A review by cyreph
Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

well this wasnt what i expected.
stuff i liked: the message of the book.
how you can break free from the predestined future you have and choose to seek your own path.

i also liked the characters; i found them nuanced and interesting.
plot twists were okay. i guessed some of the twists, or at least to certain extents, so i wasn't really surprised at times. But the plot twist at the end got me like ?!/?!/?/!?/!/

stuff i wasn't really into:  i found the worldbuilding tedious (i think im just not really into books like that now compared to my childhood self so thats not really this book's fault)
also i guess i wasn't a huge fan of the writing style of the book? some parts felt tedious and repetitive.

tl,dr: liked characters, interesting message of book. wasn't a fan of the writing style or the worldbuilding aspect.

overall i gave it a 4 star rating because i liked the characters and i'm looking forward to the next book because it left on a cliffhanger :/
no matter how tedious and wordy parts of the book were, i basically stayed up till the morning to finish most of the book so that counts for something i guess.