Take a photo of a barcode or cover
e_flah 's review for:
Blazewrath Games
by Amparo Ortiz
It's always tough when a new release you'd been really looking forward to isn't as good as you hoped it would be. I've let Blazewrath Games sit for a bit as I tried to figure out what specifically didn't work for me here and I think I've finally figured it out. There are a ton of things going on in this book -- magical bureaucracy, sports, found family, a nefarious villain, subterfuge, and lots of smaller mysteries -- that don't quite come together into a cohesive story. This book can't quite seem to decide what its main theme is, which makes for a reading experience that felt all over the place and often quite confusing. There were a lot of times when I had to stop reading to try to remember who someone was, how they fit into the larger story, and why I was supposed to care about them. On top of that, the decisions that the main character Lana makes often didn't make sense within the context of earlier things she had said and done. It seemed as though her actions were for the sake of the plot, rather than true to her character. She flip-flopped sides frequently throughout the story to the point that I was surprised other characters didn't call her out on it more frequently.
Some of the individual elements of Blazewrath Games were well done. I really enjoyed the action scenes about Blazewrath. They put me right in the thick of the action and made me wish that this was a real sport I could watch on TV. I also thought that Lana's journey to figure out her identity was moving. This made for a compelling emotional arc that I would've loved to see a bit more of in the story. I also really liked the way the book tackled the issue of activism and sports. It was handled with care while also raising a lot of important questions about how we view athletes and the power they have.
This wasn't a bad book -- it just seemed like it needed a little more editing to make it a cohesive story and to flesh out character motivations a bit more.
C/W:homophobia (challenged), violence, death
Some of the individual elements of Blazewrath Games were well done. I really enjoyed the action scenes about Blazewrath. They put me right in the thick of the action and made me wish that this was a real sport I could watch on TV. I also thought that Lana's journey to figure out her identity was moving. This made for a compelling emotional arc that I would've loved to see a bit more of in the story. I also really liked the way the book tackled the issue of activism and sports. It was handled with care while also raising a lot of important questions about how we view athletes and the power they have.
This wasn't a bad book -- it just seemed like it needed a little more editing to make it a cohesive story and to flesh out character motivations a bit more.
C/W: