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bookishsisi 's review for:
The Damned
by Renée Ahdieh
Ok.... so first of all, it took me a solid month to finish this. Not good!
I will start off with what I liked about the book and then what I feel fell flat with this installment.
The Good:
The diversity and representation in both The Beautiful and The Damned is amazing. I wish every author was like Ahdieh and able to present different cultures and languages so beautifully and effortlessly. For that I truly commend her, I liked reading the other languages and being able to follow along with the flow of the conversations. I liked the discourse surrounding the different foods that are specific to certain cultures. For example, the conversation between Valeria and Arjun. Simply amazing. I also love how Ahdieh depicts just how deep hate runs in the West and how people look down on those who are different because the color of their skin, their religion, and who they love.
The Bad:
Sadly, the bad outweighs the good which makes me so sad because The Beautiful was such an amazing book. It seems this novel suffered from the sequel curse.
I will start off with Celine and the romance with Bastien. In the first book Celine is probably one of the strongest characters I have read about, to date. In this one, she seems to have regressed and become the lovesick teenager. My problem with the fact that her memories were gone was that she focused on who she was missing instead of what actually happened. It felt like every one was trying to tell her of dangers and whatnot and all she worried about was kissing Bastien. And while Pippa annoys me, I didn’t like how judgmental Celine came across during their conversation at Pippa’s engagement party. Then it felt like once Celine found Bastien again all she did was like beg him to love her and that just came across as desperate. One thing I will address... I absolutely hate love triangles where you obviously know who she wants and who she picks. Like what’s the point... that’s not a love triangle at all. See The Infernal Devices on how to properly execute a love triangle. Also, it seemed like Bastien looked for any excuse to not be with Celine. I hate those broody types where he pushes her away to the point that he’s completely being a dick but in his thoughts he’s pining after her.
Next I would like to address the multiple POVS. Because we were switching between so many POVS and perspectives, I could not connect with any of the characters. Also the world building took a huge left turn in this book. We went from paranormal spooky romance to straight hard fantasy. There’s a lot to keep up with and it’s not particularly explained well.
Overall, The Damned fell really flat for me and I’m actually so disappointed because The Beautiful is out of this world. I don’t know if I will finish this series once the next book comes out...
I will start off with what I liked about the book and then what I feel fell flat with this installment.
The Good:
The diversity and representation in both The Beautiful and The Damned is amazing. I wish every author was like Ahdieh and able to present different cultures and languages so beautifully and effortlessly. For that I truly commend her, I liked reading the other languages and being able to follow along with the flow of the conversations. I liked the discourse surrounding the different foods that are specific to certain cultures. For example, the conversation between Valeria and Arjun. Simply amazing. I also love how Ahdieh depicts just how deep hate runs in the West and how people look down on those who are different because the color of their skin, their religion, and who they love.
The Bad:
Sadly, the bad outweighs the good which makes me so sad because The Beautiful was such an amazing book. It seems this novel suffered from the sequel curse.
I will start off with Celine and the romance with Bastien. In the first book Celine is probably one of the strongest characters I have read about, to date. In this one, she seems to have regressed and become the lovesick teenager. My problem with the fact that her memories were gone was that she focused on who she was missing instead of what actually happened. It felt like every one was trying to tell her of dangers and whatnot and all she worried about was kissing Bastien. And while Pippa annoys me, I didn’t like how judgmental Celine came across during their conversation at Pippa’s engagement party. Then it felt like once Celine found Bastien again all she did was like beg him to love her and that just came across as desperate. One thing I will address... I absolutely hate love triangles where you obviously know who she wants and who she picks. Like what’s the point... that’s not a love triangle at all. See The Infernal Devices on how to properly execute a love triangle. Also, it seemed like Bastien looked for any excuse to not be with Celine. I hate those broody types where he pushes her away to the point that he’s completely being a dick but in his thoughts he’s pining after her.
Next I would like to address the multiple POVS. Because we were switching between so many POVS and perspectives, I could not connect with any of the characters. Also the world building took a huge left turn in this book. We went from paranormal spooky romance to straight hard fantasy. There’s a lot to keep up with and it’s not particularly explained well.
Overall, The Damned fell really flat for me and I’m actually so disappointed because The Beautiful is out of this world. I don’t know if I will finish this series once the next book comes out...