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A review by oakandblackthorn
Ruined by Amy Tintera
2.0
“You were born useless, but you don’t have to be helpless.”Buckle in everyone because it's time for my first unpopular opinion of the year!
Oh, I don’t even know where to start with this review! I’m so disappointed right now I want to bawl. I had such high hopes for Ruined, but, alas, this story fell short for me in so many ways. I’m sitting here right now, contemplating tearing my hair out, because I have no idea how to put into words how, well, mediocre I found this story. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t the best either, and I was never swept off my feet. The only reason I finished this story was that I hate leaving anything unfinished, so I pushed through, and honestly, I wish I’d just thrown the damn thing out of the window. Now it’s just sitting there, mocking me with its gorgeous cover and enticing premise. Ugh.
I promise you though, I didn’t go into this story determined to tarnish its good name. I really, really wanted to love this book. My Goodreads friends have been giving Ruined such glowing, positive acclaim, and the opening chapter was brimming with potential. Seriously, I found it exhilarating, heart-pounding and down-right daring. I was all ready to dive into a book that was going to forge its own path in a genre oversaturated with the same old nonsense, and I thought it would keep me hooked until the very end, where I’d be left desperate and aching for more. As you might have guessed, that isn’t what happened, and five days later, I’m on the side-lines watching everyone heap praise onto this book while I am left wondering how anyone can enjoy a novel that relied so heavily on overused, stale fantasy clichés, recycled, tiresome storylines, and underdeveloped, insipid characters.
Ruined offers nothing new to fantasy readers, and the entire time I was reading it, I couldn’t shake off the perpetual feeling of déjà vu. This story has already been published a dozen times, and I could pick out elements of The Orphan Queen, Throne of Glass, and Red Queen in every single chapter. The only difference is those novels are of a much higher standard. I also admire and respect the main characters in those three books, whereas Emelina Flores loses her drive for vengeance the moment her eyes meet the shy, nervous prince who seems to have no opinions or compunction over the genocide of a whole race of human beings until a beautiful, enticing stranger comes traipsing into his life and suddenly makes him think for the first time in his existence.
Yes, I’m bitter.
But don’t worry folks, there’s a lot more wrong with Ruined other than its second-rate characters and storyline. A lot more. Enough so that I have around six pages of notes I wrote down in a haze of rage and disappointment that I now have to condense down into something readable for you all. Although I’d like to note that at least two pages are just the word “whywhywhywhy” written over and over again – it’s also blurred in parts with my tears.
The first problem I had was with the worldbuilding, which I can only describe as underwhelming, simplistic, and dull. We have four kingdoms in this novel, but honestly, you only need to know about Lera and Ruina, because the other two have no bearing on the plot besides the fact that they hate the Ruined. From what I could gather from my skim reading, Lera decided to declare war on Ruina because they felt… threatened? by the powers the Ruined possess, and they were worried they would one day overwhelm their forces and invade their kingdom. I mean, I can’t be the only person who thinks these are really vague, unimaginative reasons for attempting a full-scale invasion on a kingdom with a military power that far exceeds yours, right? Honestly, though, I think we’re all aware that this whole feud was created by the author for the sole reason of creating conflict in Em and Casimir’s ‘romance’. And it’s a shame, too, because I could have appreciated this story a lot more if we’d spent time fleshing out this world. The Ruined, for example, were phenomenal and original creations, but everything else surrounding them was so drab and uninspired that I just couldn't give a damn! God, I’m so tired right now.
They were the most interesting part of Ruined, though, and they're one of only two reasons why I didn’t give this book one star. Their magic, insanity, and power were the only things keeping me going. They are so badass that I laboured through a novel that made me want to give up on the one hobby that gives my life joy just so that I could catch a glimpse of what they could do with their abilities! They can cause earthquakes, shatter minds, and extract people’s spines out of their backs. How intriguing is that? I think the second major problem with Ruined is that the titular characters are barely even present. How could you create some of the most original, powerful, and interesting magical users I’ve ever seen and side-line them for most of the story? The whole reason Em goes to Lera in the first place is to free her people, and we don’t even get a glimpse of the kind of chaos and destruction they could rain down on the kingdom who invaded, conquered, and chained them? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? For once, I wish we’d had a main character who possessed unlimited power because Ruined would have been a thousand times more interesting if Em had just been able to pull out Casimir’s spine like it was made of jell-o!
