Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by katharine_opal
Anahera by Vianne Max
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
Ended up putting it on the DNF list at 21 percent. I just...struggled trying to get through this one. The third-person writing style put me off, mostly because it made the storytelling feel almost stilted. It just made it harder to understand what was going on most of the time. I'd have to go back and reread passages to try and recenter myself because I keep getting confused about who was speaking. The jumps between different characters' mental dialogue were tiring because I was constantly getting confused about who exactly was thinking what. The plot that I managed to drag myself through has a lot of "yikes" moments. Including the main character almost getting sexually assaulted right at the beginning of the book, constantly describing POC character with food adjectives, and other things. Minor spoilers, but Bannerman's first impression of Isabella, directly after getting kicked in the nuts by her is, "She is not unpleasant to look at - passable breast and an agreeably fertile curve to her hips, although her attitude is decidedly feral." Like, seriously my guy? You just injected a mysterious substance into her, and from her point of view, you're holding her down just like the guy who almost sexually assaulted her earlier. But you still have a moment to stop and ogle her? Near the 20 percent mark, there's a part of a scene that baffled me. “She has laughed with the man, struggled with him, made some kind of connection.” Except...she didn’t… I don’t feel any connection between our two main characters in the slightest. Just because they were nice to each other during a meal or two does not make them “connected”. The struggle of him trying to keep her alive wasn’t out of some desire to keep her safe, he literally only did it because it was his job. His job is to protect an Anahera and that’s what he did. Nothing more, nothing less. Also, he’s treated her the same most people would treat an acquaintance. The book is also trying its damndest to pair Bannerman and Isabella off together. I assume they get into a romantic relationship later in the book, but in the first part, it just feels forced. One minor side thing that bothered me is the accents of the Shetland villagers in the very beginning. Shetland is an island off the coast of Scotland, so my assumption is that they would have a similar accent to the Scottish. Yet, when I first read the villager's accents, they were written in a way that I thought they were Jamaican until the book clearly stated they were in Shetland. Also, if the portals opened around the world, what was the point of Isabella coming to Shetland instead of going through a portal in New Zealand where she is from? She even meets someone who came through a New Zealand portal! Everyone being described with certain scents slightly annoyed me at first, but I remembered the plot description does say "a world of scented magic". (Side note, I used to handcraft custom perfume oils for a job, so I know my way around scent blending. Cardamom and cigar smoke does NOT smell good together. It smells like spicy musky dust and makes you want to sneeze. I've made that exact blend before, so I know!) The Maori culture references in the book were cool to see. You rarely ever see Maori culture used in fantasy novels, so it was a nice change from the usually referenced cultures. I will give the book that. I really didn't like Anahera. Maybe if it wasn't written in the third person style, it would be a little easier to digest. But as it stands, it's going to be staying on my DNF shelf permanately.
Ended up putting it on the DNF list at 21 percent. I just...struggled trying to get through this one. The third-person writing style put me off, mostly because it made the storytelling feel almost stilted. It just made it harder to understand what was going on most of the time. I'd have to go back and reread passages to try and recenter myself because I keep getting confused about who was speaking. The jumps between different characters' mental dialogue were tiring because I was constantly getting confused about who exactly was thinking what. The plot that I managed to drag myself through has a lot of "yikes" moments. Including the main character almost getting sexually assaulted right at the beginning of the book, constantly describing POC character with food adjectives, and other things. Minor spoilers, but Bannerman's first impression of Isabella, directly after getting kicked in the nuts by her is, "She is not unpleasant to look at - passable breast and an agreeably fertile curve to her hips, although her attitude is decidedly feral." Like, seriously my guy? You just injected a mysterious substance into her, and from her point of view, you're holding her down just like the guy who almost sexually assaulted her earlier. But you still have a moment to stop and ogle her? Near the 20 percent mark, there's a part of a scene that baffled me. “She has laughed with the man, struggled with him, made some kind of connection.” Except...she didn’t… I don’t feel any connection between our two main characters in the slightest. Just because they were nice to each other during a meal or two does not make them “connected”. The struggle of him trying to keep her alive wasn’t out of some desire to keep her safe, he literally only did it because it was his job. His job is to protect an Anahera and that’s what he did. Nothing more, nothing less. Also, he’s treated her the same most people would treat an acquaintance. The book is also trying its damndest to pair Bannerman and Isabella off together. I assume they get into a romantic relationship later in the book, but in the first part, it just feels forced. One minor side thing that bothered me is the accents of the Shetland villagers in the very beginning. Shetland is an island off the coast of Scotland, so my assumption is that they would have a similar accent to the Scottish. Yet, when I first read the villager's accents, they were written in a way that I thought they were Jamaican until the book clearly stated they were in Shetland. Also, if the portals opened around the world, what was the point of Isabella coming to Shetland instead of going through a portal in New Zealand where she is from? She even meets someone who came through a New Zealand portal! Everyone being described with certain scents slightly annoyed me at first, but I remembered the plot description does say "a world of scented magic". (Side note, I used to handcraft custom perfume oils for a job, so I know my way around scent blending. Cardamom and cigar smoke does NOT smell good together. It smells like spicy musky dust and makes you want to sneeze. I've made that exact blend before, so I know!) The Maori culture references in the book were cool to see. You rarely ever see Maori culture used in fantasy novels, so it was a nice change from the usually referenced cultures. I will give the book that. I really didn't like Anahera. Maybe if it wasn't written in the third person style, it would be a little easier to digest. But as it stands, it's going to be staying on my DNF shelf permanately.