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nonsensicaljourney 's review for:
The Crossing Gate
by Asiel R. Lavie
2.5 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley, Absolute Author Publishing House and the author for granting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was published on 4 January 2022.
I really wanted to like this book. I pushed through it for the better part of two months. But in the end, despite all its promise, it didn't end up going anywhere.
I have to start off by saying - I am not a young adult any more. There were just some things which personally annoyed me because they were so actively juvenile. But on the other hand, the point of the book was that the main character was stuck in her juvenile stage. So I put up with how little she knew, and how naiive she was. But when everything started escalating, and she had good reason to learn about the adult world, she seemed to learn so easily and suddenly she was savvy when she needed to be, and scared when she needed to be. It felt to me that the main character served the whim of the plot, and didn't have a story of her own.
This story had so much potential. The idea of the Crossing Gate and the system around it is very interesting, and so is the existence of a neo-ancient-Greek and neo-Roman empire. Unfortunately the background plot unfolded very quickly at about 3/4 of the way through the novel, and it all conveniently helped the main character to understand her place in life and not confront her problems or mistakes. The main character consistently suffered very few consequences, and was thrown around by all the other characters in the plot. It was very frustrating just watching her react to everything, and never really do anything actively herself. There was also something about the way the book was written that failed to get inside her head.
I was intrigued by the beginning, and the totalitarian nature of the world. I started getting frustrated with the character's illogical "adult love", and then when everything started falling in on the main character, I followed her along. But not at any point was I compelled by her story. I wish I had been, because I really wanted to like her. I finished the book unsure if she had actually changed at all.
Thank you to NetGalley, Absolute Author Publishing House and the author for granting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was published on 4 January 2022.
I really wanted to like this book. I pushed through it for the better part of two months. But in the end, despite all its promise, it didn't end up going anywhere.
I have to start off by saying - I am not a young adult any more. There were just some things which personally annoyed me because they were so actively juvenile. But on the other hand, the point of the book was that the main character was stuck in her juvenile stage. So I put up with how little she knew, and how naiive she was. But when everything started escalating, and she had good reason to learn about the adult world, she seemed to learn so easily and suddenly she was savvy when she needed to be, and scared when she needed to be. It felt to me that the main character served the whim of the plot, and didn't have a story of her own.
This story had so much potential. The idea of the Crossing Gate and the system around it is very interesting, and so is the existence of a neo-ancient-Greek and neo-Roman empire. Unfortunately the background plot unfolded very quickly at about 3/4 of the way through the novel, and it all conveniently helped the main character to understand her place in life and not confront her problems or mistakes. The main character consistently suffered very few consequences, and was thrown around by all the other characters in the plot. It was very frustrating just watching her react to everything, and never really do anything actively herself. There was also something about the way the book was written that failed to get inside her head.
I was intrigued by the beginning, and the totalitarian nature of the world. I started getting frustrated with the character's illogical "adult love", and then when everything started falling in on the main character, I followed her along. But not at any point was I compelled by her story. I wish I had been, because I really wanted to like her. I finished the book unsure if she had actually changed at all.