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A review by sunflowerboys
Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
first of all i want to say that Zoe Hana Mikuta is so cool and coming up with the concept of this book and going through with it at such a young age deserves all the praise!
as for the book itself, it was a highly anticipated read of mine but unfortunately it didn't affect me the way i thought it would :(
i was really impressed by the writing at first, how the action and the description were very poetic despite the genre, but it soon became awkward? the sentences structure was repetitive and sometimes very long with a lot of -ing verbs to add details that didn't need to be added. and sometimes it was all too much? the dialogues, for instance, didn't feel natural because of their grandeur and some sentences seemed to have been written just to be "quotable". some images were still great though!
also, i don't know if it's because of the writing, or if i'm just not used to reading sci-fi, but i couldn't really focus on what was happening, especially during the action-packed/battle scenes; a lot seemed to be unfolding but i couldn't really grasp it. i think these moments should have been more thoroughly described to make it tenser instead of cutting them right in the middle. because it didn't, the stakes were kinda off. like, the archangels seemed super scary when they were first mentioned but when they eventually appeared, it was like, meh.
and so in the end i didn't connect with the story or the characters and didn't really care about their fate :/
i think the story still has a great potential. i like the main characters, i think it is very important that there is so much representation in a genre like this, and the end promises an interesting sequel which i will be reading!
as for the book itself, it was a highly anticipated read of mine but unfortunately it didn't affect me the way i thought it would :(
i was really impressed by the writing at first, how the action and the description were very poetic despite the genre, but it soon became awkward? the sentences structure was repetitive and sometimes very long with a lot of -ing verbs to add details that didn't need to be added. and sometimes it was all too much? the dialogues, for instance, didn't feel natural because of their grandeur and some sentences seemed to have been written just to be "quotable". some images were still great though!
also, i don't know if it's because of the writing, or if i'm just not used to reading sci-fi, but i couldn't really focus on what was happening, especially during the action-packed/battle scenes; a lot seemed to be unfolding but i couldn't really grasp it. i think these moments should have been more thoroughly described to make it tenser instead of cutting them right in the middle. because it didn't, the stakes were kinda off. like, the archangels seemed super scary when they were first mentioned but when they eventually appeared, it was like, meh.
and so in the end i didn't connect with the story or the characters and didn't really care about their fate :/
i think the story still has a great potential. i like the main characters, i think it is very important that there is so much representation in a genre like this, and the end promises an interesting sequel which i will be reading!