A review by crufts
All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

For generations the Montara family has ruled over the archipelago kingdom of Visidia, wielding the soul magic that is their birthright.
But when the young Princess Amora steps up for the crowning test of her soul magic, disaster strikes and Amora is forced to flee her home. Befriending a pirate and sailing amongst the islands of Visidia, can she uncover the curse that plagues her family?

The book was okay. I definitely liked the premise and fantasy aspects, with the chain of magic islands and their magical specialties. The mermaid character was also great and lived up to the fantastical and terrifying legends.
I also felt that the expectations set up at the beginning of the book are satisfactorily addressed by the end. For example, at the beginning of the book when we hear the
glorified children's story about the founding of the kingdom
, it is obviously false and we expect to see this revealed at some point. This does indeed happen by the end of the novel.
Finally, I thought the way the Big Bad was approached was quite interesting, as
even though his motivations were revealed as good, Amora was still not satisfied with his plans, refused to concede to him, and is determined to lead the kingdom in her own way
.

In terms of pacing, it was perfect. I always felt the plot moved at a good speed and that things were happening on time.

Character-wise, I initially liked Amora. She's not a stereotypical delicate waif princess; instead, she is physically strong, brave, and her dedication to saving her kingdom is endearing.
However, I started getting annoyed with her in certain scenes, such as
when Bastian reveals that Kaven is his brother, and she sanctimoniously tells him "I forgive you". It was Bastian's choice as to whether or not to reveal this - what on earth is she forgiving him for?

Amora was so comfortable pulling rank as princess that she had no qualms about acting coldly towards her subjects, e.g.
during her arguments with Ferrick and Bastian
. It didn't seem like she grew as a person during the novel; she merely learned more backstory about her kingdom and family. It was the same Amora who took her crowning test at the start of the novel, and who
had her coronation
at the end of the novel.

I also had trouble with the flowery writing style. There are a lot of protracted internal dialogues and descriptions, most of which I ended up skimming over. Some dialogue is also rather melodramatic and over-the-top, e.g.
during Bastian's confession, when he's saying "I don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't deserve anyone's" despite the fact that he did nothing wrong
.
Another issue was the way the author continually used the names of gems when referring to colours. This led to misunderstandings where I first thought people were actually bedecked in gems, when they were just wearing coloured clothes. For example:
A man in amethyst lunges for us ...
a time-wielding Ker in deep amethyst
When something is "in [gem]" (like "in amber"), it means it is physically embedded in a chunk of the gem. But the author only meant that these people are wearing purple clothes. And again, later:
The crowd before us is a shifting wave of black, pinks and reds, greens and blues--and even white--that stills as we approach. But there's no amethyst.
The word is "purple". But the same problem occurs with other colours, too:
A woman ... dons a Suntosan emerald cape
The word is "green" - the cape was not emerald, or it would be heavy and would be crunching as it moved. (An alternate wording that fixes the problem would be a Suntosan cape of emerald cloth.)
A little blond girl ... singes the edge of her ruby shawl.
The word is "red". The shawl is not ruby, or it would have been impossible to singe it. (Alternate wording: ruby-coloured shawl.)
If the author simply wanted to use some more interesting words for these colours, some alternate options are charcoal, slate-grey, crimson, vermillion, golden, verdigris-green, sky-blue, lavender, periwinkle, azure, bone-white, cerise, nut-brown, etc.

The conclusion of the book was rather jarring since it ends in a series of sudden twists, reveals, and changes. We're talking 10+ twists, e.g.
Bastian is now the curse object for Amora's soul, King Audric suddenly has the ability to use his soul magic to create a "soul room" to speak to Amora, Ferrick has stopped pining over Amora within the span of a few days, Amora has changed her mind about revealing the truth to her kingdom and is content to keep secrets from them, etc
. This was too much to jam into the end of the novel and felt like it could have been saved for the sequel.

Despite my complaints, the overall aesthetic of the book is very Young Adult, it's a decent YA setup, and YA fans will probably enjoy it regardless. At times it feels like a dozen YA tropes blended into one novel, but if you enjoy YA tropes, that's not a bad thing.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings