katie_a_la_frev 's review for:

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

4.0

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I enjoyed this book a lot, it made me feel many emotions, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the exploration of moral greyness and how there are more than two sides to any situation, the exploration of how much of you are in control of your own destiny, particularly in the face of literal future seers, and how just cause you can see the future doesn't mean you can change it, and also a consideration of who we are and what we can do with or without our memories. I enjoyed the plot and the twists and turns this story took (although part of me kinda wanted Cassa to kill the chancellor in a cathartic action, but also I like the prophecy defying action and I did like the discussion of who is Cassa without her revenge). I also loved all the main characters and how real they were, normally I get annoyed at YA "only the teen-agers do what is right" but in this book I enjoyed it because it justified it in a way that felt right to me, with the devastating crushing of a rebellion that drove these kids on while also breaking their parents, making the broken previous generation feel real. I also liked that they had conflicts of interests in terms of motivations, in terms of goals, in terms of what they were prepared to do, Vesper's moral conundrum felt very real. Similarly I liked the teenager-yness of the characters that just felt reminiscent of my own teenage years, alys' panic attacks and how paralysing they can be and yet , evanders crush on both Cassa and newt, the concept that you can break up with someone not because someone has done something wrong but because it wasn't quite right, and how you can still have feelings for the person but know you're happier now. This is a book that I really wish I'd read as a teenager tbh given its themes and characters, but I'm glad I read it now. It didn't grip me in s way some of my 5* have which is holding me back in terms of rating but I would gladly recommend it to anyone and everyone who asks me about it.