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A review by lunelis
A Mortal Song by Megan Crewe
5.0
Overall, my opinions of this book are pretty positive. I went into it with a little hesitation and fear; I've known many novels set in Eastern Asia with Asian protagonists that are written by non-Asians that ended up floundering because of a lack of research or were flat out disrespectful. While it's obvious to me that this wasn't written by a Japanese person, I overall felt like the author was quite respectful and did a lot of research. Despite my initial reservations, this was a good read.
The pacing of the book is pretty fast after chapter 9; before then it's a little slow even though the author launches us into an attack and prophecy right away, so if the initial pacing curbs your interest just give it a little time. Soon it'll start speeding past. There was a good balance between plot development and character development; the story never strays far from focusing on the goals at hand, even when it's giving Sora time to have her moments of emotional turmoil while she figures out who she is and what she wants. I found the side characters interesting, to say the least, and I like that there was a little dash of romance in the book. It sort of felt like a balm to all of Sora's wounds to be liked as she was by someone, especially considering she battled with feeling lesser for being human.
Since this is a standalone, the plot is pretty straightforward, but I felt like there was a lot of substance packed amongst the skeleton of major plot points. There were lots of minor characters, lots of smaller events, some twists and turns, lots of time spent learning about Sora's thoughts/feelings... it was a pretty good little read! My only complaint would be perhaps that the big finale wasn't especially grand. But since this is a standalone and clearly YA, having a more feel-good ending instead of some epic, bloody battle full of causalities feels much more appropriate.
For anyone interested, this book is overall pretty clean. The violence and themes aren't especially graphic or intense, and the romance is a mild and chaste, with only some emotional gunk about forgiveness and understanding being the only "mature" content about it, resulting in more of a fumbling, smiling crush situation with a few brief, sweet kisses than anything beyond that. I didn't notice any problematic content.
While I wouldn't say this is the most titillating or intellectual piece of literature, it has a lot of merits and I see no major fault in it. The idea was interesting, the focus on the "non Chosen One" was a good move, and it made for a quick but enjoyable read that I polished off in a few hours in a single sitting.
*Also, I wish to make it known that I was provided with a free digital copy of this book from Net Galley, but I assure you in no way did that affect my review. No amount of free stuff is going to rid me of my opinions or make me lie. Many a free Kindle book that I've torn apart with a review can attest to that fact, so please read this review with confidence about my honesty.*
The pacing of the book is pretty fast after chapter 9; before then it's a little slow even though the author launches us into an attack and prophecy right away, so if the initial pacing curbs your interest just give it a little time. Soon it'll start speeding past. There was a good balance between plot development and character development; the story never strays far from focusing on the goals at hand, even when it's giving Sora time to have her moments of emotional turmoil while she figures out who she is and what she wants. I found the side characters interesting, to say the least, and I like that there was a little dash of romance in the book. It sort of felt like a balm to all of Sora's wounds to be liked as she was by someone, especially considering she battled with feeling lesser for being human.
Since this is a standalone, the plot is pretty straightforward, but I felt like there was a lot of substance packed amongst the skeleton of major plot points. There were lots of minor characters, lots of smaller events, some twists and turns, lots of time spent learning about Sora's thoughts/feelings... it was a pretty good little read! My only complaint would be perhaps that the big finale wasn't especially grand. But since this is a standalone and clearly YA, having a more feel-good ending instead of some epic, bloody battle full of causalities feels much more appropriate.
For anyone interested, this book is overall pretty clean. The violence and themes aren't especially graphic or intense, and the romance is a mild and chaste, with only some emotional gunk about forgiveness and understanding being the only "mature" content about it, resulting in more of a fumbling, smiling crush situation with a few brief, sweet kisses than anything beyond that. I didn't notice any problematic content.
While I wouldn't say this is the most titillating or intellectual piece of literature, it has a lot of merits and I see no major fault in it. The idea was interesting, the focus on the "non Chosen One" was a good move, and it made for a quick but enjoyable read that I polished off in a few hours in a single sitting.
*Also, I wish to make it known that I was provided with a free digital copy of this book from Net Galley, but I assure you in no way did that affect my review. No amount of free stuff is going to rid me of my opinions or make me lie. Many a free Kindle book that I've torn apart with a review can attest to that fact, so please read this review with confidence about my honesty.*