Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by elisesluiter
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Oh my god. Society is rotting.
I saw someone compare Silver Elite to what The Hunger Games would be if Katniss fell in love with a game maker, and that is objectively the most accurate take on this book. Please, god, may I never ever see a book advertised as a romantic/spicy dystopian ever again.
I can get behind reading as escapism, and I also love a book where I can giggle and have a fun time. But, this is not that.
Dystopian is not a genre you should be reading to turn your brain off and to escape from reality. All reading is inherently political, but dystopian specifically SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.
Silver Elite did not. Not only that, but it’s also poorly written, the characters are underdeveloped and their motivations are inconsistent, it is predictable, boring and is eerily similar to other popular books.
Shall we start with the characters?
Half-baked Katniss - sorry, I mean Wren (AKA Wratniss in my head) - has all the personality of a wet tissue. The author took all of the character flaws that make sense for Katniss, given she’s 16 and traumatised, then dialled it up to be unbearable, and gave them to a grown ass woman who has no reason to be acting like that. Wren is a selfish, heedlessly reckless, whiny, annoying, intolerable victim and I wished bad upon her for the whole book. She did not make one single good decision. Seriously, if there was a bad choice to be made, you could count on Wren to make it. Her recklessness is genuinely comical, and she does not think a single thing through.
Cross is a half-developed, inferior Xaden Riorson in a hat. He also actually uttered the phrase “I‘ve been a bad boy”, and if there were another star for this book to lose, it would have lost it for that. I had to close my kindle to go touch grass and spend some time longing for the sweet release of illiteracy.
Now the writing.
It is soulless, lifeless and flat. She constantly relies on telling rather than showing, and treats us like idiots who can’t see a square and put it in the square shaped hole. The worst part is that it wouldn’t even be a strain to connect the dots; as readers, we are capable of putting two and two together to make four when the entire book is completely predictable and just a regurgitated version of the same things we’ve already read.
I’m not making any accusations, but if it comes out that this was written by, or with the help of generative AI, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Let’s put aside the unoriginal tropes and characters that show up far too often in newer books, and the shameless similarities to Fourth Wing and The Hunger Games, then give the author the benefit of the doubt that AI hasn’t touched this. Even still, it’s plain bad!
I had so much FOMO, which was why I made my worst decision to date (really channeling Wratniss there) and paid $14.99 to read this. For the kindle copy. $15 is about 25 minutes of work for me, and this was absolutely *not* worth it. Side note, I hope the AI rumours aren’t true, because I would hate to pay for something that supports work being taken away from real authors, to instead publish soulless AI slop.
At least I’m free now 😌
I saw someone compare Silver Elite to what The Hunger Games would be if Katniss fell in love with a game maker, and that is objectively the most accurate take on this book. Please, god, may I never ever see a book advertised as a romantic/spicy dystopian ever again.
I can get behind reading as escapism, and I also love a book where I can giggle and have a fun time. But, this is not that.
Dystopian is not a genre you should be reading to turn your brain off and to escape from reality. All reading is inherently political, but dystopian specifically SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.
Silver Elite did not. Not only that, but it’s also poorly written, the characters are underdeveloped and their motivations are inconsistent, it is predictable, boring and is eerily similar to other popular books.
Shall we start with the characters?
Half-baked Katniss - sorry, I mean Wren (AKA Wratniss in my head) - has all the personality of a wet tissue. The author took all of the character flaws that make sense for Katniss, given she’s 16 and traumatised, then dialled it up to be unbearable, and gave them to a grown ass woman who has no reason to be acting like that. Wren is a selfish, heedlessly reckless, whiny, annoying, intolerable victim and I wished bad upon her for the whole book. She did not make one single good decision. Seriously, if there was a bad choice to be made, you could count on Wren to make it. Her recklessness is genuinely comical, and she does not think a single thing through.
Cross is a half-developed, inferior Xaden Riorson in a hat. He also actually uttered the phrase “I‘ve been a bad boy”, and if there were another star for this book to lose, it would have lost it for that. I had to close my kindle to go touch grass and spend some time longing for the sweet release of illiteracy.
Now the writing.
It is soulless, lifeless and flat. She constantly relies on telling rather than showing, and treats us like idiots who can’t see a square and put it in the square shaped hole. The worst part is that it wouldn’t even be a strain to connect the dots; as readers, we are capable of putting two and two together to make four when the entire book is completely predictable and just a regurgitated version of the same things we’ve already read.
I’m not making any accusations, but if it comes out that this was written by, or with the help of generative AI, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Let’s put aside the unoriginal tropes and characters that show up far too often in newer books, and the shameless similarities to Fourth Wing and The Hunger Games, then give the author the benefit of the doubt that AI hasn’t touched this. Even still, it’s plain bad!
I had so much FOMO, which was why I made my worst decision to date (really channeling Wratniss there) and paid $14.99 to read this. For the kindle copy. $15 is about 25 minutes of work for me, and this was absolutely *not* worth it. Side note, I hope the AI rumours aren’t true, because I would hate to pay for something that supports work being taken away from real authors, to instead publish soulless AI slop.
At least I’m free now 😌
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent
Minor: Mental illness, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis