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A review by juan_adhd_reading
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
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? Yes
3.5
There will probably never be any book that comes close to how amazing Six of Crows was, and though this book had promise, I’m sad to say it missed the mark. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I thought it was fun and the characters were good, but there were also many flaws I feel that I can’t overlook.
For one I feel like the POVs weren’t distinct enough. There were three POVs for Arthie, Jin and Flick, and out of all I thought Flick’s were the weakest. There were times were I thought I was reading an Arthie chapter when it was actually Flick’s, which is weird because their personalities are almost polar opposites. I also feel like there should’ve been POVs for Laith and Mattheo too, which brings me to my next point.
The group didn’t really feel united or family-like. Especially for Mattheo and Laith, they felt very much on the sidelines. Even Flick, who tells us a lot of times how she finally found herself a real family, but it just didn’t feel like it, in my opinion. Now, Arthie and Jin did actually feel like siblings, and most of their interactions were great.
Lastly, my biggest complaint is that the actual heist went by incredibly quickly and in the end, it had very little impact on the plot.Since the owner of the Athereum was basically Arthie’s father, they could’ve forgone the entirety of the plan and just ask him for the ledger. At the end it was basically what happened: they were caught, and should be dead, but since it was Arthie’s father he just ordered the guards away and gave them the ledger anyway. It makes the first half of the book kind of pointless since all of it was arranging the crew and planning the heist.
There were a couple of plot twist at the end that did caught me by surprise and I really enjoyed how action packed it was. The actual ending, though, felt kind of incomplete, rather than just being a cliffhanger. I would still read the next book in the series, but if you’re looking for the next SoC, I don’t feel like this is it.
For one I feel like the POVs weren’t distinct enough. There were three POVs for Arthie, Jin and Flick, and out of all I thought Flick’s were the weakest. There were times were I thought I was reading an Arthie chapter when it was actually Flick’s, which is weird because their personalities are almost polar opposites. I also feel like there should’ve been POVs for Laith and Mattheo too, which brings me to my next point.
The group didn’t really feel united or family-like. Especially for Mattheo and Laith, they felt very much on the sidelines. Even Flick, who tells us a lot of times how she finally found herself a real family, but it just didn’t feel like it, in my opinion. Now, Arthie and Jin did actually feel like siblings, and most of their interactions were great.
Lastly, my biggest complaint is that the actual heist went by incredibly quickly and in the end, it had very little impact on the plot.
There were a couple of plot twist at the end that did caught me by surprise and I really enjoyed how action packed it was. The actual ending, though, felt kind of incomplete, rather than just being a cliffhanger. I would still read the next book in the series, but if you’re looking for the next SoC, I don’t feel like this is it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Racism, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Kidnapping