“The memory of how he felt when he cared about her was going to be the most painful thing after he began to hate her.”Ah, Emelina, my favourite walking disappointment. I have no idea what to say about her that doesn’t involve me just slamming my keyboard repeatedly in frustration. Our main character’s entire arc goes from “I’m going to infiltrate this kingdom and bring it to its knees for slaughtering my parents, kidnapping my sister, and enslaving my people!” to “Oh, wait… is that a brooding, mysterious prince with daddy issues? Screw my people, I should just throw away my year-long, intricate plans for vengeance and run away with you instead!”
What a downgrade, huh?
Yes, unfortunately, the fierce, vengeful heroine we’re introduced to in the first few pages quickly crumbles beneath the gaze of the handsome, wearisome prince, and what is left in her wake is a three-hundred and something page novel that’s filled to the brim with an unconvincing romance and a plot where barely anything happens. What’s worst is that this is... *shudders*... instalove, plain and simple. From what I could gather, this story only takes place over a few weeks, and somehow Em goes from hating Cas to swooning over him in a matter of days. One second, I’m having an amazing time reading about her plans to murder the damn fool with a curtain tie, and the next I’m listening to her droning on about how caring and misunderstood he is!
At this point, if you look up the word ‘disappointed’ in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of me holding this book with half my hair torn out and tears trailing down my cheeks.
Of course, Emelina isn’t the worst character in the world; she’s brave, fierce, and compassionate, but whilst those are admirable qualities, I’d been led to believe from the synopsis that I was being gifted a character who was heartless, scarred, and manipulative. Maybe, if I’d been expecting a character who had more in common with a character like Mare from Red Queen than Adelina from The Young Elites, I might have enjoyed this story a little more. Unfortunately, I desperately, achingly wanted a heroine who would be willing to sacrifice everything to avenge her people – even the man she loves. Em, however, is too empathetic and forgiving a character to spearhead a story about revenge in all its horrific, bloody glory, and given that’s what I wanted out of Ruined, I didn’t have it in myself to root for her. If Ruined had been published a few years later, when dark, gothic stories like The Cruel Prince and Wicked Saints reign supreme in all their murderous, slytherin-like glory, we could have expected Ruined to live up to what it promised in its first chapter. Unfortunately, for now, I’ll have to wallow in my misery.
“You have a tendency to see the good in people, and I admire that, but it will destroy you. I promise you it will.”I’ve moaned about him enough already, so I suppose I should probably address Casimir, our resident elephant in the room. Well, he has a dry sense of humour, an awkward disposition, and a strong sense of duty.
And I honestly couldn't care less about him.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy being in Casimir’s head, and I felt like his perspective added little to the story. I think the reason I hated him so much is that his personality is virtually non-existent, and you could probably say the same about his brain.
Olivia is someone I didn’t see coming. She’s everything I expected from the protagonist of Ruined when I read the synopsis and reviews, and I’m so angry she wasn’t the main character! Olivia isn’t exactly the ‘chosen one’, but Em describes her as beginning the most powerful Ruined born in generations. I actually think this is the first time I’ve wanted someone who’s overly special™ to be the protagonist of a YA novel, and I hate Tintera for doing that to me. She’s turned me into my own worst enemy! Olivia, though, has the vengeful, calculating nature I was expecting from Em, and she also has the intelligence and power to pull off an elaborate revenge plan. My girl is cunning, murderous, and unhinged, and I’ve never loved a character more. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with Casimir so quickly, and she certainly wouldn’t have had any qualms about murdering him with those curtain ties… or a spoon… or just by ripping his spine out. God, it would have been glorious having her as our anti-heroine, and we would have been gifted with one of the best revenge stories since Queen of Shadows.
I… think I’m going to go curl up in bed and cry about what could have been.
Overall, when you compare Ruined with the abundance of young adult fantasy novels on offer at the moment, it just can’t compare. It’s a light-weight, simple read, and it’s pretty much just tooth-rotting fluff with a fantasy backdrop. If you’re going into this looking for a fierce heroine, a tale of vengeance and girl power, and a whole lot of murder, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. I can see how this might appeal to people in the YA community, but I’m a sage, old woman who’s read far too much fantasy for this to be anywhere near ground-breaking in my opinion. I might try and pick up Avenged in the next year or so with the vague hope that Olivia will murder Casimir for me and singlehandedly make my year, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for that kind of disappoint yet.
“The only way to find peace was to kill everyone who threatened it.”