A review by kleonard
Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe

1.0

This novel uses Shakespeare's the Tempest as a jumping-off point, and the initial idea isn't bad: a young woman discovers that the magic island she's always lived on is made magic by the enslaved spirits who live there. But the execution is poor: the story becomes one of Cinderella, albeit with an evil royal family, manipulative princesses, and sullen princes, only one of whom is intelligent enough to know what's going on when the spirits begin to die. The narrator is independent and has a lot of self-esteem, but she's turned into a figure focused on boys and romance and somehow becomes unable to speak for herself for an annoyingly long time. The plot is rushed and decisions don't make sense; characters are uneven and inconsistent; and the conclusion is frustrating as the protagonist, who had achieved some autonomy, allows herself to be sucked back into the morass of the spirit-enslaving family.