A review by monicalaurette
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Do not underestimate the strength it takes to be kind in a world as cruel as ours.”

I am so upset with myself for how long it took me to get this book, and then to start reading it after acquiring it because this book was so good. I don’t even know if I could accurately describe in words what I really liked about it, and I have notes!

One aspect of this book that I really loved was Malik’s anxiety. I loved how real it was and I was able to relate to the feeling each time. “Breathe. Stay present. Stay here.” When I first read that as the tool Malik uses for his anxiety, I found myself closing the book and rethinking my own panic attacks. If I had followed those rules before, my senior year of college may have been easier to handle. And when Adetunde gave him the elastic to help I fell in love with him. Which made the ending that much harder.

The characters in this story were so well-flushed out and truly individual to me. And being so flushed-out it helped move their individual arcs across while not completely rewriting a character (which I’ve seen). They were each able to grow, change, adapt, but still stay themselves and fight for the things most important to them, even if that thing changed over the course of the book, it was still a driving force for Karina & Malik.

So many twists in this book that I didn’t see coming, characters that I loved in the beginning that turned out to be on the wrong side and I had to rethink my choices; at one point I even looked down at my notes and saw that I wrote down how much I liked a character after they were revealed...like damn. Hit me in my darn soul.

“I don’t think you’re weak for being scared. I don’t think you could be as strong as you are if you weren’t.”

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin receives a 5-star rating from me. The world building was amazing, and never something that was ‘too much’ or overbearing to me while reading, I can’t wait to see more of it in the next one (please release soon!).

One last thing I want to say, because I thought it was funny, was that the three sibling’s names were in alphabetical order; I don’t know if anyone else saw that, maybe it was done on purpose. Either way, it gave me a chuckle. LMN: Leila, Malik Nadia.

“But the fear that centuries of brutality had instilled in his people propelled him forward.”

There are things I want to add to this but can’t get the right words written out, like how Eshra is an occupied/colonized land, and the Eshrans are a hated people for it. It brought a whole new level to the story of the siblings and I know my words on it won’t do the sentiment justice.

Like I literally wrote down ‘I <3 Farid’ and then he goes and kills Tunde. MY GUY NO!

I feel like Farid is going to turn out as a worse villain that Idir because of his motives.

Malik’s tale in the Second Challenge was so cool, that’s the type of power I want when I tell a story.
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