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janyriy 's review for:
To Kill a Kingdom
by Alexandra Christo
2.4 ☆☆
Ok so, I had to write a little something because. Just because.
First, here's what I liked:
- How the siren society is depicted as cold, cruel and merciless
- I actually kinda liked Lira
- Sirens are cool
- I also like...the ocean
- How Elian got himself out of his marriage proposal, that was a nice twist
The book wasn't bad, it was certainly enjoyable, but I feel like it was trying a bit too hard to be beautiful and witty. And the prose was so fucking flowery at times, I had to read some sentences three times and they still didn't make any sense.
And I like some witty dialogue in my books, but there's just a point at which it becomes jarring. I don't think there was a single earnest conversation between any characters (speaking of characters, don't get me started on Elian's crew, apparently there were a hundred of them, but only like 3 mentioned by name and I kept mixing two of them up because none of them had any more personality than 'must protect the prince')
Also, the reason for the Sea Queen to turn Lira into a human was really lacking for me, mostly because from the blurb on the back I expected the whole story to turn out a bit differently.
Here's some other stuff:
- Lira drops that she's promised to a merman in the middle of the book, and suddenly said merman appears next chapter for no discernable reason but to let the reader know he's there and he's really bad. Like really.
- Lira becomes a sword fighting expert in 3 days (either that or everyone else is just really bad at it)
- The Sea Queen can hear everything that happens in the water, but for some reason doesn't hear how her niece and daughter are plotting against her.
- This is a book about sirens and the oceans, but they spend most of the book wanting to climb a mountain.
- The 100 kingdoms are super random and as deep as a shallow pool. There's a Kingdom of Love that is full of people selling sweets and shit, and a Kingdom of Thieves that is dark and grey, because thieves are evil and depressing. Also there's a Kingdom of Invention and they have drones and air ships and can repel sirens but aren't willing to help the other kingdoms??? Or at least sell them stuff for loads of money idk. Trade.
- Nobody takes Elian "The Great Siren Killer" seriously. Or his quest for that matter. Why is he doing this again?
-In the end all the sirens go from heart-collecting killers, brought up in an utterly cruel and brutal society to basically Ghandi and all the other kingdoms are like 'jup, these fish people can still render us useless with their song and their queen now has the power of a goddess basically, but we trust them now'
It was an ok read. I did enjoy myself and there were some genuinely beautiful parts in there, but man...can't really share the hype for this.
Ok so, I had to write a little something because. Just because.
First, here's what I liked:
- How the siren society is depicted as cold, cruel and merciless
- I actually kinda liked Lira
- Sirens are cool
- I also like...the ocean
- How Elian got himself out of his marriage proposal, that was a nice twist
The book wasn't bad, it was certainly enjoyable, but I feel like it was trying a bit too hard to be beautiful and witty. And the prose was so fucking flowery at times, I had to read some sentences three times and they still didn't make any sense.
And I like some witty dialogue in my books, but there's just a point at which it becomes jarring. I don't think there was a single earnest conversation between any characters (speaking of characters, don't get me started on Elian's crew, apparently there were a hundred of them, but only like 3 mentioned by name and I kept mixing two of them up because none of them had any more personality than 'must protect the prince')
Also, the reason for the Sea Queen to turn Lira into a human was really lacking for me, mostly because from the blurb on the back I expected the whole story to turn out a bit differently.
Here's some other stuff:
- Lira drops that she's promised to a merman in the middle of the book, and suddenly said merman appears next chapter for no discernable reason but to let the reader know he's there and he's really bad. Like really.
- Lira becomes a sword fighting expert in 3 days (either that or everyone else is just really bad at it)
- The Sea Queen can hear everything that happens in the water, but for some reason doesn't hear how her niece and daughter are plotting against her.
- This is a book about sirens and the oceans, but they spend most of the book wanting to climb a mountain.
- The 100 kingdoms are super random and as deep as a shallow pool. There's a Kingdom of Love that is full of people selling sweets and shit, and a Kingdom of Thieves that is dark and grey, because thieves are evil and depressing. Also there's a Kingdom of Invention and they have drones and air ships and can repel sirens but aren't willing to help the other kingdoms??? Or at least sell them stuff for loads of money idk. Trade.
- Nobody takes Elian "The Great Siren Killer" seriously. Or his quest for that matter. Why is he doing this again?
-In the end all the sirens go from heart-collecting killers, brought up in an utterly cruel and brutal society to basically Ghandi and all the other kingdoms are like 'jup, these fish people can still render us useless with their song and their queen now has the power of a goddess basically, but we trust them now'
It was an ok read. I did enjoy myself and there were some genuinely beautiful parts in there, but man...can't really share the hype for this.