A review by calville
The Brilliant Death by A.R. Capetta

2.0

I so passionately wanted to like this book, but it just didn't happen for me, and I gave up at about 80% through. The characterization of the protagonist was just all over the place - for example, after SPOILERY BAD THING happens on the road to the capitol, one page--and one day--later, she's laughing and getting flirty with Love Interest and not thinking about SPOILERY BAD THING at all. She was also supposedly so devious, but her master plan boils down to: "You, get the guy drunk; you, stay out of the way; you, bring him over to the corner where I'll be chilling with a knife." Not exactly three-dimensional chess. And the gender-bendy stuff--which was this book's main selling point to me--was way below the sophistication or insight level that you'd see in good fanfiction or in, say, Ancillary Justice or The Bone Doll's Twin (which was written almost 20 years ago!). I would take a chance on this author's next series, but this one just did not work.