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A review by abbysbookishthings
The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel
1.0
The romance was eh, felt like it was just there so that someone could call this book romance. The weird start of a love triangle/cheating was so unnecessary and not well done, like it was just all the sudden Alexander cheated on her for no reason? And we only find out right before that that the woman he cheating with had a crush on him. We don’t see the signs of her crush, we hear someone else tell our main character about it.
The part with the dad was also so separated, the parts with the nuns was interesting, but it felt like a completely separate story that was just like a side bar for a chapter or two, like an episode of a tv show that has a filler episode about a random character right after a cliffhanger( I’m looking at you The Walking Dead). the part with the dad didn’t need to be included, it was really just a plot device to have some third act conflict with her getting shot and that fake out about her dying was awful. That’s just one of my personal pet peeves with books, don’t fake out killing the main character for drama, just have the guts to actually kill the main character or don’t do it at all.
The drama/ sexism between the women in this book felt so wrong. Like the first family Yona helps. She nurses the child and father back to health, saves their lives then the mother is mad and makes them leave because she thinks Yona is trying to seduce her husband. I’m sorry, WHAT? Like so unnecessary, then it mentioned that if the mom didn’t make them leave they would still be alive and its basically all blamed on the mom that their dead. People are literally hunting you, and you take your family away from the one person that has literally saved your lives because you have a feeling that your husband likes her? Like this is a life or death scenario and it just felt like a way for the author to but baggage on Yona, because she constantly thinks about how “she killed them” but she literally did nothing wrong, if you want your character to have emotions like that they actually make them accountable for a characters death. It just felt like another way to make Yona this Mary Jane type character who is so much better than the other people (especially women) around her. And then Alexander and his lover yelling at Yona (separately) because “she’s not one of them” and “she’s not in charge,” like I’m sorry but didn’t she just save your asses, like seriously so unnecessary and it honestly comes out of no where.
The magic part was stupid, it was like the author forgot about it half way through. In the beginning Yonas all like “U can’t do that something bad will happen, I just know” while she like has premonitions or something but then all that is gone half way through. She doesn’t sense Alexander is cheating on her, doesn’t sense the nuns dying, doesn’t sense her father coming after her in the woods for MONTHS. Half of this book is just plot device and cliche over and over again.
Honestly the authors note was the best part of the book, it was the most well written and interesting, but it was also a little bit two long(like why do I need to know the type of bark they should build their shelters with). I can see what the author was trying to do with this story but it just didn’t work for me personally. The writing was bad the story was slow and lazy.
The part with the dad was also so separated, the parts with the nuns was interesting, but it felt like a completely separate story that was just like a side bar for a chapter or two, like an episode of a tv show that has a filler episode about a random character right after a cliffhanger( I’m looking at you The Walking Dead). the part with the dad didn’t need to be included, it was really just a plot device to have some third act conflict with her getting shot and that fake out about her dying was awful. That’s just one of my personal pet peeves with books, don’t fake out killing the main character for drama, just have the guts to actually kill the main character or don’t do it at all.
The drama/ sexism between the women in this book felt so wrong. Like the first family Yona helps. She nurses the child and father back to health, saves their lives then the mother is mad and makes them leave because she thinks Yona is trying to seduce her husband. I’m sorry, WHAT? Like so unnecessary, then it mentioned that if the mom didn’t make them leave they would still be alive and its basically all blamed on the mom that their dead. People are literally hunting you, and you take your family away from the one person that has literally saved your lives because you have a feeling that your husband likes her? Like this is a life or death scenario and it just felt like a way for the author to but baggage on Yona, because she constantly thinks about how “she killed them” but she literally did nothing wrong, if you want your character to have emotions like that they actually make them accountable for a characters death. It just felt like another way to make Yona this Mary Jane type character who is so much better than the other people (especially women) around her. And then Alexander and his lover yelling at Yona (separately) because “she’s not one of them” and “she’s not in charge,” like I’m sorry but didn’t she just save your asses, like seriously so unnecessary and it honestly comes out of no where.
The magic part was stupid, it was like the author forgot about it half way through. In the beginning Yonas all like “U can’t do that something bad will happen, I just know” while she like has premonitions or something but then all that is gone half way through. She doesn’t sense Alexander is cheating on her, doesn’t sense the nuns dying, doesn’t sense her father coming after her in the woods for MONTHS. Half of this book is just plot device and cliche over and over again.
Honestly the authors note was the best part of the book, it was the most well written and interesting, but it was also a little bit two long(like why do I need to know the type of bark they should build their shelters with). I can see what the author was trying to do with this story but it just didn’t work for me personally. The writing was bad the story was slow and lazy.