A review by kitvaria_sarene
Hallowed by Y. R. Liu

4.0

Read for SPFBO, this is only my personal opinion, group verdict might differ widely! 🔥

Hallowed by Y.R. Liu shows a lot of promise!
While there are plenty of tropes, and quite some flaws, the overall tone and voice kept me well entertained all the way through.

I enjoyed the main character. A somewhat naive girl who is definitely more passive and following along than having agency is usually not my type, but it was organically written and really fit her backstory. She is quite brave, and for once we have a young heroine, who does not have a love interest!

The side characters were a bit stereotypical, with the cold hearted assassin and so on, but there were a few nice surprises! Like a prince who is actually kind, and aman on power who is definitely on the spectrum. He's not a major character, but I enjoyed reading about someone who needs a clear rhythm to their day!

This book could have been quite a bit shorter, if you took out detailed descriptions of people who are only minor aide characters and such, and could be amazing if you instead added a bit more depth to characters and world building.

But even as is, this is a very enjoyable read that I breezed through in no time at all! While some bits are pretty predictable, it did catch me by surprise a few times, which is rather rare these days!

Even more impressive, seeing the author only has two books listed so far.