Scan barcode
A review by frenchtoast_n_books
Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon
2.0
This one has me in a in a whole bunch of conflicting feelings, so let's unpack them.
First, I love the storyline for its originality. It doesn't focus on finding love (though there are conversations about marriage due to culture, and there is a love interest). It focuses on fighting to live and right the wrongs of the past. It interweaves family dynamics, both healthy and unhealthy. It lets me learn about Ancient Sumerian culture, and Kelly Coon does the lore quite well.
This story is about a girl, a healer apprentice, trying to heal the city ruler in order to prevent her sister from fulfilling the sacred position as a maiden sworn to join the ruler in his tomb should he die.
Now, Kelly Coon does things right. She sticks to her characters thoughts and perceptions and motivations to a T, so much so that many of the characters became unbearable to me, the reader. Though my dislike of most of the characters was a detriment to the story, I can appreciate that they all stick to their guns. I love the airing out of past grievances and honest communication between friends and lovers in the story, which was it's shining star for me. I loved blunt Iltani, Dagan's caring nature, and Nasu's fierce loyalty.
However, that is where my love of the characters end. Kammami (our main character) is repetitive and annoying. Nanaea (Kammani's sister) is naive and awful. Nin Arwia is an air head. The other characters get almost no "screen time" for me to really care. Also character back stories are either contradictory to other passages or too convenient for me to believe. It just mades me scratch my head often as I read.
As for the villains of the story, I wish I could paste a picture of the face I make while thinking about them. One has a relatable backstory and their motivations are clear to the point of "I understand why they are where they are". However, the other is completely ridiculous and despicable, so much so that they feel fake. I'm flabbergasted by the lack of humanizing this villain and making their motivations make sense, but no! This person is vile to the point where its not just power but rape, murder, espionage, and all of the above will happen in public without retaliation by the nobles or guards. It just made no sense to me. It seemed like Kelly Coon make this character this way to be the "baddest of the bad" just because, and she wrote them to force you to hate them. Sorry, but that's just not for me.
Now, onto writing style and over all content. For a debut book, this reads very well and follows a good arc with appropriate pacing. Were things predictable? Very much so, but I don't think that was a detriment to the story. Just because I have a reasonable knowledge of some things, doesn't mean our main characters have been exposed to such things. This makes their journey to their discoveries important. So I really can appreciate the overall writing.
However, I have added a phrase to the "please use another phrase because I am tired of hearing it" list. Where ACOTAR gave this list bedecked and ACOMAF gave it mother of pearl. This book gave me lapis lazuli. I understand is was a popular jem in the upper class for the time period, but it still didn't help my disdain from hearing it so often.
Lastly, let's talk about the audiobook as I listened to about 80% of the book and read along. The audiobook was fantastic with a well known voice actor. However, as I have many howevers with this book, one item sticks out about the audiobook that has me perplexed. In the audiobook, you hear the word pronounced as "silu" when the written book has the word "Enlil". I honestly have no clue why. In Sumerian culture Enlil is the God of air and wind. There is no word that I could find that looks like it would be prinounced "silu" in Sumerian culture. I believe I found the word "ilu" to represent all gods, but "ilu" isn't "silu", hence my confusion. I tried not to have this word distract me from my overall experience of the story, but it did. If anyone can enlighten me, that would be great.
Anywho, as a wrap up, I enjoyed parts of the book but many parts left me perplexed, annoyed, or uncaring about it as a whole. I don't think I'll continue with the series which saddens me. I really wanted to like this book, but it fell short.
I hope Kelly Coon will further improve as an author and her next series that comes out will pique my interest for me to read it. Though this book wasn't for me, that doesn't mean Kelly Coon isn't for me. She had enough in this book to show great growth and promise. I will follow her journey and hope to read another book from her in the future.
First, I love the storyline for its originality. It doesn't focus on finding love (though there are conversations about marriage due to culture, and there is a love interest). It focuses on fighting to live and right the wrongs of the past. It interweaves family dynamics, both healthy and unhealthy. It lets me learn about Ancient Sumerian culture, and Kelly Coon does the lore quite well.
This story is about a girl, a healer apprentice, trying to heal the city ruler in order to prevent her sister from fulfilling the sacred position as a maiden sworn to join the ruler in his tomb should he die.
Now, Kelly Coon does things right. She sticks to her characters thoughts and perceptions and motivations to a T, so much so that many of the characters became unbearable to me, the reader. Though my dislike of most of the characters was a detriment to the story, I can appreciate that they all stick to their guns. I love the airing out of past grievances and honest communication between friends and lovers in the story, which was it's shining star for me. I loved blunt Iltani, Dagan's caring nature, and Nasu's fierce loyalty.
However, that is where my love of the characters end. Kammami (our main character) is repetitive and annoying. Nanaea (Kammani's sister) is naive and awful. Nin Arwia is an air head. The other characters get almost no "screen time" for me to really care. Also character back stories are either contradictory to other passages or too convenient for me to believe. It just mades me scratch my head often as I read.
As for the villains of the story, I wish I could paste a picture of the face I make while thinking about them. One has a relatable backstory and their motivations are clear to the point of "I understand why they are where they are". However, the other is completely ridiculous and despicable, so much so that they feel fake. I'm flabbergasted by the lack of humanizing this villain and making their motivations make sense, but no! This person is vile to the point where its not just power but rape, murder, espionage, and all of the above will happen in public without retaliation by the nobles or guards. It just made no sense to me. It seemed like Kelly Coon make this character this way to be the "baddest of the bad" just because, and she wrote them to force you to hate them. Sorry, but that's just not for me.
Now, onto writing style and over all content. For a debut book, this reads very well and follows a good arc with appropriate pacing. Were things predictable? Very much so, but I don't think that was a detriment to the story. Just because I have a reasonable knowledge of some things, doesn't mean our main characters have been exposed to such things. This makes their journey to their discoveries important. So I really can appreciate the overall writing.
However, I have added a phrase to the "please use another phrase because I am tired of hearing it" list. Where ACOTAR gave this list bedecked and ACOMAF gave it mother of pearl. This book gave me lapis lazuli. I understand is was a popular jem in the upper class for the time period, but it still didn't help my disdain from hearing it so often.
Lastly, let's talk about the audiobook as I listened to about 80% of the book and read along. The audiobook was fantastic with a well known voice actor. However, as I have many howevers with this book, one item sticks out about the audiobook that has me perplexed. In the audiobook, you hear the word pronounced as "silu" when the written book has the word "Enlil". I honestly have no clue why. In Sumerian culture Enlil is the God of air and wind. There is no word that I could find that looks like it would be prinounced "silu" in Sumerian culture. I believe I found the word "ilu" to represent all gods, but "ilu" isn't "silu", hence my confusion. I tried not to have this word distract me from my overall experience of the story, but it did. If anyone can enlighten me, that would be great.
Anywho, as a wrap up, I enjoyed parts of the book but many parts left me perplexed, annoyed, or uncaring about it as a whole. I don't think I'll continue with the series which saddens me. I really wanted to like this book, but it fell short.
I hope Kelly Coon will further improve as an author and her next series that comes out will pique my interest for me to read it. Though this book wasn't for me, that doesn't mean Kelly Coon isn't for me. She had enough in this book to show great growth and promise. I will follow her journey and hope to read another book from her in the future.