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A review by devannm
Furyborn by Claire Legrand
2.0
I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley
This book probably could have gotten a grudging 3-star rating out of me if it had been about half the length it is now. Pro tip to authors: just because you are writing high fantasy doesn't mean it has to be ridiculously long, especially when you don't really have any plot to fill up that page space. Sometimes less really is more.
Anyway, this was your usual run-of-the-mill really bland YA fantasy story with weird romance included. There was a sex scene that was apparently horrible according to other reviews, but I can't really attest to that because I saw they were getting naked and just skipped to the next chapter. Also apparently there's a lot of hype for bi-rep with this, but it basically amounts to a few off-hand sentences about both the women sleeping with both men and women in the past [love interests in the current timeline are all male]. While that does technically mean they are bi, I feel like it's not really something to be overly-praised as I didn't even catch it until I came here to read all the reviews. That's how completely under-the-radar the whole thing was.
There was a mildly interesting plot hidden somewhere in this but 1. it was your average chosen one / prophecy plot that has been done to death at this point and 2. I had literally forgotten what was supposed to be happening by the time everything started coming together at the end because it's seriously just that long and boring. Looking back you can predict every plot twist in the book just from the prologue, but I was so bored it that it had already gone in one ear and out the other. Also I had literally forgotten there were angels in the book because they stopped mentioning them for the middle half of it and then suddenly it's back again and I'm just sitting here like 'wait, what???'.
I think the main problem was that none of the characters were interesting enough to make me care so information just went in one ear and out the other and I would constantly be asking myself 'wait, what is the point of this again?'. Someone with more patience for both long books and YA nonsense might have better luck with this, but I'm putting myself on a YA high fantasy ban at this point because I just can't do it anymore.
This book probably could have gotten a grudging 3-star rating out of me if it had been about half the length it is now. Pro tip to authors: just because you are writing high fantasy doesn't mean it has to be ridiculously long, especially when you don't really have any plot to fill up that page space. Sometimes less really is more.
Anyway, this was your usual run-of-the-mill really bland YA fantasy story with weird romance included. There was a sex scene that was apparently horrible according to other reviews, but I can't really attest to that because I saw they were getting naked and just skipped to the next chapter. Also apparently there's a lot of hype for bi-rep with this, but it basically amounts to a few off-hand sentences about both the women sleeping with both men and women in the past [love interests in the current timeline are all male]. While that does technically mean they are bi, I feel like it's not really something to be overly-praised as I didn't even catch it until I came here to read all the reviews. That's how completely under-the-radar the whole thing was.
There was a mildly interesting plot hidden somewhere in this but 1. it was your average chosen one / prophecy plot that has been done to death at this point and 2. I had literally forgotten what was supposed to be happening by the time everything started coming together at the end because it's seriously just that long and boring. Looking back you can predict every plot twist in the book just from the prologue, but I was so bored it that it had already gone in one ear and out the other. Also I had literally forgotten there were angels in the book because they stopped mentioning them for the middle half of it and then suddenly it's back again and I'm just sitting here like 'wait, what???'.
I think the main problem was that none of the characters were interesting enough to make me care so information just went in one ear and out the other and I would constantly be asking myself 'wait, what is the point of this again?'. Someone with more patience for both long books and YA nonsense might have better luck with this, but I'm putting myself on a YA high fantasy ban at this point because I just can't do it anymore.