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A review by ellemnope
The Goddess Twins by Yodassa Williams
2.0
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
For me, this is the case of a book that was not fleshed out enough or edited hard enough and was sent to publication too soon. It has a good premise and some good content for creating a solid magic system, but there were a lot of things that fell short.
Perhaps the biggest feeling on this one was that it felt like a YA novel shoved into a middle grade form. There wasn't enough nuance or subtlety to the writing, resulting in a plot that squeezed quite a bit into too few pages and didn't give enough to get me involved in the story. The writing did way too much telling instead of showing and a little additional description could have gone a long way. Similarly, there was a lot of info dumping rather than world-building that I think hurt how well this could have been put together. As a result, the characters felt flat and the pacing inconsistent. The bones are there, but the execution needed some nurturing.
Character development was a problem because it was lacking. What was present really just made me dislike the majority of the characters. Arden was the only one who really had any characteristics making her likable, but I didn't feel like I got to know her well enough to feel invested in any way. Because I didn't really care about the characters, I had a hard time caring about the story.
When it came to the story itself, I return the idea that this felt like a middle grade read in some ways. Dialogue was immature (sometimes in keeping with the characters, but sometimes just awkward) and inconsistent. One character's accented speech seemed to come and go with no explanation. Everything in the plot was overly convenient and there were little to no consequences for bad actions or choices. Even when characters did something stupid there seemed to be a silver lining so things worked out exactly how they wanted them too.
Given the potential for the storyline and an interesting world/series, I was very disappointed in this read.
For me, this is the case of a book that was not fleshed out enough or edited hard enough and was sent to publication too soon. It has a good premise and some good content for creating a solid magic system, but there were a lot of things that fell short.
Perhaps the biggest feeling on this one was that it felt like a YA novel shoved into a middle grade form. There wasn't enough nuance or subtlety to the writing, resulting in a plot that squeezed quite a bit into too few pages and didn't give enough to get me involved in the story. The writing did way too much telling instead of showing and a little additional description could have gone a long way. Similarly, there was a lot of info dumping rather than world-building that I think hurt how well this could have been put together. As a result, the characters felt flat and the pacing inconsistent. The bones are there, but the execution needed some nurturing.
Character development was a problem because it was lacking. What was present really just made me dislike the majority of the characters. Arden was the only one who really had any characteristics making her likable, but I didn't feel like I got to know her well enough to feel invested in any way. Because I didn't really care about the characters, I had a hard time caring about the story.
When it came to the story itself, I return the idea that this felt like a middle grade read in some ways. Dialogue was immature (sometimes in keeping with the characters, but sometimes just awkward) and inconsistent. One character's accented speech seemed to come and go with no explanation. Everything in the plot was overly convenient and there were little to no consequences for bad actions or choices. Even when characters did something stupid there seemed to be a silver lining so things worked out exactly how they wanted them too.
Given the potential for the storyline and an interesting world/series, I was very disappointed in this read.