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A review by crackedspines_
Girl With Three Eyes by Priya Ardis
4.0
OVERALL RATING: 4/5 stars! This is one of those books that objectively has a lot of flaws, but the story and characters are so good that they don't even matter. The story was entrancing and I was able to read it fairly quickly. It was an easy read, and I found myself getting so absorbed in it that I'd read for hours. I also loved the Indian rep! It's rare that I find an own voices book for that aspect of my identity.
PLOT: 4/5 stars. The plot was dark and twisty, and the stakes for our main character, Kira, got higher and higher. However, there were a few major events (mainly the attacks on the students) that felt a bit repetitive. The other problem was the way romance was hinted at and built up to, but there was no real "conclusion" for that part of the story. I am all fr a YA novel without romance, and especially in a book like this, it wouldn't have made sense to have a proper romance. But the buildup was confusing and misleading. Ultimately, though, I thought the plot was great.
STRUCTURE: 3.5/5 stars. I don't have much to say about the structure. The book was written chronologically, which made things clear and easy to understand. Details were revealed as the story progressed in a mostly natural way. Some of the writing was clunky and, again, repetitive at times.
WORLD-BUILDING: 4/5 stars. There were some aspects of the world-building that felt lazy, such as "ice cream" being called "creamy-ice," but only in very small areas. Other than that I loved the kingdom of Rajekstan. From what I can tell, Rajkestan is a dystopian India, and Ardis struck the perfect balance between it feeling familiar and like modern-day India and still being dystopian and vaguely unfamiliar and distorted.
THEME: 4/5 stars. Absolutely loved the concept and themes of the book, but my enjoyment was hindered by the heavy use of snowboarding terms that I am completely unfamiliar with. It was also unnecessarily confusing to call what were essentially snowboards with engines "skyboards," especially because skyboarding is a real activity.
CHARACTERS: 5/5 stars. Oh I LOVED these characters. I hated Trace, but I loved to hate him. And somehow by the end of the book I ended up kind of liking him?? His relationship with Kira was fun to read about. Trace reminds me a lot of Jacks from the Caraval trilogy. And of course Kira and Ajay! Loved reading their interactions too. I think if I had to pick a favorite character, though, I'd pick Sarita.
PLOT: 4/5 stars. The plot was dark and twisty, and the stakes for our main character, Kira, got higher and higher. However, there were a few major events
STRUCTURE: 3.5/5 stars. I don't have much to say about the structure. The book was written chronologically, which made things clear and easy to understand. Details were revealed as the story progressed in a mostly natural way. Some of the writing was clunky and, again, repetitive at times.
WORLD-BUILDING: 4/5 stars. There were some aspects of the world-building that felt lazy, such as "ice cream" being called "creamy-ice," but only in very small areas. Other than that I loved the kingdom of Rajekstan. From what I can tell, Rajkestan is a dystopian India, and Ardis struck the perfect balance between it feeling familiar and like modern-day India and still being dystopian and vaguely unfamiliar and distorted.
THEME: 4/5 stars. Absolutely loved the concept and themes of the book, but my enjoyment was hindered by the heavy use of snowboarding terms that I am completely unfamiliar with. It was also unnecessarily confusing to call what were essentially snowboards with engines "skyboards," especially because skyboarding is a real activity.
CHARACTERS: 5/5 stars. Oh I LOVED these characters. I hated Trace, but I loved to hate him. And somehow by the end of the book I ended up kind of liking him?? His relationship with Kira was fun to read about. Trace reminds me a lot of Jacks from the Caraval trilogy. And of course Kira and Ajay! Loved reading their interactions too. I think if I had to pick a favorite character, though, I'd pick Sarita.