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A review by scrollsofdragons
The Waking Land by Callie Bates
1.0
Romance - 1 Insta love, plain and simple. Also gag worthy.
Originality - 1.5 A lot of it was the typical stuff and nothing much new was brought to the table.
Plot - 2 Would have worked much better had the protagonist not be the only narrator.
Characters - 1 Not one stood out.
Enjoyability - 2 There were a few dull parts but it kept my interest somewhat.
Writing - 2 Just okay. Nothing special.
World Building - 2 Subpar world, I liked the land and nature having this great power but other then that nothing else was given much thought, just the run of the mill medieval fantasy world.
For a total of 1.64 so round to 1.5.
So the main character. One minute she's all like my hometown is evil yet it doesn't take her long to change her mind. I expected her to hold on to her values for just a bit longer. It was constant, her changing her mind.
First she doesn't want to use her magic but then doesn't protest the next second. One sec, this person's evil then it's oh no this person is actually good. On the way to the kingdom she puts her foot down and says there is no way I am coming but then for no reason whatsoever, like one of the dudes taking her there reminds her of this story she used to know and then she's alright with going just like that. Who can change their opinion that quickly? It's just not natural how quickly she changes. And she's always repeating herself.
She's back and forth, back and forth all the time and it's so annoying. Plus she just goes along with shit so easily. And beyond that, she's just as dull as the rest of the cast.
The plot really could have been seen better through other eyes as Elanna's monologue fills up more pages then anything else and her mind is not a place I like to be stuck in. One point I didn't get was how her hometown were perceived as backwards people because there was zero difference other then how they felt about magic between the two nations, all of the nations were backwards in their beliefs. Also visually, nothing felt different between any of the places, they were all so similar. As for the mountain people, they were the only original thing there.
The romance is just cliché as all insta love romance is. I see no reason why they even love one another, they barely got to know one another before they're confessing love. And when they have zero chemistry too, it's just bad.
Originality - 1.5 A lot of it was the typical stuff and nothing much new was brought to the table.
Plot - 2 Would have worked much better had the protagonist not be the only narrator.
Characters - 1 Not one stood out.
Enjoyability - 2 There were a few dull parts but it kept my interest somewhat.
Writing - 2 Just okay. Nothing special.
World Building - 2 Subpar world, I liked the land and nature having this great power but other then that nothing else was given much thought, just the run of the mill medieval fantasy world.
For a total of 1.64 so round to 1.5.
So the main character. One minute she's all like my hometown is evil yet it doesn't take her long to change her mind. I expected her to hold on to her values for just a bit longer. It was constant, her changing her mind.
First she doesn't want to use her magic but then doesn't protest the next second. One sec, this person's evil then it's oh no this person is actually good. On the way to the kingdom she puts her foot down and says there is no way I am coming but then for no reason whatsoever, like one of the dudes taking her there reminds her of this story she used to know and then she's alright with going just like that. Who can change their opinion that quickly? It's just not natural how quickly she changes. And she's always repeating herself.
She's back and forth, back and forth all the time and it's so annoying. Plus she just goes along with shit so easily. And beyond that, she's just as dull as the rest of the cast.
The plot really could have been seen better through other eyes as Elanna's monologue fills up more pages then anything else and her mind is not a place I like to be stuck in. One point I didn't get was how her hometown were perceived as backwards people because there was zero difference other then how they felt about magic between the two nations, all of the nations were backwards in their beliefs. Also visually, nothing felt different between any of the places, they were all so similar. As for the mountain people, they were the only original thing there.
The romance is just cliché as all insta love romance is. I see no reason why they even love one another, they barely got to know one another before they're confessing love. And when they have zero chemistry too, it's just bad.