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A review by everybody
Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout
2.0
Everyone is stupid but the smut is hot.
The early part of the book is surprisingly good. If you look beyond everything being heavily tainted by constant lust and smut, there are some actually interesting and complex characters. There is not only the pretense of moral ambiguity but truly nuanced greyscale. There even are some philosophical themes here that have enough depth to capture some of the actual complexity behind these questions.
A lot of the elements don't feel like shallow token building blocks but actually fleshed-out ideas.
Heavy topics like the horror of war and trauma are presented in a very visceral emotionally gripping and believable way. Some of it slightly misses the mark by being tainted by the typical ideas behind patriotic hero complex. But overall it's far beyond the average fantasy novel.
But then the plot has to somehow happen and the author has to get her characters to do stuff and all of it goes out the window. Prepare for the full collection of all the stupid and shallow clichées you find in any cheap fantasy romance. Character inconsistencies, plot holes, and repeated tstl to a ridiculous degree by multiple characters. The underlying fundamental conflicts are not bad, but the actual execution is just terrible.
(Do I even have to warn of a cliffhanger in an Armentrout book? Well, there you have it I guess.)
The early part of the book is surprisingly good. If you look beyond everything being heavily tainted by constant lust and smut, there are some actually interesting and complex characters. There is not only the pretense of moral ambiguity but truly nuanced greyscale. There even are some philosophical themes here that have enough depth to capture some of the actual complexity behind these questions.
A lot of the elements don't feel like shallow token building blocks but actually fleshed-out ideas.
Heavy topics like the horror of war and trauma are presented in a very visceral emotionally gripping and believable way. Some of it slightly misses the mark by being tainted by the typical ideas behind patriotic hero complex. But overall it's far beyond the average fantasy novel.
But then the plot has to somehow happen and the author has to get her characters to do stuff and all of it goes out the window. Prepare for the full collection of all the stupid and shallow clichées you find in any cheap fantasy romance. Character inconsistencies, plot holes, and repeated tstl to a ridiculous degree by multiple characters. The underlying fundamental conflicts are not bad, but the actual execution is just terrible.
(Do I even have to warn of a cliffhanger in an Armentrout book? Well, there you have it I guess.)