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Threads That Bind
by Kika Hatzopoulou
A Greek author writing about Greek mythology, specifically focusing on descendants of the Fates, the three sisters who can cut, draw, and weave the life threads? A PI who is hired to solve the mystery of who is abducting women by a mob boss and has to work with her fated soulmate? Three sisters at odds? A gorgeous cover? I'm in.
Sadly, this book did not work for me. Characters came and went, with many new characters being introduced even later on in the book, many of whom are inconsequential, and I had a hard time keeping track of them. At 50% I had a vague idea of what's going on, but every scene change took me off guard and I was scrambling to connect the dots. A chapter ends, and the next one picks up a while later, and sometimes has a fill-in recap, of how they got there, and sometimes the story just moves on. Even at 85% when a name is brought up I still had no idea who it was. There were just too many characters, too many threats, too many places, and overall, just too much happening and a lot of extra information that I assume is for worldbuilding but really just muddled the atmosphere. I felt overwhelmed with everything being introduced and then never spoken of again and was not able to really connect with the world or the politics.
Io is a bit frustrating of a character. Her relationship with her sisters defines her in a way, so does trying to avoid her fate thread. I liked her power, the fate threads, but they felt underutilized or mostly used to get her out of binds. Her outbursts felt like they came out of nowhere, and she makes up her mind quickly with insufficient evidence. Her PI experience doesn't help her solve the mystery. I wanted more scenes of her and her sisters together, even if they're flashbacks to one of the good times, rather than just referencing it in broad strokes.
Edei I liked a lot more than Io. That's not saying a whole lot though. He's solid and loyal and somehow willing to give it all up for a girl he met maybe a day and a half ago. He doesn't contribute a lot to the "investigation", other than being there as muscle and to distract Io, but I liked his characterization.
They absolutely don't feel like they belong together, and a lot of their "joking" moments were forced. I didn't buy their chemistry.
The Magic
It seemed like the author was having problems balancing her magic, that careful line of "not enough magic" and "this is too powerful". Magic felt like an afterthought, not a key part of the world.
Her friend being able to put people to sleep? Very cool, except if she had that power, why was she chasing after Io and not just putting her to sleep? Why was there this huge scene about them being chased and being terrified if she could just put the pursuers to sleep? The next morning, she put someone to sleep just fine. Is it a one-person thing? Is there a cooldown?
(Also was this scene solely so she and Edei could "sleep" in a bed together and be teased, and for the bad guys to conveniently talk about the information? "Yeah, didn't find them, time to give up and not mention this ever again.")
Near the end, her sister says Io just needs to present her name and she can get in, she's already been cleared to do so, but instead of doing so, Io uses her power to disable a guard with the reply of "there's no time!" ...Because using her name would be so much more difficult?
This book is like an onion with layers upon layers, but I barely understand the first layer, not to mention whatever came after. The characters flip-flopped, they're friends, they're not, they're bad, or maybe not?
Overall, this book just didn't work for me, but I liked the concept and the casual nonbinary and bisexual rep. The writing style itself I enjoyed, but I struggled to finish this book, confused about the motivations, confused about what was happening, and not entirely sure what I read. There's a bit of timey-wimey going on, and not in a good way, and we're left to fill in the gaps because the instruction manual was lost.
I think if there was a lot less introduction of characters and places and other magical structures that weren't instrumental in this book, and more emphasis on Io, her relationships with the key characters, and if the ending wasn't a fresh info dump, then maybe? Just maybe? It might work?
All I know is that even in the last 20%, when a character's name was brought up, I still had no idea who they were outside of her love interest, the politician, the "mob queen" (stated many, many times)", and her sisters without heavy guesswork and context clues.
Sadly, this book did not work for me. Characters came and went, with many new characters being introduced even later on in the book, many of whom are inconsequential, and I had a hard time keeping track of them. At 50% I had a vague idea of what's going on, but every scene change took me off guard and I was scrambling to connect the dots. A chapter ends, and the next one picks up a while later, and sometimes has a fill-in recap, of how they got there, and sometimes the story just moves on. Even at 85% when a name is brought up I still had no idea who it was. There were just too many characters, too many threats, too many places, and overall, just too much happening and a lot of extra information that I assume is for worldbuilding but really just muddled the atmosphere. I felt overwhelmed with everything being introduced and then never spoken of again and was not able to really connect with the world or the politics.
Io is a bit frustrating of a character. Her relationship with her sisters defines her in a way, so does trying to avoid her fate thread. I liked her power, the fate threads, but they felt underutilized or mostly used to get her out of binds. Her outbursts felt like they came out of nowhere, and she makes up her mind quickly with insufficient evidence. Her PI experience doesn't help her solve the mystery. I wanted more scenes of her and her sisters together, even if they're flashbacks to one of the good times, rather than just referencing it in broad strokes.
Edei I liked a lot more than Io. That's not saying a whole lot though. He's solid and loyal and somehow willing to give it all up for a girl he met maybe a day and a half ago. He doesn't contribute a lot to the "investigation", other than being there as muscle and to distract Io, but I liked his characterization.
They absolutely don't feel like they belong together, and a lot of their "joking" moments were forced. I didn't buy their chemistry.
The Magic
It seemed like the author was having problems balancing her magic, that careful line of "not enough magic" and "this is too powerful". Magic felt like an afterthought, not a key part of the world.
Spoiler
Io snipping her friend's thread? I liked that. Liked that it stunned her and was a part of the escape.Her friend being able to put people to sleep? Very cool, except if she had that power, why was she chasing after Io and not just putting her to sleep? Why was there this huge scene about them being chased and being terrified if she could just put the pursuers to sleep? The next morning, she put someone to sleep just fine. Is it a one-person thing? Is there a cooldown?
(Also was this scene solely so she and Edei could "sleep" in a bed together and be teased, and for the bad guys to conveniently talk about the information? "Yeah, didn't find them, time to give up and not mention this ever again.")
Near the end, her sister says Io just needs to present her name and she can get in, she's already been cleared to do so, but instead of doing so, Io uses her power to disable a guard with the reply of "there's no time!" ...Because using her name would be so much more difficult?
This book is like an onion with layers upon layers, but I barely understand the first layer, not to mention whatever came after. The characters flip-flopped, they're friends, they're not, they're bad, or maybe not?
Overall, this book just didn't work for me, but I liked the concept and the casual nonbinary and bisexual rep. The writing style itself I enjoyed, but I struggled to finish this book, confused about the motivations, confused about what was happening, and not entirely sure what I read. There's a bit of timey-wimey going on, and not in a good way, and we're left to fill in the gaps because the instruction manual was lost.
I think if there was a lot less introduction of characters and places and other magical structures that weren't instrumental in this book, and more emphasis on Io, her relationships with the key characters, and if the ending wasn't a fresh info dump, then maybe? Just maybe? It might work?
All I know is that even in the last 20%, when a character's name was brought up, I still had no idea who they were outside of her love interest, the politician, the "mob queen" (stated many, many times)", and her sisters without heavy guesswork and context clues.