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A review by whitneymouse
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
2.0
Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my opinion of the book.
So I was under the impression this was going to be kind of like Phantom of the Opera and kind of like Six of Crows. There's a mystery that needs solving and there's a team of people who each have their own secrets, but their own skills to help get the job done. I liked both of those books and I've seen this book hyped a lot by others who had read it. I was excited. I COMPLETELY missed the review from Claire Legrand comparing it to Caraval. I would've had much different expectations had I seen that.
Where Dreams Descend is mostly about a magician named Kallia, a powerful female magician who wants to prove herself on stage. She goes to the lost city of Glorian to compete in a magic competition where she meets Daron Demarco, a famous magician and judge who has a dark past. As the competition starts, unfortunate "accidents" start befalling the contestants and it's up to Kallia and Demarco to try and stop it.
First off, this book took me THREE MONTHS to get through. I was that disengaged. Every time I picked it up, I'd get a little further and then put it down again. I finally said enough's enough and forced myself to finish it. I was very bored in a book about magic and magical accidents. That should be near impossible for me. I love Fantasy books. Most of that is due to the characters. I just didn't really care about them or their goals.
-Kallia is a stereotypical "headstrong female lead" who's kind of abrasive but you know it's to hide that she's vulnerable underneath the shell. She bends the rules a lot and then gets upset when people call her out on it.
-Demarco has this secret for nearly the whole book. You can figure out what it is and who it involves pretty early on, so it's frustrating from a reader standpoint to wait until over 80% of the book is done for him to FINALLY confirm what you already knew forever ago.
-The judges of the competition, minus Demarco and another judge named Erasmus, are almost comically sexist. Like the sexist version of a mustache twirling villain who puts damsels on train tracks. Every time Kallia performs, she way outdoes the other contestants (all men) and the other judges are like "WHAT?! a WOMAN?! Performing MAGIC?!?! *clutches pearls*". It gets tedious the longer that shtick goes on. You'd think at SOME point, her talent would show them they should rethink their preconceived notions, but then we can't have it hammered over our heads that women can't be stage magicians and should be assistants, but KALLIA is a FEMALE MAGICIAN with a MALE ASSISTANT! CRAZY! Also, they make a big deal of Kallia bending the rules and call her out for "cheating", but then they blatantly cheat left and right and write it off because it's of benefit to the male contestants. They don't really have character traits other than "sexist".
-There's also Jack, who is Kallia's teacher and the "Phantom" character. His big twist comes way too late in the book and before that, he's pretty much just the Phantom of the Alastor Place instead of the Opera. If you've seen or read Phantom, you'll see the similarities very quickly.
It definitely reminded me of Caraval in that the magic system was kind of random, it wasn't really explained how it works, and characters shrug off any irregularities. For example, "The cane must've been riddled with all sorts of tailoring gear somehow". This is something Stephanie Garber did, too, and it drove me nuts. The word "somehow" should not show up in reference to the magic system of your world. It sounds like even you don't know how it works. YOU created it. You should know how everything in the world works and be able to explain it. She also does that thing Garber does where the metaphors are nonsensical. For example, "falling like wishes granted". I feel like she meant to evoke a falling star here, but it sounds very flowery for the sake of being flowery and doesn't really make sense. I feel like if you REALLY loved Caraval, this is for you. I didn't, so I was irritated with this.
I know this is a duology, but the ending left a LOT open and a lot of loose threads. By the time some of the "secrets" you're waiting for are revealed, I didn't care about them anymore, so I most likely won't read book two to find out what happens. There are new characters introduced with less than 20% of the book left, which left me wondering why instead of just saving them for the second book.
The one saving grace of this book was Kallia's stage assistant, Aaros. Aaros is a cinnamon roll and needs to be protected at all costs! He's very funny and protective. He's a great friend to Kallia. I loved him. He was the only character I really cared about and I wish there had been more of him. I understand this wasn't really possible because they have to work in that love story. However, I would read a book just about Aaros and his life before he got dragged into this mess. One star just for Aaros.
All in all, if you liked Caraval, then you will probably love this. It just wasn't for me.
