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A review by thepastelnerd
Sacrifice by Vicky Walklate
Did not finish book.
DNF at 43%.
TLDR: The fantasy elements are interesting, but it's hugely overshadowed by a romance that isn't even a romance. It's straight up insta-lust.
Thank you to the author for giving me a free ebook version in exchange for an honest review. I really tried to keep going and finish the book to honor her gift, but since a main element of the story is so off putting to me that I don't intend on finishing or keeping my copy of the book, I'm giving it one star.
Ok. So. The setup of the story is that Libby, our protagonist, is unwillingly chosen to be sacrificed to the three gods (who are brothers) of the land in order to renew their power. During the ritual, one of the gods suddenly goes mad and kills the youngest brother while severely injuring the oldest. The guards help the oldest brother and Libby escape to the mountains, where they learn demons are invading the land for the first time in millennia. Subsequently, they set out on a journey to find the priests who selected Libby for the sacrifice and find out why the ritual went so wrong. The plan is for the oldest god to then complete the ritual to renew his power so he can save everybody.
This god is the other protagonist, Rhetann. Remember, he's severely injured by his brother's hand after watching him go mad and kill their youngest sibling after 2,000 years of being with each other. He's in hiding and his people are being attacked all around by enemies he hasn't had to deal with for those 2,000 years. He still needs to kill Libby to fix everything. So what does he keep thinking about?
How much he wants to bang her.
I'm not kidding.
To (unsuccessfully) resist his feelings, he declares she's a powerful manipulator who only wants to seduce him so he'll spare her life.
And Libby, learning this after some intense kissing, still (presumably since this is a romance) accepts his advances further into the novel! WHAT!?
In the eternal words of Ron Weasley, they "REALLY need to sort out their priorities."
Basically, the foundations of their relationship are attempted murder, further intent to murder, sexism, and lust. And even though I didn't even get halfway through, I really didn't want to continue knowing their relationship was going to. Even without the murder and ritual sacrifice, a relationship built solely on lust while wrapped in sexism should not be portrayed as desirable. In real life, it often leads to a toxic relationship and abuse.
The romance would have made much more sense if it was a much slower enemies-to-unlikely-friends-to-lovers build. That would have given more needed time for the characters to be developed (both mains feel pretty unoriginal to be brutally honest, which is why I haven't said much about else them). I also didn't appreciate the frequent strong language, although I know others wouldn't mind it at all.
Some good points include a legitimately interesting fantasy system. I actually really enjoyed the idea of a world where turning into a dragon/other animal is a normal part of society, and these ideas are impressively original and well thought out. And although the violence and intimacy levels are something I'm not really comfortable with, I also appreciate the inclusion of content warnings so that I partially knew what to expect going in. Content warnings show a lot of respect for your readers' mental health and I wish more books had them. Again, I am genuinely grateful to the author for being among the first to give me a free copy of their book to honestly review.
But nothing about the romance was appealing to me and I just couldn't get past that.
TLDR: The fantasy elements are interesting, but it's hugely overshadowed by a romance that isn't even a romance. It's straight up insta-lust.
Thank you to the author for giving me a free ebook version in exchange for an honest review. I really tried to keep going and finish the book to honor her gift, but since a main element of the story is so off putting to me that I don't intend on finishing or keeping my copy of the book, I'm giving it one star.
Ok. So. The setup of the story is that Libby, our protagonist, is unwillingly chosen to be sacrificed to the three gods (who are brothers) of the land in order to renew their power. During the ritual, one of the gods suddenly goes mad and kills the youngest brother while severely injuring the oldest. The guards help the oldest brother and Libby escape to the mountains, where they learn demons are invading the land for the first time in millennia. Subsequently, they set out on a journey to find the priests who selected Libby for the sacrifice and find out why the ritual went so wrong. The plan is for the oldest god to then complete the ritual to renew his power so he can save everybody.
This god is the other protagonist, Rhetann. Remember, he's severely injured by his brother's hand after watching him go mad and kill their youngest sibling after 2,000 years of being with each other. He's in hiding and his people are being attacked all around by enemies he hasn't had to deal with for those 2,000 years. He still needs to kill Libby to fix everything. So what does he keep thinking about?
How much he wants to bang her.
I'm not kidding.
To (unsuccessfully) resist his feelings, he declares she's a powerful manipulator who only wants to seduce him so he'll spare her life.
And Libby, learning this after some intense kissing, still (presumably since this is a romance) accepts his advances further into the novel! WHAT!?
In the eternal words of Ron Weasley, they "REALLY need to sort out their priorities."
Basically, the foundations of their relationship are attempted murder, further intent to murder, sexism, and lust. And even though I didn't even get halfway through, I really didn't want to continue knowing their relationship was going to. Even without the murder and ritual sacrifice, a relationship built solely on lust while wrapped in sexism should not be portrayed as desirable. In real life, it often leads to a toxic relationship and abuse.
The romance would have made much more sense if it was a much slower enemies-to-unlikely-friends-to-lovers build. That would have given more needed time for the characters to be developed (both mains feel pretty unoriginal to be brutally honest, which is why I haven't said much about else them). I also didn't appreciate the frequent strong language, although I know others wouldn't mind it at all.
Some good points include a legitimately interesting fantasy system. I actually really enjoyed the idea of a world where turning into a dragon/other animal is a normal part of society, and these ideas are impressively original and well thought out. And although the violence and intimacy levels are something I'm not really comfortable with, I also appreciate the inclusion of content warnings so that I partially knew what to expect going in. Content warnings show a lot of respect for your readers' mental health and I wish more books had them. Again, I am genuinely grateful to the author for being among the first to give me a free copy of their book to honestly review.
But nothing about the romance was appealing to me and I just couldn't get past that.