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A review by tej_reads
Until We Shatter by Kate Dylan
3.0
I found myself wanting more from Until We Shatter. I thought the plot was great but the execution could have been better. Across 330 pages Dylan attempts to pack in a heist, romance, magic system, hundreds of years of history and political strife. There was honestly too much going on, and so certain areas displayed a lock of development. Character development was lacking, Cem was the most developed as she should be as the main character but the others found themselves merely payers on her stage, even when they were supposed to be second leads. The history/world building could have been better, a bit more on the origin of the church and council I felt that the history we were given was very surface level and used more as a plot device then anything else.
The positive aspects were of course Dylan's writing, there's not really a dull moment, we move from action to action to action which helps the book maintain it's fast pacing. It's also a standalone, so there's nothing else to focus on but the contents of this one book. Which caused other problems, it was too short. Until We Shatter could have been pushed to 400 to perhaps get in that character development that was lacking Cem was annoying and she never really got better. She's told to do one thing her entire life and it's not even that big of thing and the first thing she does when taking charge of her life and mind you this was at the last 20% was do the exact opposite? I just questioned why I was reading this. It didn't help that at the end of the book nothing changed. Had the situation be better or worse I would have been fine, but the fact that I put up with Cem being an annoying protagonist and I was left unfulfilled at the end of Until We Shatter really got to me.
Thank you, Hodder & Stoughton, Netgalley and Kate Dylan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The positive aspects were of course Dylan's writing, there's not really a dull moment, we move from action to action to action which helps the book maintain it's fast pacing. It's also a standalone, so there's nothing else to focus on but the contents of this one book. Which caused other problems, it was too short. Until We Shatter could have been pushed to 400 to perhaps get in that character development that was lacking Cem was annoying and she never really got better. She's told to do one thing her entire life and it's not even that big of thing and the first thing she does when taking charge of her life and mind you this was at the last 20% was do the exact opposite? I just questioned why I was reading this. It didn't help that at the end of the book nothing changed. Had the situation be better or worse I would have been fine, but the fact that I put up with Cem being an annoying protagonist and I was left unfulfilled at the end of Until We Shatter really got to me.
Thank you, Hodder & Stoughton, Netgalley and Kate Dylan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.