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redstringraven 's review for:

Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas

0.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

i haven't left a full throttle book review in a long time, so i'll try figuring out a format i like.

as far as non-spoilers go, i guess you'll like this book if your sense of humor aligns with every two or three sentences of actual storytelling being immediately followed by a "sarcastic", "witty" or "snide" remark. also if you like a passive protagonist (this book is plot driven because alexis almost never takes initiative or agency, she is pulled along by everything else) or when 95% of the cast is an asshole to her. if you asked me what most of this book was comprised of, i'd only really be able to tell you "a lot of complaining, studying vague topics, and exhausting characters".

if this is your trash, i'm happy for you--genuinely. but for me, this was eye-rolling at best and clawing my face off at worst.

SPOILERS BELOW

things i actually liked:

the scene when alexis befriends nyx was actually kind of endearing. a big animal tells you it could kill you, and you go "cool, wanna be friends?". that's been most of my dnd characters (and also myself), so, i liked that, that was nice.
patro and achilles interacting with each other was charming enough. but only when it was with each other.
drex was chill, he can sit with us.

..................and yeah, i think that's it.

thanks, i hate it:

alexis is easily one of the most exhausting, frustrating, and nothing protagonists i've crossed in a while. i understand that humor is usually subjective, but her "wit" feels about the same level as an edgy disney channel character. she has little to no agency, she complains constantly, she'll be sad that """everyone hates her""" one minute and five minutes later be annoyed that someone is being friendly with her, and there's just... nothing to enjoy about her. it's made to be a big deal that a spartan woman is participating in the crucible--as though she had a choice to be there--and she doesn't even WANT to be there. she receives notes telling her to leave but she has no real reason to stay (and with how much she claims to yearn for death, you'd think she'd be willing to take that risk). helen tells her she's like... an icon for spartan women everywhere and all i could do was sit there and think "but she hasn't DONE anything". she almost never protests, never puts her foot down, and when she does it lasts maybe a few paragraphs before she rolls over again.
that being said, i wish alexis had actually gone into more ..like... detail about why she likes math so much. i LOVE when i get to learn new things through a character's passions. but no. it's almost entirely vague gesturing and bad jokes about writing fanfiction for a math guy.
the constant... idk what the word would be, tiktok-talk? is infuriating. but the line where "the kids at school called it apocalyptic core" is especially annoying because like. if my math is right, the world has been in this state for 40 years, meaning these kids have grown up in it and know NOTHING else. imagine a kid who grew up in a walking dead sort of situation saying that.
it's made very clear that you're not allowed to use weapons during the initiation massacre AND that nyx, despite being invisible, does have a physical presence in the world. so why is it that no one notices evidence of her bites on the guys she killed? there had to've been something. this COULD have been a fun little point of genuine tension to build off of if we're keeping nyx a secret. the massacre would have also been a great opportunity to show us alexis surviving thanks to wit, cleverness, or some means other than physical ability, but again! nyx does all the work, save for the couple of kids alexis accidentally kills.
world-building is given mostly through character dialogue that feels incredibly unnatural and forced. the nurse explaining the marriage law was particularly painful to listen to.
i don't understand what the point of the "school" is. like. genuinely. or why it's made out to be this hellish thing. yeah, being starved and sleep deprived is gonna suck even if you are super-human, but eventually the whole running thing becomes more of a chore than a horror, and outside of that all we do is study and lie around the library. for what? there's nothing interesting happening here at all. i kept feeling my eyes glaze over during these chapters and having to rewind here and there.
vague biphobia and acephobia? delightful.
nyx spends the second half of the book just sleeping. i'm sure an excuse could be made that because it's getting colder she's gone into brumation, but it honestly feels more like jasmine didn't know what to do with her anymore and only 'woke her up' for conveniently timed commentary on The Men™.
none of these relationships feel authentic or are given the time to become authentic. charlie is introduced, and i think we get two other scenes with him, but almost no actual interaction between him and alexis. patro and achilles are awful to alexis through most of the story, then suddenly in the last fourth they're really nice to her. it's completely out of left field. she avoids them and they refuse to actually mentor her, so why the sudden change??
when the villain was revealed in chapter 28, i honestly didn't know if i was supposed to remember who he was. and i didn't actually remember who he was until his shield was mentioned again.
alexis not realizing she was chthonic until chapter 29 or whatever was actually something that drove me up a wall, because the amount of mental gymnastics it had to have taken her to think that augustus was always talking about her mentors and not HER is just... astounding. it just adds to her passiveness because she doesn't think. for someone allegedly so good at math, it's wild that she can't put two and two together throughout this story.
the trapped marriage thing was very contrived, very silly, very "what are we all doing here".
also this one might be more petty, but like... the fact jasmine killed fluffy off screen during the time alexis was gone was like... i guess the word i'm looking for is offensive? it's another case where it very much feels like she just didn't know what to do with him--and we also need another reason for alexis to feel bad and call herself a monster, so he's dead now.
the sex was ehhhnnnn, and the implications that followed afterward were honestly a bit horrifying and just adds to why i don't get people who label this book "funny". i don't even really know what else to say about those last few chapters. i'm tired.

again! if this is your trash, more power to you. but i wish alexis good luck in her new marriage because as far as i'm concerned, that's where it all just kind of ends. i will not be picking up the sequel unless i'm bribed.

Content Warnings