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A review by toystory242
Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus
2.0
*2.5 stars*
Daniel Kraus books are weird and crazy and that's usually why I enjoy them, but this was not it. If you want the best from Daniel Kraus imo pick up Zebulon Finch or Scowler because this was just??? Not?? what I wanted??
This book focuses a lot on torture and while the author's note makes it clear why Daniel Kraus wrote about it, it was just really uncomfy to read. I didn't like that. Also, the characters' relationships didn't feel nearly as real as, say--Zeb and the that soldier guy in Zebulon, or even Zeb and the Dr. Like, Liv has this whole love interest that was in the book for 4 minutes and he had this whole thing at the end but it just felt stupid and cringy because I didn't feel their romance. Also, Liv and her best friend Doug are the main characters, but their relationship and Liv's motivations were SO WEIRD. Half of the time Liv LOVED Doug to a weird degree--there would be sentences like "how did the world make such a brave person like Doug?" (not kidding that's basically verbatim), but then there would be times where she wanted nothing to do with him?? Liv would flip-flop from wanting to torture this alien to wanting to help it to wanting to torture it to help it to KILL IT?? It made zero sense I had no idea what she was doing man.
There's a big plot twist 3/4ths of the way through the book that I really wished was developed more because instead of feeling shocking, it just felt stupid. I guessed part of it and was like "nooooo that can't be it" and it was and I was eye-rolling hard. If the world was built more around the plot-twist I think I would have liked it a lot more, but because it didn't make sense I just questioned the validity of it, ya know?
This book isn't horrible--I just think Daniel Kraus can and has done better. I think for this story to have worked, this book needed to be way longer. For real, like as least as long as a Zeb book. We needed to DIVE into Liv's relationship with her dad, her relationship with Doug, her relationship with Bruno (her love interest). We needed to DIVE into this plot-twist. Instead it all just felt very surface level.
I'm disappointed :(
Daniel Kraus books are weird and crazy and that's usually why I enjoy them, but this was not it. If you want the best from Daniel Kraus imo pick up Zebulon Finch or Scowler because this was just??? Not?? what I wanted??
This book focuses a lot on torture and while the author's note makes it clear why Daniel Kraus wrote about it, it was just really uncomfy to read. I didn't like that. Also, the characters' relationships didn't feel nearly as real as, say--Zeb and the that soldier guy in Zebulon, or even Zeb and the Dr. Like, Liv has this whole love interest that was in the book for 4 minutes and he had this whole thing at the end but it just felt stupid and cringy because I didn't feel their romance. Also, Liv and her best friend Doug are the main characters, but their relationship and Liv's motivations were SO WEIRD. Half of the time Liv LOVED Doug to a weird degree--there would be sentences like "how did the world make such a brave person like Doug?" (not kidding that's basically verbatim), but then there would be times where she wanted nothing to do with him?? Liv would flip-flop from wanting to torture this alien to wanting to help it to wanting to torture it to help it to KILL IT?? It made zero sense I had no idea what she was doing man.
There's a big plot twist 3/4ths of the way through the book that I really wished was developed more because instead of feeling shocking, it just felt stupid. I guessed part of it and was like "nooooo that can't be it" and it was and I was eye-rolling hard. If the world was built more around the plot-twist I think I would have liked it a lot more, but because it didn't make sense I just questioned the validity of it, ya know?
This book isn't horrible--I just think Daniel Kraus can and has done better. I think for this story to have worked, this book needed to be way longer. For real, like as least as long as a Zeb book. We needed to DIVE into Liv's relationship with her dad, her relationship with Doug, her relationship with Bruno (her love interest). We needed to DIVE into this plot-twist. Instead it all just felt very surface level.
I'm disappointed :(