dracos_library 's review for:

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

2.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This was rough. I can recognize that there is a lot of potential in the book and the magic system. 
But I felt like it was poorly executed. The story was all over the place and the first 3/4 of the book were so chaotic. 

I am a huge fan of badass fmc, but Saeris just felt like a wannabe & like a half-baked attempt at one. I love strong female leads, but strength isn’t just about saying tough things—it’s about having depth, agency, and actual clever comebacks. Instead, we get lines like:

You should be afraid of me. I am destruction incarnate.

Really? Because for most of the book, she doesn’t feel like destruction incarnate—she feels like she’s constantly reacting instead of actually taking charge. She has moments where she almost gets there, but they’re drowned out by the overall lack of true character depth.

And then there’s Kingfisher. First of all—the name. I kept waiting for a big reveal, some hidden meaning, something that would justify it. But nope. It’s just… Kingfisher. Every time I read it, I pictured weirdly eccentric assassin who named himself after a fishing hobby with a king.. And while he was marginally more interesting than Saeris, he remained frustratingly underdeveloped. His motives were murky and I really only cared about him toward the end.

Honestly, the only saving grace of this book was the magic system and the lore surrounding the gods. The way quicksilver was integrated into the world was genuinely cool, and if the book had focused more on that instead of drowning in repetitive character beats, it could have been something special. The last 100 pages were when things finally started picking up, and for a brief moment, I thought—okay, now we’re getting somewhere. But it was too little, too late.

I will probably still read book 2 and just hope it gets better now that she isn't some boring human anymore.