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hibaxx 's review for:
Blazewrath Games
by Amparo Ortiz
CWs: violence, murder, past mention of homophobia
Rep: Puerto Rican-American biracial MC, Black character, Afro-Latinx character, Puerto Rican bisexual character, Puerto Rican gay character, Japanese character, Scottish character, mlm side characters, character in a wheelchair
I came here for the dragons and the magical sports and the book delivered on both fronts so, despite some of my caveats, fairly good reading experience on the whole.
What I Liked:
- Dragons! - I think this book did a great job of building a fairly original lore surrounding the dragons in this world and I loved how the dragon species differed according to the country or continent they came from.
- Magical sports tournament - I liked how we weren't given an info-dump on how the games worked but were shown instead, with pieces of information slowly being revealed when necessary. All the action sequences in the games were so much fun to read! Also, I loved how the story explored the involvement of politics in international sports and the kind of pressure players are under when it comes to their public image and the home country that they're representing.
- Lana's character - I appreciated how the author showcased Lana's internal struggles when it came to her identity not just as a biracial person but also as diaspora. The scenes where Lana felt uncomfortable with her white relatives and then with her place in the tournament representing Puerto Rico when she hadn't visited the island in years - they were all so well done.
- The villains - they were honestly more interesting and complex than I was expecting.
Sadly though, I had a few major issues with this novel:
- The plot - while I don't mind that the plot is fairly simple and straightforward, I also think there were WAY too many plot conveniences throughout the story. No spoilers but basically the villain spends the entire novel going to enormous lengths in order to find out a crucial piece of information - and then our teenage MC is able to figure out that info by doing a basic google search.....
- The side characters and character relationships in general were sorely lacking here - I really wish the author had spent a little more effort in giving all the side characters some depth, especially Lana's team members - it would've made their camaraderie feel less superficial. Actually, now that I think about it, even Lana wasn't that great of a character personality-wise. She feels like a very serviceable MC - doing things because the plot needs her to do them and not because that's naturally who she is (this is just how I read it).
- The magic system felt so odd and out of place - the concept of wizards and witches just felt so disconnected from the dragons and their magic to me that I kept wondering why the author felt the need to include it.
- The writing - a little too stilted and simplistic for my tastes but this is the case for most YA debut authors anyways so it wasn't a huge deal for me.
Overall, I think one of the biggest things I struggled with is the fact that this book just didn't feel all that memorable - apart from some scenes with the dragons and the games, there's nothing about the story that sticks out to me. But I will say this novel took risks that I don't see a lot of other YA fantasies taking and I appreciated that.
Rep: Puerto Rican-American biracial MC, Black character, Afro-Latinx character, Puerto Rican bisexual character, Puerto Rican gay character, Japanese character, Scottish character, mlm side characters, character in a wheelchair
I came here for the dragons and the magical sports and the book delivered on both fronts so, despite some of my caveats, fairly good reading experience on the whole.
What I Liked:
- Dragons! - I think this book did a great job of building a fairly original lore surrounding the dragons in this world and I loved how the dragon species differed according to the country or continent they came from.
- Magical sports tournament - I liked how we weren't given an info-dump on how the games worked but were shown instead, with pieces of information slowly being revealed when necessary. All the action sequences in the games were so much fun to read! Also, I loved how the story explored the involvement of politics in international sports and the kind of pressure players are under when it comes to their public image and the home country that they're representing.
- Lana's character - I appreciated how the author showcased Lana's internal struggles when it came to her identity not just as a biracial person but also as diaspora. The scenes where Lana felt uncomfortable with her white relatives and then with her place in the tournament representing Puerto Rico when she hadn't visited the island in years - they were all so well done.
- The villains - they were honestly more interesting and complex than I was expecting.
Sadly though, I had a few major issues with this novel:
- The plot - while I don't mind that the plot is fairly simple and straightforward, I also think there were WAY too many plot conveniences throughout the story. No spoilers but basically the villain spends the entire novel going to enormous lengths in order to find out a crucial piece of information - and then our teenage MC is able to figure out that info by doing a basic google search.....
- The side characters and character relationships in general were sorely lacking here - I really wish the author had spent a little more effort in giving all the side characters some depth, especially Lana's team members - it would've made their camaraderie feel less superficial. Actually, now that I think about it, even Lana wasn't that great of a character personality-wise. She feels like a very serviceable MC - doing things because the plot needs her to do them and not because that's naturally who she is (this is just how I read it).
- The magic system felt so odd and out of place - the concept of wizards and witches just felt so disconnected from the dragons and their magic to me that I kept wondering why the author felt the need to include it.
- The writing - a little too stilted and simplistic for my tastes but this is the case for most YA debut authors anyways so it wasn't a huge deal for me.
Overall, I think one of the biggest things I struggled with is the fact that this book just didn't feel all that memorable - apart from some scenes with the dragons and the games, there's nothing about the story that sticks out to me. But I will say this novel took risks that I don't see a lot of other YA fantasies taking and I appreciated that.