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A review by chlcrc617
Hope and Red by Jon Skovron
3.0
This was a competent enough book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it since I finished it.
It has the tropes of modern YA fantasy - pirate-ing, a mysterious super stoic, super competent girl (Hope), a thief (Red), some mentors, and some bigger plot lurking in the background. It begins with the childhood of said Hope and Red and moves into the main plot that happens when they're somewhere in the 16-20 age range. Frankly speaking it's really hard to grasp the passage of time in this book, so I'm just not sure where they land age-wise. Despite covering all this ground with time, it doesn't really connect you to the characters. Skovron tries to add in some depth to Red that you read more about by the end, but it feels superficial then.
While I won't claim to be an editor, I think the heavy-handed focus for a number of chapters on the childhood really was the detractor and it left the book unbalanced. All that space could have been used far better... for example, on the empire. The pacing moves quickly enough through the plot, but if not for the speed, it would definitely feel far less connected and cohesive. It feels a bit ramshackled together. It feels a bit like an aimless narrative and then "Oh right we need a big plot here. Everything is now right here to make this happen!"
The characters aren't quite one dimensional, but they're not hyper compelling. Red is definitely far more thought out than Hope. Weirdly though Hope is definitely the one with a clear plot and arc - Red is just basically along for the ride figuring things out, but his POV is simply more compelling to read because it's less bland. So it's a weird balance and it doesn't quite even out, like the pacing mentioned above.
Not terrible, not great. Probably won't read the sequel because I left this novel just not caring.
It has the tropes of modern YA fantasy - pirate-ing, a mysterious super stoic, super competent girl (Hope), a thief (Red), some mentors, and some bigger plot lurking in the background. It begins with the childhood of said Hope and Red and moves into the main plot that happens when they're somewhere in the 16-20 age range. Frankly speaking it's really hard to grasp the passage of time in this book, so I'm just not sure where they land age-wise. Despite covering all this ground with time, it doesn't really connect you to the characters. Skovron tries to add in some depth to Red that you read more about by the end, but it feels superficial then.
While I won't claim to be an editor, I think the heavy-handed focus for a number of chapters on the childhood really was the detractor and it left the book unbalanced. All that space could have been used far better... for example, on the empire.
Spoiler
The biomancers are posed as the big evil, and a bait and switch is attempted at the end with "there's some bigger lurking Evil that we're actually fighting." Somewhere. Maybe. We don't really get a hint at what that could be which would have been nice. We don't know enough about the biomancers to know if they're just lying. In all honesty, I don't care enough to read the next book to find out.The characters aren't quite one dimensional, but they're not hyper compelling. Red is definitely far more thought out than Hope. Weirdly though Hope is definitely the one with a clear plot and arc - Red is just basically along for the ride figuring things out, but his POV is simply more compelling to read because it's less bland. So it's a weird balance and it doesn't quite even out, like the pacing mentioned above.
Not terrible, not great. Probably won't read the sequel because I left this novel just not caring.