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ashleyneve 's review for:
Shadow Study
by Maria V. Snyder
Ehhhhhhhh. Darn. Feeling in the mood to rant, so here we go...
The Poison Study and Glass trilogies were inventive, different, and fun. I enjoyed my reads and found the characters and the world fascinating. The stories really built on each other, raising the stakes (albeit just slightly) each time. While I had a few problems with these first books, I was excited to see how the Soulfinders trilogy could expand on the world even more.... and I was extremely let down. :/
First of all, this book was written with such a strange, choppy writing style. I was initially excited to get to read from Valek, Yelena, and Janco, but found the transitions between each to be really jarring. It felt like 3 separate books published together in a sporadic, strange order. I think each of these perspectives could've been published as their own novellas.
As for the individual POVs themselves--Valek's backstory was woven throughout and, while interesting, it did NOT flow. I often had to turn back pages to remind myself if I was in the past or present. This material should have been a prequel or an extra book rather than included within a larger storyline. The rest of his POV was pretty minimal and could have been left out.
Janco's POV was... boring. I didn't care one iota about him this time around.
Yelena's storyline had the most intrigue, but there wasn't enough momentum toward solving her mystery in this book and I ultimately felt bored. Plus, it was SO similar to Opal's story, it felt very unoriginal, and the "OMG PLOT TWIST" at the end was sooooooooooo predictable and cheap and lame and annoying and I called it from the beginning.
Additionally, the humor in this book was a huge eye-roll and SO not funny. Leif likes food. We get it. It's not funny 200 times. It's hardly funny once. Janco's rhymes are old and tired. He's a lovable dork but I felt like I was being forced to like him... which made me hate him.
My biggest complaint is that this book felt repetitive and stale. I feel like the first 6 books had stories that built on each other, but were kind of smaller-stakes plots. They did a good job of setting up the world, though, and due to that I was really hoping for some bigger stakes in this book. A war, some government overthrowing, big assassin/magician battles, something more than one single person getting targeted (yet again) and having to go on a journey by themselves to figure it out. I'm aware that this COULD happen in the next two books, but I don't have a lot of optimism about it.
The characters here all felt pretty settled in their lives and jobs, and once they get through this challenge they'll just get through another (extremely similar) one. Makes me think they're not learning much since they just keep getting kidnapped and attacked in the same ways. HA! There's opportunity for character growth, but everyone is written in a stagnant way that makes it uninteresting and bland.
The fact that Snyder herself says in the acknowledgements that she felt satisfied with Yelena and Valek's conclusion after Fire Study and hadn't planned to write more about them until fans begged her to... it really showed in this book. I've been struggling to find the words to describe the overall feeling I had while reading, but the word I can firmly use is: FORCED. The whole thing felt forced and did not flow and I just didn't care. There are two more books to read in this series, but I BARELY made it through this one and can't continue at this point... maybe someday, but I don't have much hope in the sequels.
Two stars because I only give one star to books I truly despise, and this wasn't a hate read. More just like a snooze fest with a few interesting moments. Also, two stars because I'm nice? (although maybe that's not accurate after this ranty "review". Lolzzzzz).
Now, if you made it all the way to this point, bravo. Let me say-the first 6 books (Study 1-3 and Glass 1-3) were quite good and you can read those and feel satisfied. I think she should've stopped there. The end.
The Poison Study and Glass trilogies were inventive, different, and fun. I enjoyed my reads and found the characters and the world fascinating. The stories really built on each other, raising the stakes (albeit just slightly) each time. While I had a few problems with these first books, I was excited to see how the Soulfinders trilogy could expand on the world even more.... and I was extremely let down. :/
First of all, this book was written with such a strange, choppy writing style. I was initially excited to get to read from Valek, Yelena, and Janco, but found the transitions between each to be really jarring. It felt like 3 separate books published together in a sporadic, strange order. I think each of these perspectives could've been published as their own novellas.
As for the individual POVs themselves--Valek's backstory was woven throughout and, while interesting, it did NOT flow. I often had to turn back pages to remind myself if I was in the past or present. This material should have been a prequel or an extra book rather than included within a larger storyline. The rest of his POV was pretty minimal and could have been left out.
Janco's POV was... boring. I didn't care one iota about him this time around.
Yelena's storyline had the most intrigue, but there wasn't enough momentum toward solving her mystery in this book and I ultimately felt bored. Plus, it was SO similar to Opal's story, it felt very unoriginal, and the "OMG PLOT TWIST" at the end was sooooooooooo predictable and cheap and lame and annoying and I called it from the beginning.
Additionally, the humor in this book was a huge eye-roll and SO not funny. Leif likes food. We get it. It's not funny 200 times. It's hardly funny once. Janco's rhymes are old and tired. He's a lovable dork but I felt like I was being forced to like him... which made me hate him.
My biggest complaint is that this book felt repetitive and stale. I feel like the first 6 books had stories that built on each other, but were kind of smaller-stakes plots. They did a good job of setting up the world, though, and due to that I was really hoping for some bigger stakes in this book. A war, some government overthrowing, big assassin/magician battles, something more than one single person getting targeted (yet again) and having to go on a journey by themselves to figure it out. I'm aware that this COULD happen in the next two books, but I don't have a lot of optimism about it.
The characters here all felt pretty settled in their lives and jobs, and once they get through this challenge they'll just get through another (extremely similar) one. Makes me think they're not learning much since they just keep getting kidnapped and attacked in the same ways. HA! There's opportunity for character growth, but everyone is written in a stagnant way that makes it uninteresting and bland.
The fact that Snyder herself says in the acknowledgements that she felt satisfied with Yelena and Valek's conclusion after Fire Study and hadn't planned to write more about them until fans begged her to... it really showed in this book. I've been struggling to find the words to describe the overall feeling I had while reading, but the word I can firmly use is: FORCED. The whole thing felt forced and did not flow and I just didn't care. There are two more books to read in this series, but I BARELY made it through this one and can't continue at this point... maybe someday, but I don't have much hope in the sequels.
Two stars because I only give one star to books I truly despise, and this wasn't a hate read. More just like a snooze fest with a few interesting moments. Also, two stars because I'm nice? (although maybe that's not accurate after this ranty "review". Lolzzzzz).
Now, if you made it all the way to this point, bravo. Let me say-the first 6 books (Study 1-3 and Glass 1-3) were quite good and you can read those and feel satisfied. I think she should've stopped there. The end.