Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ellasbookishwonderland 's review for:
Firstlife
by Gena Showalter
2.5/5*
Disclaimer: I read the Swedish translation of this, which might have affected my judgement and so on. Moving on.
I'm not a big fan of this book, for a variety of reasons. Something that surprised me, and that I didn't remember from the first time I read it, is the very stereotypical and slightly racist portrayal of Russian people, and that really threw me off in the beginning. Also, Killian gives off such rapist vibes while attempting to flirt with Ten in the first part of the book, although he's supposed to be such a ladies' man. Do girls actually enjoy that? I certainly Do Not.
Another thing: Literally all they do is talk about sex. They're constantly in the middle of almost dying, and they just talk about sex. Ten has been tortured in some horrible prison for several years and all she thinks about is how she never had sex with her ex boyfriend. Sounds a tiny bit unrealistic to me, and also makes me as a reader focus on the wrong things in the story. I'm not interested in anyones sex life, I'm interested in this high-stakes-life-or-death-drama we have going on.
I'm not going to completely drag this, however, because I do think it has some good aspects. The worldbuilding, first of all, is super fascinating and well done. The many different places and settings are really well-described, which surprised me. I also enjoy the theme of being forced to make a decision, not being able to decide on your own but instead being constantly influenced by other people, because I think that that's something everyone can relate to.
In conclusion, this is not the best book I've ever read, but I do think it's an enjoyable read and I'm excited to see where this series goes in the following books.
Disclaimer: I read the Swedish translation of this, which might have affected my judgement and so on. Moving on.
I'm not a big fan of this book, for a variety of reasons. Something that surprised me, and that I didn't remember from the first time I read it, is the very stereotypical and slightly racist portrayal of Russian people, and that really threw me off in the beginning. Also, Killian gives off such rapist vibes while attempting to flirt with Ten in the first part of the book, although he's supposed to be such a ladies' man. Do girls actually enjoy that? I certainly Do Not.
Another thing: Literally all they do is talk about sex. They're constantly in the middle of almost dying, and they just talk about sex. Ten has been tortured in some horrible prison for several years and all she thinks about is how she never had sex with her ex boyfriend. Sounds a tiny bit unrealistic to me, and also makes me as a reader focus on the wrong things in the story. I'm not interested in anyones sex life, I'm interested in this high-stakes-life-or-death-drama we have going on.
I'm not going to completely drag this, however, because I do think it has some good aspects. The worldbuilding, first of all, is super fascinating and well done. The many different places and settings are really well-described, which surprised me. I also enjoy the theme of being forced to make a decision, not being able to decide on your own but instead being constantly influenced by other people, because I think that that's something everyone can relate to.
In conclusion, this is not the best book I've ever read, but I do think it's an enjoyable read and I'm excited to see where this series goes in the following books.