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abbyfrelier 's review for:
Anji Kills a King
by Evan Leikam
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's incredibly rewarding to read a fantasy novel so genuinely fresh and looking to explore new kinds of relationships and new kinds of stories. Instead of asking "hey is empire maybe bad" Evan takes the yes answer for granted and moves right along to more interesting questions.
Anji is one of my favorite protagonists ever. She's caustic, rash and naively optimistic and unlike so many teen protagonists she really feels her age in a brutal and dark adult fantasy story. So incredibly refreshing. I was dying to shake her by the shoulders (or maybe cover her mouth) but she's also easy to love and root for. The other characters, primarily Hawk, similarly avoid easy descriptions and have their own motivations and internal logic.
Really the only weakness is that while moving through the story some of the internal sense of time, place and stakes isn't quite as automatic as it should be. This ended up slowing my pace a little and made it a little less of a page turner. By the end though I was fully tuned in and was very satisfied with the ending. What an ending!
Anji is one of my favorite protagonists ever. She's caustic, rash and naively optimistic and unlike so many teen protagonists she really feels her age in a brutal and dark adult fantasy story. So incredibly refreshing. I was dying to shake her by the shoulders (or maybe cover her mouth) but she's also easy to love and root for. The other characters, primarily Hawk, similarly avoid easy descriptions and have their own motivations and internal logic.
Really the only weakness is that while moving through the story some of the internal sense of time, place and stakes isn't quite as automatic as it should be. This ended up slowing my pace a little and made it a little less of a page turner. By the end though I was fully tuned in and was very satisfied with the ending. What an ending!