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A review by rubeusbeaky
Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova
4.0
This book played tug-of-war with my heart:
It has tons of courtly intrigue... whiiich is kind of negated by the heroine having mind-reading magic.
It scores major points for diversity... whiiich it then loses for having a bunch of character tropes, too. (The gay guy is an actor. Really. Really?!)
It's an immensely interesting not-quite Earth setting with unique magics and religions... orrr it would be, if the book took the time to BREATHE. Describe a setting. Devote a paragraph or two to explaining the warring religions. Have a map, a glossary, anything! I was swimming in nouns with no descriptions.
Most of the characters weren't likeable. Thank goodness Ren was human; her silent-suffering from being /too/ empathetic is a real struggle a reader can relate to... Buuut she largely doesn't know WHO she is - almost as if she has amnesia - and therefore she doesn't grow from her struggles, only sinking deeper into her martyrdom. And Castian SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER is only likable because a bunch of minor characters /say/ he's likable, up until the last 5 pages of the book. Mendez was complex and his dynamic with Ren was interesting... SPOILER SPOILER and was majorly retconned and watered down by the end of the book :(.
And the book itself sets a frantic pace. Something about its sentence structure, or first-person perspective, combined with its timeline, makes every sentence an action sentence. "I do this. I do this. I do this... etc." This isn't Game of Thrones, with months and years to unravel the mysteries surrounding a character. It's adrenaline-filled days, with little to no chance to stop and describe a setting, a feeling... very little literary craft. Some motifs, but few metaphors or descriptors... Just constant DOING. A story is more than just what the characters /do/.
But for every nagging point that causes me to walk back on this book, I'm ultimately pulled forward, because all the good IS there too <3. Scores for diversity, creativity, mysteries and surprises and dangers aplenty.
A book worth reading, even if it's also a book worth tweaking.
It has tons of courtly intrigue... whiiich is kind of negated by the heroine having mind-reading magic.
It scores major points for diversity... whiiich it then loses for having a bunch of character tropes, too. (The gay guy is an actor. Really. Really?!)
It's an immensely interesting not-quite Earth setting with unique magics and religions... orrr it would be, if the book took the time to BREATHE. Describe a setting. Devote a paragraph or two to explaining the warring religions. Have a map, a glossary, anything! I was swimming in nouns with no descriptions.
Most of the characters weren't likeable. Thank goodness Ren was human; her silent-suffering from being /too/ empathetic is a real struggle a reader can relate to... Buuut she largely doesn't know WHO she is - almost as if she has amnesia - and therefore she doesn't grow from her struggles, only sinking deeper into her martyrdom. And Castian SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER is only likable because a bunch of minor characters /say/ he's likable, up until the last 5 pages of the book. Mendez was complex and his dynamic with Ren was interesting... SPOILER SPOILER and was majorly retconned and watered down by the end of the book :(.
And the book itself sets a frantic pace. Something about its sentence structure, or first-person perspective, combined with its timeline, makes every sentence an action sentence. "I do this. I do this. I do this... etc." This isn't Game of Thrones, with months and years to unravel the mysteries surrounding a character. It's adrenaline-filled days, with little to no chance to stop and describe a setting, a feeling... very little literary craft. Some motifs, but few metaphors or descriptors... Just constant DOING. A story is more than just what the characters /do/.
But for every nagging point that causes me to walk back on this book, I'm ultimately pulled forward, because all the good IS there too <3. Scores for diversity, creativity, mysteries and surprises and dangers aplenty.
A book worth reading, even if it's also a book worth tweaking.