should already know this, so I'm not going to bother explaining," which was incredibly frustrating. I think like half the dialogue was along these lines. The pacing was odd and uneven, as well, and then a lot of the language was pretty but just didn't make any sense. There was a whole thing about the power of names, which, great, but explain to me how that works in this world, please? And then not only was it never explained, but it was described around in these dramatic ways that fell flat because I didn't know enough about the world to know what the stakes of having someone's name were. Really wanted to like this, the author clearly has a powerhouse imagination, but the execution did not do it for me.
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