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A review by whenatlasfalls
The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
My problems with this book come from a place of nitpickiness. The story overall was a good concept, it was just the execution that fell a little flat for me. Minor spoilers throughout this review.
The book is 80 chapters long, and I would say of those chapters, collectively a quarter of them are just exposition. You are given a lot of "here's this character, and now here's why you should feel x way about them." You are given pages upon pages of explanations for why things are and why people act as they do, but not the chance to learn those same details through the storytelling itself.
The main cast felt a bit poorly developed. Galen barely got the spotlight, Percy was more of an annoyance than anything (as the story even told us, any time he spoke), and Aramis... I feel like she had such potential, but her flip-flopping from hating Ranka to liking her every other chapter got annoying. I felt little to no chemistry between them, and apart from the cliché of "pretend to make-out to maintain our cover" and throwaway lines about Aramis being beautiful, there were really no acts or indications that either of them felt anything towards the other.
Ranka herself started out as a solid character with a lot of potential to grow. But they never really went anywhere with her. Throughout the story she stayed the same. Doubting herself and any information revealed to her, self sabotaging, making questionable and out of character choices. Her character's story did largely center around coming to terms with how she had been abused by those she loved, but it was portrayed poorly -- to the point that, until it explicitly said so near the book's conclusion, I never would have guessed that that was the theme they were going for.
There's some other things that bothered me. That scene were Aramis holds Ranka by the throat made me cringe. All of Percy's quips made me cringe.Foldrey's and Ongrum's deceit/sabotage were two twists I called almost immediately upon their introductions. Even with Foldrey's revealed influence, the Hand's motives seemed inconsistent, and half way through the book they felt as if they only existed only as a plot device and not as an actual threat. Foldrey had a daughter in one scene, who was never mentioned again. More than anything, I wanted more lore on the other witches -- not just blood witches. For blood witches being the rarest of the bunch, after Ranka left the coven for Seaswept, they never mentioned the other kinds again.
It had a lot of potential, and it kept me invested enough to finish it. But that is about all else I can say.
The book is 80 chapters long, and I would say of those chapters, collectively a quarter of them are just exposition. You are given a lot of "here's this character, and now here's why you should feel x way about them." You are given pages upon pages of explanations for why things are and why people act as they do, but not the chance to learn those same details through the storytelling itself.
The main cast felt a bit poorly developed. Galen barely got the spotlight, Percy was more of an annoyance than anything (as the story even told us, any time he spoke), and Aramis... I feel like she had such potential, but her flip-flopping from hating Ranka to liking her every other chapter got annoying. I felt little to no chemistry between them, and apart from the cliché of "pretend to make-out to maintain our cover" and throwaway lines about Aramis being beautiful, there were really no acts or indications that either of them felt anything towards the other.
Ranka herself started out as a solid character with a lot of potential to grow. But they never really went anywhere with her. Throughout the story she stayed the same. Doubting herself and any information revealed to her, self sabotaging, making questionable and out of character choices. Her character's story did largely center around coming to terms with how she had been abused by those she loved, but it was portrayed poorly -- to the point that, until it explicitly said so near the book's conclusion, I never would have guessed that that was the theme they were going for.
There's some other things that bothered me. That scene were Aramis holds Ranka by the throat made me cringe. All of Percy's quips made me cringe.
It had a lot of potential, and it kept me invested enough to finish it. But that is about all else I can say.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore