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yas_azizam 's review for:
Malice
by Heather Walter
Yikes.
Ok, before I start, I will say that it's really refreshing to have more representation in fantasy writing, and honestly the reason I read this book in the first place was because I was so interested in a queer retelling of Sleeping Beauty. This book definitely has that going for it. However...
The writing is just so clunky. The first few chapters were just cramming lore down the readers' throats - honestly, the whole system was overly complicated, but even so it could have been more artfully introduced. The characters were all completely two-dimensional, even the protagonist. Rose was just a bully, Aurora was the perfect pretty princess, and Alyce was just...boring. A boring character to read and follow along with. I never really cared about any of the characters at all. And then everyone betrayed everyone, and I really didn't care. Kal? Ok. Laurel? Sure. Tarkin? I guess, why not. And I felt like every YA adventure trope was thrown at the book "just because". There should be an animal sidekick - check. Callow, the kestrel, was a random addition and I wasn't phased in the least when she disappeared. But then suddenly she was back, and healed? And totally chill with her mistress being a dragon? Fine. And the protagonist needs adversity - check. Literally everyone hates Alyce - she even hates herself. And Alyce was just exhausted and "at the limits of her magic" basically 24/7. And yet she still kept improving exponentially? And woah, it went from 0 to 60 REAL fast at the end. Suddenly she's killing people left and right, and just okay with it? Where was absolutely any character development whatsoever? It was just all so simultaneously predictable, boring, and....clunky.
I'm all for more representation in fantasy. But I'm also an advocate of good writing.
Ok, before I start, I will say that it's really refreshing to have more representation in fantasy writing, and honestly the reason I read this book in the first place was because I was so interested in a queer retelling of Sleeping Beauty. This book definitely has that going for it. However...
The writing is just so clunky. The first few chapters were just cramming lore down the readers' throats - honestly, the whole system was overly complicated, but even so it could have been more artfully introduced. The characters were all completely two-dimensional, even the protagonist. Rose was just a bully, Aurora was the perfect pretty princess, and Alyce was just...boring. A boring character to read and follow along with. I never really cared about any of the characters at all. And then everyone betrayed everyone, and I really didn't care. Kal? Ok. Laurel? Sure. Tarkin? I guess, why not. And I felt like every YA adventure trope was thrown at the book "just because". There should be an animal sidekick - check. Callow, the kestrel, was a random addition and I wasn't phased in the least when she disappeared. But then suddenly she was back, and healed? And totally chill with her mistress being a dragon? Fine. And the protagonist needs adversity - check. Literally everyone hates Alyce - she even hates herself. And Alyce was just exhausted and "at the limits of her magic" basically 24/7. And yet she still kept improving exponentially? And woah, it went from 0 to 60 REAL fast at the end. Suddenly she's killing people left and right, and just okay with it? Where was absolutely any character development whatsoever? It was just all so simultaneously predictable, boring, and....clunky.
I'm all for more representation in fantasy. But I'm also an advocate of good writing.