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A review by colo
Of Cages and Crowns by Brianna Joy Crump
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I think the book started out really strong and somewhere in the middle, the author lost herself. Like, I genuinely believe she didn’t know how to further along the story so she just came up with the whole traitor bit and ran with it. Personally, I think the whole traitor bit made the book worse because it literally steered the entire book in a bad direction. Also, the whole Larkin bit was so… why? It’s a good plot twist but it also kind of undermines the whole powerful and extremely evil queen thing they had going on with Viera. Like you spent the whole book convincing us that she was the mastermind behind everything only to… strip it away from her..? The way she was killed off was so unserious to me 😭😭
Also not explaining Larkin’s abilities was a big disservice as well. Idk. The book felt lost from the middle point to the end.
The insta love was also not that great. I understand the circumstances though. A young girl who’s never had any type of romance in her life meets a handsome guy who seems totally smitten with her? It’s easy to fall in love in a situation like that. It’s really easy to fall in love with somehow who only has eyes for you and seems to think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. For Cohen, he was smitten with a beautiful girl who saved him years ago. The insta love made sense in their case but I don’t think it helped the plot in any way.
I also think that the characters were flat. This book is so character driven but we don’t get to know the other characters outside the main 6-8 characters. I would’ve LOVED to see more of the other goddess touched girls. I would’ve LOVED IT! This entire plot (the Culling) only exists because of them so I was really disappointed when we didn’t get to see them more often.
It was hard to choose a side though. I can see and understand everyone’s point of view.
Also not explaining Larkin’s abilities was a big disservice as well. Idk. The book felt lost from the middle point to the end.
The insta love was also not that great. I understand the circumstances though. A young girl who’s never had any type of romance in her life meets a handsome guy who seems totally smitten with her? It’s easy to fall in love in a situation like that. It’s really easy to fall in love with somehow who only has eyes for you and seems to think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. For Cohen, he was smitten with a beautiful girl who saved him years ago. The insta love made sense in their case but I don’t think it helped the plot in any way.
I also think that the characters were flat. This book is so character driven but we don’t get to know the other characters outside the main 6-8 characters. I would’ve LOVED to see more of the other goddess touched girls. I would’ve LOVED IT! This entire plot (the Culling) only exists because of them so I was really disappointed when we didn’t get to see them more often.
It was hard to choose a side though. I can see and understand everyone’s point of view.