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A review by bingsoojung
The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
<i>ARC exchanged for an honest review</i>
<b>The Sun and the Void is a book of magic, sinister magics, and two girls trying to seek power in a world which has disenfranchised them. If you are a fan of anti-colonialist fantasy and stories of power, identity, and how it’s wielded, then you’ll probably like the Sun and The Void.</b>
Before I start my review, I want to give a spoiler-y note for other sapphic fantasy readers. While these are spoilers, this is to clear some things up about the description of the book.
Okay, so from how the book has been marketed, you would think romance is a big part of the book, and that the two POV characters are the f/f romance, like in the Jasmine Throne (because let’s be real if you’re reading this, you’ve read the Jasmine Throne). However if you expect that, you will be disappointed. The two POV characters aren’t in a relationship, nor will they likely ever be. I’m pretty sure one of them is straight.
The romance in the book is unrequited love for most of the book. In fact, the actual romantic aspects don’t even make an appearence until the final 1/3 of the book. If you are looking for sapphic fantasy, this book, while that, is <i>incredibly</i> light on the sapphic part of that. This is not sapphic in the way of the sapphic trifecta, or Gideon the Ninth. This is predominately a book more concerned with it’s plot and world and the growing non-romantic relationships between characters, than anything else. I still really enjoyed this book, but I was also disappointed at the lack of more queerness in the story personally. I really was expecting a more Priory-esque level of sapphic to the forefront, but that wasn’t what I got. So don’t expect that.
So! The Sun and The Void! Now I heard of this novel a few months ago by way of a friend, and because of that it’s been on my TBR for a while. Thus I was delighted to get an ARC of it. The Sun and The Void takes place in a world based on South America, which has just recently managed to drive away the colonial forces that previously subjugated it. However beacause of this the world has been left in turmoil, and power, and who wields it, is everything. As a premise this is honestly the type of book I adore. Gabriela Romero LaCruz did a fantastic job of building out her world in a way that felt incredibly engaging, and left me invested in what secrets it held. I really wanted to know what else we had to learn.
Reina and Eva are our POV characters, and both of them are incredibly fun people to follow. Sometimes you read a book with multiple POV’s and one of them falls short, leading to a large section of the book feeling unsatisfactory. But neither Reina or Eva lag behind the other, leading to the entire book being incredibly engaging. Both of them are complex people trying to make the best of terrible circumstances, and while not all their choices are good, you understand why they’re making them. In fact, that’s probably Romero LaCruz’s strongest point. All of the characters are incredibly well written. While many of them aren’t good people, you understand why they make the choices they make. There were characters who I hated to love and loved to hate, and Romero LaCruz knows how to make a compelling character for everyone.
The author’s ability to worldbuild around the reader is also fantastic. I’m personally a very big fan of being dropped in a world and just being confused, and Romero LaCruz does that, and does it excellently.
My major critique of the story, however, is the pacing. I think this is the first time I’ve ended a book truly thinking that the pacing needed some work. The book is split into two parts, part one, and part two, and part one is 1/3rd of the book and honestly too long. While I really enjoyed that section of the book, it’s pacing is incredibly uneven compared to part two, where the story picks up greatly and honestly change from being more of a family political drama story, to an adventure story. In all honestly the first half of the book should’ve been shortened to be a third of the book.
Secondly, while Eva and Reina both felt incredibly important as characters, due to the uneven attention given to Reina over Eva in part one, it honestly felt as if the story was more Reina’s than Eva’s. Which is a shame! Because I really honestly enjoyed Eva’s part of the story. She was clever and fun, and even though her life was incredibly different from Eva’s it was nevertheless incredibly engaging. Likewise, there are some plot elements that occur that felt implausible, and are honestly just idiot plots for the author to get from point a to point b.
While I enjoyed Romero LaCruz’s descriptors as well, sometimes she would put them in places that felt incredibly clunky. It’s like she’d remembered how flowery her writing style was, and then tossed one in at a place where she needed one. The descriptions, while decadent, were maybe just a bit too filling, and we could’ve used some more matter of fact wording.
At the end of it all, this was an incredibly enjoyable read and fantastic book, however it very much is a debut novel, and often falls into the traps of such. I look forward to reading the next book in the series though, and seeing where Romero LaCruz goes with this series!
