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A review by rat_fairy
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
3.0
this is a book i have a lot of thoughts on and massively respect, but ultimately one i had an incredibly hard time getting through and eventually had to skim the final 30%. didn’t want to dnf it, as:
•i adored the worldbuilding. this fantasy world Chandrasekera made fascinated me so much, and felt incredibly unique. i really wish that in the book, there had been a map of the supercontinent Jambu or even just Luriat itself so i could’ve gotten a sense of where places were (i also just love maps).
•on paper the plot is something i would massively enjoy. an urban fantasy about the son of a prophet figure, trained by his mother to kill him? i’d be down for that plot anytime.
i think what caused me to have such a hard time with this is the writing style (which is a problem i have with a lot of magical realism), where the writing is very vague and dreamlike. sadly thats just a style that almost never works for me.
i might pick this up again someday just because of the worldbuilding and to read that final 30% properly, but i could tell that finishing this was going to send me into a horrific reading slump.
•i adored the worldbuilding. this fantasy world Chandrasekera made fascinated me so much, and felt incredibly unique. i really wish that in the book, there had been a map of the supercontinent Jambu or even just Luriat itself so i could’ve gotten a sense of where places were (i also just love maps).
•on paper the plot is something i would massively enjoy. an urban fantasy about the son of a prophet figure, trained by his mother to kill him? i’d be down for that plot anytime.
i think what caused me to have such a hard time with this is the writing style (which is a problem i have with a lot of magical realism), where the writing is very vague and dreamlike. sadly thats just a style that almost never works for me.
i might pick this up again someday just because of the worldbuilding and to read that final 30% properly, but i could tell that finishing this was going to send me into a horrific reading slump.