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mikabirb 's review for:
The Last Soldier of Nava
by Yejin Suh
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the author's debut novel and you can tell pretty easily in some parts, for example the worldbuilding is quite confusing at times and not properly explained. Sometimes character motivations aren't entirely clear or seem to change rapidly. But overall, I really liked this book and I'm maybe rating it a bit higher than I should for its potential because I really enjoyed it.
Because despite the flaws I mentioned the world of The Last Soldier of Nava is still fascinating and unique. It doesn't even need to be fleshed out more, just explained better. Shadow is a great protagonist as this reawakened almost mythical character from a thousand years ago, the Soldier. She's so powerful in that form but beneath it all she's just a girl who's looking for her own path and freedom and she makes mistakes and gets beaten up and isn't invincible. This made her way more interesting than I expected. She also works well with Scarlet who is so aloof and cold and cruel at first glance. They have an incredibly tense dynamic at first that slowly grows over the course of the book and them falling in love is very believable.
I also really liked the themes the book touched upon, like agency, responsibility, a hint of fantasy environmentalism with how the world was changing for the worse, being used by an abusive parent, revenge. Some of it could have been a little bit more focused to not make it seem as if the goals of characters like Scarlet changed out of nowhere, but overall I really loved the themes in this book.
Because despite the flaws I mentioned the world of The Last Soldier of Nava is still fascinating and unique. It doesn't even need to be fleshed out more, just explained better. Shadow is a great protagonist as this reawakened almost mythical character from a thousand years ago, the Soldier. She's so powerful in that form but beneath it all she's just a girl who's looking for her own path and freedom and she makes mistakes and gets beaten up and isn't invincible. This made her way more interesting than I expected. She also works well with Scarlet who is so aloof and cold and cruel at first glance. They have an incredibly tense dynamic at first that slowly grows over the course of the book and them falling in love is very believable.
I also really liked the themes the book touched upon, like agency, responsibility, a hint of fantasy environmentalism with how the world was changing for the worse, being used by an abusive parent, revenge. Some of it could have been a little bit more focused to not make it seem as if the goals of characters like Scarlet changed out of nowhere, but overall I really loved the themes in this book.
Something I also really liked was the way that trust was shown between Shadow and Scarlet by Shadow allowing Scarlet to awaken the Soldier and control her, willingly letting her wield that power and surrendering herself to Scarlet like that. I also really related hard at Shadow's surprise when Scarlet refuses the second time because she might die.
"She had not expected the value of her own life to matter, to be a factor. She hadn't even considered that it could hurt her, kill her.
It baffled her."
Shadow is just so used to being a weapon, to being used, to be wielded and controlled that she is so confused at someone not being willing to risk her life and I'm so down for a dynamic like that.
"She had not expected the value of her own life to matter, to be a factor. She hadn't even considered that it could hurt her, kill her.
It baffled her."
Shadow is just so used to being a weapon, to being used, to be wielded and controlled that she is so confused at someone not being willing to risk her life and I'm so down for a dynamic like that.