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danielles_reads 's review for:
Loka
by S.B. Divya
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It pains me to give this book this low of a rating as I considered the previous book in this duology one of my favorite books I read in 2023. I'd say my actual enjoyment level was somewhere between a 1.5-2 but I have to give it slightly higher because the world building is amazing as always, and I loved the glimpses of Jayanthi's and Vaha's lives after the first book. And that's it. Other than liking some of the minor side characters (Somya was great), that's all the positive things I have to say about this book. I definitely would have DNFed this if I hadn't gotten my copy personally signed by the author... I had to finish it to see how it ended, and while the ending was nice, it didn't make up for the total slog I had to go through to get there.
The main character, Akshaya, is SOOOO ANNOYING. Holy shit. The author said in the acknowledgements that she wanted to capture the feeling of adolescence and I guess I would say that she captured it too well because Akshaya was the epitome of a teenager who thinks the entire world revolves around them, can't understand anyone else's point of view, and just wants to do the exact opposite of what their parents tell them to do. It was fucking exhausting and I really hated her so much. And considering that this book is (mostly) written in first person from Akshaya's point of view, it was so so tiring to read her constant complaining over and over and over again. I had actually written in my book notes 16% in "is she going to say that she belongs on Earth and not Meru for the entire book cause this is already annoying." And yep, she in fact did reference that for the entire book! Fantastic!
Speaking of POVs, there were a few chapters narrated from other characters' points of view. I did like the ones from Jayanthi and Vaha's of course since they were also POVs in the first book. But almost all of the ones from Reshyan and Nara's POVs felt extremely pointless. They were just showing the logistics of the filming of the show, and I just really don't care. What does the reader gain out of that? One chapter was interesting because it showed what the alloys consider a conflict of interest, but otherwise they were all just meh. And especially with thelast portion of the journey being shown live , which would have been way more fun and interesting if we had had to figure out what was happening along with Akshaya and crew rather than knowing ahead of time because of that other POV chapter. I also think these extra chapters took time away from interactions amongst the main characters that we really should have seen in order to add more depth to their personalities. A lot of the relationships felt very tell, and not show. I did not feel much of anything between Halli and Akshaya .
And the plot was so boring. SO BORING!! I mean, the entire plot of the book is just Akshaya and Somya traversing Earth. That's it. And the challenge they're doing is not really a formal challenge or anything since only one guy has ever done it. So they're not competing against anyone other than their own deadline (that they ignored anyway ). The only conflict is the people and environmental obstacles they meet along the way, which were never very interesting and were always solved so quickly and easily (Somya's broken ankle healed in only 34 days, which included weeks of zero treatment other than a splint... ok ) that the stakes felt soooo low. Then there was a drastic event that happened 78% through the book that should have been sad (Halli's death ) but I felt zero emotions because I was expecting that the author would solve it with some miracle like all the other struggles Akshaya experienced. When I finally realized that the author actually wasn't going to, the ramifications were pretty much solved. Okay.
Lastly, Divya had a writing tic all throughout this book that was really annoying. They kept describing characters' facial expressions or movements with a phrase saying exactly what they meant in italics. Like "we left Somya with an I-don't-like-this expression on their face" and "the doctor's expression said slightly-curious-and-concerned" and "with another be-careful look" and "she wore the expression that I called forced-reasonable face" and "Huy gave me a that's-impressive nod." Like seriously, that's five and nowhere near all the mentions! It's just lazy writing. Tell us what their faces / body language actually look like!! I don’t remember this in Divya’s other books so I feel like they were trying to show the mindset of a teenager, but as I've already established, I hate that. 🙃
So this is the third book I've read by the author now, and the ratings for all three are all over the place. Divya seems to be the kind of author with amazingly creative ideas, but with very uneven execution.
The main character, Akshaya, is SOOOO ANNOYING. Holy shit. The author said in the acknowledgements that she wanted to capture the feeling of adolescence and I guess I would say that she captured it too well because Akshaya was the epitome of a teenager who thinks the entire world revolves around them, can't understand anyone else's point of view, and just wants to do the exact opposite of what their parents tell them to do. It was fucking exhausting and I really hated her so much. And considering that this book is (mostly) written in first person from Akshaya's point of view, it was so so tiring to read her constant complaining over and over and over again. I had actually written in my book notes 16% in "is she going to say that she belongs on Earth and not Meru for the entire book cause this is already annoying." And yep, she in fact did reference that for the entire book! Fantastic!
Speaking of POVs, there were a few chapters narrated from other characters' points of view. I did like the ones from Jayanthi and Vaha's of course since they were also POVs in the first book. But almost all of the ones from Reshyan and Nara's POVs felt extremely pointless. They were just showing the logistics of the filming of the show, and I just really don't care. What does the reader gain out of that? One chapter was interesting because it showed what the alloys consider a conflict of interest, but otherwise they were all just meh. And especially with the
And the plot was so boring. SO BORING!! I mean, the entire plot of the book is just Akshaya and Somya traversing Earth. That's it. And the challenge they're doing is not really a formal challenge or anything since only one guy has ever done it. So they're not competing against anyone other than their own deadline (
Lastly, Divya had a writing tic all throughout this book that was really annoying. They kept describing characters' facial expressions or movements with a phrase saying exactly what they meant in italics. Like "we left Somya with an I-don't-like-this expression on their face" and "the doctor's expression said slightly-curious-and-concerned" and "with another be-careful look" and "she wore the expression that I called forced-reasonable face" and "Huy gave me a that's-impressive nod." Like seriously, that's five and nowhere near all the mentions! It's just lazy writing. Tell us what their faces / body language actually look like!! I don’t remember this in Divya’s other books so I feel like they were trying to show the mindset of a teenager, but as I've already established, I hate that. 🙃
So this is the third book I've read by the author now, and the ratings for all three are all over the place. Divya seems to be the kind of author with amazingly creative ideas, but with very uneven execution.