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A review by nataliesboooks
The Waking Land by Callie Bates
1.0
1.5 stars
I received an ARC of this book, but never got a chance to read it before the release date. So any criticisms that I make are based off of the ARC I read and there might be differences between that one and the finished copy.
Ugh, where to begin?
My biggest complaint was definitely the main character Elanna. I didn’t like her narrative voice and I couldn’t stand her as a protagonist. She was so hopelessly naive and her emotions were all over the place. First she loves her father, then she hates him, then she’s raised by someone else, hates him, then loves him, then hates him again. Her narration was so meandering and contradictory. She loved her native country, then looked down upon it, then thought it was the best place ever.
The romance can be summed up in one word - YUCK. I couldn’t stand the guy she liked. And total instalove. Five seconds in his presence and she’s over the moon. But he won’t marry her because....reasons. It was never really explained why he didn’t want to marry her. Just because his father wasn’t a good man and didn’t want to be that kind of a father to his own kids?? He basically tells her that he will love her as much as he can “without the paper.” She had the worst taste ever, so basically any character that she liked, I did not like. (My favorite character was the Butcher, and Elanna hated him. Maybe I liked him the most simply because Elanna hated him.) Anyway, the love interest was awful. That random sex scene was bizarro and weird. And don’t get me starts on how she somehow “mated with the land”????!
Because Elanna’s narration was so dry and dull, it was hard to care about any of the characters. Was I supposed to be sad her father died? I didn’t really care. Was I supposed to worry about her servant Hensey, who disappeared completely from the book less than 40 pages in only to reappear in the last 10 pages? Because I forgot all about her.
Okay, I think my rant about the characters is done - now onto the plot. I actually thought the concept of this was really interesting, but the political situation was just. so. confusing. I couldn’t keep all the countries straight, or which characters were allied with which countries. After a while, it started to make sense, but it took a long time to figure out, mostly because Elanna’s alliance kept shifting.
I really liked the concept of the earth magic, but to me characters are more important than plot, and in this book, I couldn’t stand the character.
I received an ARC of this book, but never got a chance to read it before the release date. So any criticisms that I make are based off of the ARC I read and there might be differences between that one and the finished copy.
Ugh, where to begin?
My biggest complaint was definitely the main character Elanna. I didn’t like her narrative voice and I couldn’t stand her as a protagonist. She was so hopelessly naive and her emotions were all over the place. First she loves her father, then she hates him, then she’s raised by someone else, hates him, then loves him, then hates him again. Her narration was so meandering and contradictory. She loved her native country, then looked down upon it, then thought it was the best place ever.
The romance can be summed up in one word - YUCK. I couldn’t stand the guy she liked. And total instalove. Five seconds in his presence and she’s over the moon. But he won’t marry her because....reasons. It was never really explained why he didn’t want to marry her. Just because his father wasn’t a good man and didn’t want to be that kind of a father to his own kids?? He basically tells her that he will love her as much as he can “without the paper.” She had the worst taste ever, so basically any character that she liked, I did not like. (My favorite character was the Butcher, and Elanna hated him. Maybe I liked him the most simply because Elanna hated him.) Anyway, the love interest was awful. That random sex scene was bizarro and weird. And don’t get me starts on how she somehow “mated with the land”????!
Because Elanna’s narration was so dry and dull, it was hard to care about any of the characters. Was I supposed to be sad her father died? I didn’t really care. Was I supposed to worry about her servant Hensey, who disappeared completely from the book less than 40 pages in only to reappear in the last 10 pages? Because I forgot all about her.
Okay, I think my rant about the characters is done - now onto the plot. I actually thought the concept of this was really interesting, but the political situation was just. so. confusing. I couldn’t keep all the countries straight, or which characters were allied with which countries. After a while, it started to make sense, but it took a long time to figure out, mostly because Elanna’s alliance kept shifting.
I really liked the concept of the earth magic, but to me characters are more important than plot, and in this book, I couldn’t stand the character.