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A review by yas_sezer
Valiant by Holly Black
2.0
here we go again.
so far we are going downhill. i enjoyed this one less than tithe, and found myself wanting to put the book down and LEAVE it down.
in saying that, i didnt hate it. i can see why some people enjoy it. the writing is fine, if anything i can see the potential.
personally, any time there was a build up for either a good plot point, character development, or an opportunity to explore an important idea, it just fell flat and i was disappointed each time. ill list a few examples:
- the friendship between luis and val and lolli and val in particular, but the friendship group as a whole.
- the friendship between val and ruth.
- the romance between val and ravus.
- dales descent into betrayal and desperation.
- forgiveness within family.
each of these was explored but just not to the full extent. i wanted more. if anything, i feel like there were too many minor plot points shoved into a short book. maybe this wouldve been more enjoyable if it was longer.
ravus felt like a wasted character. i would have liked to see more of him and her interacting and building their romance. it was so sudden - suddenly she is frothing over him and picturing his face while she does the deed with dale. suddenly, she is willing to go to great extents and battle mabry with a sword to get his heart back. where was the connection build up? i dont buy it. i couldnt even look past it and say "oh its just a fairytale". even prince charming had more of a build up than this.
side note, the whole cutting out the heart thing was so random? how did we get here. it started to feel really messy towards the end, and i feel like we were expected to just roll with it.
the character who was probably the most developed (not even much tho) is ruth. her coming back at the end and going through all the drama just to help her out was respectable, but also keep in mind she knew vals bf was sleeping w vals mum and didnt tell her...
this entire plot line feels like a fever dream. what even happened tbh? val catches her mum doin nasty things, runs away from home, cuts all her hair off, makes friends with people who live in a train tunnel and shoot fairy potions into their bloodstream (Never), falls into debt with a troll who she falls in love with, gets framed to be poisoning fae in the human world, fights mabry to steal a heart back, and brings her mans back to life, and forgives her mum. what in the rollercoaster of events.
felt like this could have had heaps more depth to it, similar to how i felt with tithe. except, this story just had too many disappointing elements to it.
in saying that, i do have higher hopes for book 3 (Ironside). maybe that will be a 3 star.
overall, i feel similarly to how i did with tithe - i dont recommend it, i dont not recommend it. if you wanna skip it then do it. i am only reading it because i need to know everything there is to know about everything.
so far we are going downhill. i enjoyed this one less than tithe, and found myself wanting to put the book down and LEAVE it down.
in saying that, i didnt hate it. i can see why some people enjoy it. the writing is fine, if anything i can see the potential.
personally, any time there was a build up for either a good plot point, character development, or an opportunity to explore an important idea, it just fell flat and i was disappointed each time. ill list a few examples:
- the friendship between luis and val and lolli and val in particular, but the friendship group as a whole.
- the friendship between val and ruth.
- the romance between val and ravus.
- dales descent into betrayal and desperation.
- forgiveness within family.
each of these was explored but just not to the full extent. i wanted more. if anything, i feel like there were too many minor plot points shoved into a short book. maybe this wouldve been more enjoyable if it was longer.
ravus felt like a wasted character. i would have liked to see more of him and her interacting and building their romance. it was so sudden - suddenly she is frothing over him and picturing his face while she does the deed with dale. suddenly, she is willing to go to great extents and battle mabry with a sword to get his heart back. where was the connection build up? i dont buy it. i couldnt even look past it and say "oh its just a fairytale". even prince charming had more of a build up than this.
side note, the whole cutting out the heart thing was so random? how did we get here. it started to feel really messy towards the end, and i feel like we were expected to just roll with it.
the character who was probably the most developed (not even much tho) is ruth. her coming back at the end and going through all the drama just to help her out was respectable, but also keep in mind she knew vals bf was sleeping w vals mum and didnt tell her...
this entire plot line feels like a fever dream. what even happened tbh? val catches her mum doin nasty things, runs away from home, cuts all her hair off, makes friends with people who live in a train tunnel and shoot fairy potions into their bloodstream (Never), falls into debt with a troll who she falls in love with, gets framed to be poisoning fae in the human world, fights mabry to steal a heart back, and brings her mans back to life, and forgives her mum. what in the rollercoaster of events.
felt like this could have had heaps more depth to it, similar to how i felt with tithe. except, this story just had too many disappointing elements to it.
in saying that, i do have higher hopes for book 3 (Ironside). maybe that will be a 3 star.
overall, i feel similarly to how i did with tithe - i dont recommend it, i dont not recommend it. if you wanna skip it then do it. i am only reading it because i need to know everything there is to know about everything.