<b>The Sun and the Void is a book of magic, sinister magics, and two girls trying to seek power in a world which has disenfranchised them. If you are a fan of anti-colonialist fantasy and stories of power, identity, and how it’s wielded, then you’ll probably like the Sun and The Void.</b>
Before I start my review, I want to give a spoiler-y note for other sapphic fantasy readers. While these are spoilers, this is to clear some things up about the description of the book.
Okay, so from how the book has been marketed, you would think romance is a big part of the book, and that the two POV characters are the f/f romance, like in the Jasmine Throne (because let’s be real if you’re reading this, you’ve read the Jasmine Throne). However if you expect that, you will be disappointed. The two POV characters aren’t in a relationship, nor will they likely ever be. I’m pretty sure one of them is straight.
The romance in the book is unrequited love for most of the book. In fact, the actual romantic aspects don’t even make an appearence until the final 1/3 of the book. If you are looking for sapphic fantasy, this book, while that, is <i>incredibly</i> light on the sapphic part of that. This is not sapphic in the way of the sapphic trifecta, or Gideon the Ninth. This is predominately a book more concerned with it’s plot and world and the growing non-romantic relationships between characters, than anything else. I still really enjoyed this book, but I was also disappointed at the lack of more queerness in the story personally. I really was expecting a more Priory-esque level of sapphic to the forefront, but that wasn’t what I got. So don’t expect that.
So! The Sun and The Void! Now I heard of this novel a few months ago by way of a friend, and because of that it’s been on my TBR for a while. Thus I was delighted to get an ARC of it. The Sun and The Void takes place in a world based on South America, which has just recently managed to drive away the colonial forces that previously subjugated it. However beacause of this the world has been left in turmoil, and power, and who wields it, is everything. As a premise this is honestly the type of book I adore. Gabriela Romero LaCruz did a fantastic job of building out her world in a way that felt incredibly engaging, and left me invested in what secrets it held. I really wanted to know what else we had to learn.
Reina and Eva are our POV characters, and both of them are incredibly fun people to follow. Sometimes you read a book with multiple POV’s and one of them falls short, leading to a large section of the book feeling unsatisfactory. But neither Reina or Eva lag behind the other, leading to the entire book being incredibly engaging. Both of them are complex people trying to make the best of terrible circumstances, and while not all their choices are good, you understand why they’re making them. In fact, that’s probably Romero LaCruz’s strongest point. All of the characters are incredibly well written. While many of them aren’t good people, you understand why they make the choices they make. There were characters who I hated to love and loved to hate, and Romero LaCruz knows how to make a compelling character for everyone.
The author’s ability to worldbuild around the reader is also fantastic. I’m personally a very big fan of being dropped in a world and just being confused, and Romero LaCruz does that, and does it excellently.
My major critique of the story, however, is the pacing. I think this is the first time I’ve ended a book truly thinking that the pacing needed some work. The book is split into two parts, part one, and part two, and part one is 1/3rd of the book and honestly too long. While I really enjoyed that section of the book, it’s pacing is incredibly uneven compared to part two, where the story picks up greatly and honestly change from being more of a family political drama story, to an adventure story. In all honestly the first half of the book should’ve been shortened to be a third of the book.
Secondly, while Eva and Reina both felt incredibly important as characters, due to the uneven attention given to Reina over Eva in part one, it honestly felt as if the story was more Reina’s than Eva’s. Which is a shame! Because I really honestly enjoyed Eva’s part of the story. She was clever and fun, and even though her life was incredibly different from Eva’s it was nevertheless incredibly engaging. Likewise, there are some plot elements that occur that felt implausible, and are honestly just idiot plots for the author to get from point a to point b.
While I enjoyed Romero LaCruz’s descriptors as well, sometimes she would put them in places that felt incredibly clunky. It’s like she’d remembered how flowery her writing style was, and then tossed one in at a place where she needed one. The descriptions, while decadent, were maybe just a bit too filling, and we could’ve used some more matter of fact wording.
At the end of it all, this was an incredibly enjoyable read and fantastic book, however it very much is a debut novel, and often falls into the traps of such. I look forward to reading the next book in the series though, and seeing where Romero LaCruz goes with this series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Xenophobia, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Violence, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Homophobia