So I was under the impression this was going to be kind of like Phantom of the Opera and kind of like Six of Crows. There's a mystery that needs solving and there's a team of people who each have their own secrets, but their own skills to help get the job done. I liked both of those books and I've seen this book hyped a lot by others who had read it. I was excited. I COMPLETELY missed the review from Claire Legrand comparing it to Caraval. I would've had much different expectations had I seen that.
Where Dreams Descend is mostly about a magician named Kallia, a powerful female magician who wants to prove herself on stage. She goes to the lost city of Glorian to compete in a magic competition where she meets Daron Demarco, a famous magician and judge who has a dark past. As the competition starts, unfortunate "accidents" start befalling the contestants and it's up to Kallia and Demarco to try and stop it.
First off, this book took me THREE MONTHS to get through. I was that disengaged. Every time I picked it up, I'd get a little further and then put it down again. I finally said enough's enough and forced myself to finish it. I was very bored in a book about magic and magical accidents. That should be near impossible for me. I love Fantasy books. Most of that is due to the characters. I just didn't really care about them or their goals.
-Kallia is a stereotypical "headstrong female lead" who's kind of abrasive but you know it's to hide that she's vulnerable underneath the shell. She bends the rules a lot and then gets upset when people call her out on it.
-Demarco has this secret for nearly the whole book. You can figure out what it is and who it involves pretty early on, so it's frustrating from a reader standpoint to wait until over 80% of the book is done for him to FINALLY confirm what you already knew forever ago.
-The judges of the competition, minus Demarco and another judge named Erasmus, are almost comically sexist. Like the sexist version of a mustache twirling villain who puts damsels on train tracks. Every time Kallia performs, she way outdoes the other contestants (all men) and the other judges are like "WHAT?! a WOMAN?! Performing MAGIC?!?! *clutches pearls*". It gets tedious the longer that shtick goes on. You'd think at SOME point, her talent would show them they should rethink their preconceived notions, but then we can't have it hammered over our heads that women can't be stage magicians and should be assistants, but KALLIA is a FEMALE MAGICIAN with a MALE ASSISTANT! CRAZY! Also, they make a big deal of Kallia bending the rules and call her out for "cheating", but then they blatantly cheat left and right and write it off because it's of benefit to the male contestants. They don't really have character traits other than "sexist".
-There's also Jack, who is Kallia's teacher and the "Phantom" character. His big twist comes way too late in the book and before that, he's pretty much just the Phantom of the Alastor Place instead of the Opera. If you've seen or read Phantom, you'll see the similarities very quickly.
It definitely reminded me of Caraval in that the magic system was kind of random, it wasn't really explained how it works, and characters shrug off any irregularities. For example, "The cane must've been riddled with all sorts of tailoring gear somehow". This is something Stephanie Garber did, too, and it drove me nuts. The word "somehow" should not show up in reference to the magic system of your world. It sounds like even you don't know how it works. YOU created it. You should know how everything in the world works and be able to explain it. She also does that thing Garber does where the metaphors are nonsensical. For example, "falling like wishes granted". I feel like she meant to evoke a falling star here, but it sounds very flowery for the sake of being flowery and doesn't really make sense. I feel like if you REALLY loved Caraval, this is for you. I didn't, so I was irritated with this.
I know this is a duology, but the ending left a LOT open and a lot of loose threads. By the time some of the "secrets" you're waiting for are revealed, I didn't care about them anymore, so I most likely won't read book two to find out what happens. There are new characters introduced with less than 20% of the book left, which left me wondering why instead of just saving them for the second book.
The one saving grace of this book was Kallia's stage assistant, Aaros. Aaros is a cinnamon roll and needs to be protected at all costs! He's very funny and protective. He's a great friend to Kallia. I loved him. He was the only character I really cared about and I wish there had been more of him. I understand this wasn't really possible because they have to work in that love story. However, I would read a book just about Aaros and his life before he got dragged into this mess. One star just for Aaros.
All in all, if you liked Caraval, then you will probably love this. It just wasn't for me.