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A review by justagirlwithabook
Wings of Fury by Emily R. King
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about this one!
General Premise:
Althea Lambros lives in a time and place ruled by Titan gods and goddesses, but especially Cronos, the “god of the gods.” In a desire to avenge the death of her mother, protected her sisters, and because the oracles have spoken that this is her destiny, Althea goes on a journey to take down Cronos.
What I Enjoyed:
- I liked reading a new YA novel focused on the Titans rather than the usual Olympian gods and goddesses.
- There was a fun reveal at the end in relation to the origin of the main characters that I appreciated.
- About halfway through the pace seemed to pick up (but it was slow going until then — it was hard to figure out where we were going).
What I Didn’t Love:
- At the start, there were a lot of names/characters thrown out but their relationships to other characters weren’t very well described or connected, so it felt like lots of hopping around from one person to the next and struggling to remember their association to the main character and vice versa. It took about 20% in for things to start snapping into place.
- There just wasn’t enough time spent initially on describing the world and system. For YA readers not proficient in Titan lore, this would require background knowledge in order to fall in quickly with the story.
- There was a lot of discussion about patriarchal society and the main character’s frustrations of not being allowed or able to do things because she’s a woman, which is fine, but she didn’t actually then DO much through most of the story to make that change. She didn’t really seem to become a great female protagonist until the end. There was ultimately of fe most talk and feelings and ideology, but I just found Althea to be not as strong of a female character as I hoped for or expected. Maybe ultimately she just wasn’t super likable for me.
- It’s also really hard to listen to someone screaming for equality when our main character wasn’t also just as angered by the slavery system that was also a part of the storyline. There were slaves casually mentioned throughout the whole novel yet it was never addressed as a problem. If it was not written in to be a system that needed to be overthrown, it served zero purpose and didn’t need to be written in; this is a fantasy-esque story based on mythological lore, so the “needing to be historically accurate” argument just won’t work here.
General Premise:
Althea Lambros lives in a time and place ruled by Titan gods and goddesses, but especially Cronos, the “god of the gods.” In a desire to avenge the death of her mother, protected her sisters, and because the oracles have spoken that this is her destiny, Althea goes on a journey to take down Cronos.
What I Enjoyed:
- I liked reading a new YA novel focused on the Titans rather than the usual Olympian gods and goddesses.
- There was a fun reveal at the end in relation to the origin of the main characters that I appreciated.
- About halfway through the pace seemed to pick up (but it was slow going until then — it was hard to figure out where we were going).
What I Didn’t Love:
- At the start, there were a lot of names/characters thrown out but their relationships to other characters weren’t very well described or connected, so it felt like lots of hopping around from one person to the next and struggling to remember their association to the main character and vice versa. It took about 20% in for things to start snapping into place.
- There just wasn’t enough time spent initially on describing the world and system. For YA readers not proficient in Titan lore, this would require background knowledge in order to fall in quickly with the story.
- There was a lot of discussion about patriarchal society and the main character’s frustrations of not being allowed or able to do things because she’s a woman, which is fine, but she didn’t actually then DO much through most of the story to make that change. She didn’t really seem to become a great female protagonist until the end. There was ultimately of fe most talk and feelings and ideology, but I just found Althea to be not as strong of a female character as I hoped for or expected. Maybe ultimately she just wasn’t super likable for me.
- It’s also really hard to listen to someone screaming for equality when our main character wasn’t also just as angered by the slavery system that was also a part of the storyline. There were slaves casually mentioned throughout the whole novel yet it was never addressed as a problem. If it was not written in to be a system that needed to be overthrown, it served zero purpose and didn’t need to be written in; this is a fantasy-esque story based on mythological lore, so the “needing to be historically accurate” argument just won’t work here.