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A review by ballgownsandbooks
The Place Beyond Her Dreams by Oby Aligwekwe
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This was such a disappointment.
Right from the first chapter I didn't click with the writing style, which feels very... fanfic-y? There was just a lot of telling instead of showing, which isn't <i>necessarily</i> a bad thing but I just expect more from published books - and it did become a problem when the things that <i>were</i> shown contradicted the telling? Besides which the plot was just full of inconsistencies - even from sentence to sentence sometimes!
I also think this book is mis-marketed as fantasy. Luenah and Ona's quest were barely relevant to the plot - I'm pretty sure she only goes there four or five times, and absolutely nothing would have changed if those elements hadn't been there. There were some interesting nuggets about finding your purpose in life, but they were really confusingly written so I couldn't quite grasp what the point was supposed to be? The worldbuilding was also really confusing: something about the the combination of modern society with kings just didn't make sense to me at all.
The primary focus of the story (which you'd never guess from the branding!) is actually the romance... which was another problem because I hated both love interests in the triangle. They were both incredibly controlling and never gave Ona space to make her own choices. One was a literal abuser so the other was obviously better, but that's a low bar... I wasn't too keen on Ona either, since she has no agency at all and is constantly just waiting for someone to fix her problems or give her all the answers.
Right from the first chapter I didn't click with the writing style, which feels very... fanfic-y? There was just a lot of telling instead of showing, which isn't <i>necessarily</i> a bad thing but I just expect more from published books - and it did become a problem when the things that <i>were</i> shown contradicted the telling? Besides which the plot was just full of inconsistencies - even from sentence to sentence sometimes!
I also think this book is mis-marketed as fantasy. Luenah and Ona's quest were barely relevant to the plot - I'm pretty sure she only goes there four or five times, and absolutely nothing would have changed if those elements hadn't been there. There were some interesting nuggets about finding your purpose in life, but they were really confusingly written so I couldn't quite grasp what the point was supposed to be? The worldbuilding was also really confusing: something about the the combination of modern society with kings just didn't make sense to me at all.
The primary focus of the story (which you'd never guess from the branding!) is actually the romance... which was another problem because I hated both love interests in the triangle. They were both incredibly controlling and never gave Ona space to make her own choices. One was a literal abuser so the other was obviously better, but that's a low bar... I wasn't too keen on Ona either, since she has no agency at all and is constantly just waiting for someone to fix her problems or give her all the answers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Grief