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A review by alysh_ugh
Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara
2.0
I gave this book 2 stars and, to be quite honest, I'm not sure if I should have given it 1 star or 3.
In terms of the actual story...it's quite interesting. I would give that 3 or 4 stars. It's a very intriguing story that has the potential to draw the reader into a new and fascinating world.
Unfortunately, the author's writing style deserves negative stars, if that were at all possible.
Like many other readers' reviews state, I found myself Googling multiple times to ensure that this actually was the first book in the series. The author seems to delight in keeping the reader ignorant about what is actually going on in a way that made me question if I was missing something (say, the first book in the series) or want to just quit reading in the middle of the book altogether.
In addition, the narrator seems to not only be okay with, but indeed encourage herself in, being ignorant. It seems that on every other page she says to herself, "I didn't really want to know why." Children are being murdered and she refused to ask the questions that she should have been asking! This lead to not only her ignorance, but the readers' as well. Even when she did manage to ask questions, they were asked and answered in such a way that the reader was still left confused (but the narrator apparently knew what was going on). There are many, many questions I still don't have answers to, and whether that's by the author's design (because she wants me to purchase the next book in the series) or because she lacked the ability to create any closure in this book is unclear, although if it was by design, it certainly wasn't well thought out and planned design.
To be clear, I love books that don't give you the answer right away. I love having to guess at what is happening and try to solve the mystery on my own. What I don't love, however, is a book that looks like it wasn't even edited--because really, what kind of editor would allow this to be published? It read like a rough draft at best, and felt like I was several books into a series. It was clumsily written with weird punctuation that felt as though every conversation was stilted with awkwardness.
Moreover, the author didn't take the time to fully develop the world, leaving the reader confused, and going into weird descriptions that seem to have the purpose of taking up space on a page without actually describing anything. Some of the paragraphs felt to me as though they were the drunken ramblings of an incredibly talented author, but drunken ramblings none the less.
Additionally, while the author seemed to take great lengths to describe situations, she didn't really describe things. What exactly is this bracer? I have no clear mental picture, because she never described, which just lead to my distraction whenever it was mentioned. She vaguely describes people, places, and things, but never enough to fully form any sort of cohesive visual idea. Conversely, she describes what's happening in that drunken rambling way I mentioned earlier far too much, leaving me as the reader confused, bored, and frustrated all at once.
I think this series has amazing potential, but after reading the first chapter of the second book, I'm unsure if I will continue on as that first chapter also left me feeling as though I've skipped over several books. There seems to be a huge time jump between book 1 to 2 (or at least huge jumps in the main character's situation) without any explanation of what's happened between where book 1 ended and book 2 begins.
TL;DR--Overall, I think it's a great story with fantastic potential, but sloppy writing and even worse story telling makes me regret wasting my time on this book. My recommendation is that it is simply not worth it.
In terms of the actual story...it's quite interesting. I would give that 3 or 4 stars. It's a very intriguing story that has the potential to draw the reader into a new and fascinating world.
Unfortunately, the author's writing style deserves negative stars, if that were at all possible.
Like many other readers' reviews state, I found myself Googling multiple times to ensure that this actually was the first book in the series. The author seems to delight in keeping the reader ignorant about what is actually going on in a way that made me question if I was missing something (say, the first book in the series) or want to just quit reading in the middle of the book altogether.
In addition, the narrator seems to not only be okay with, but indeed encourage herself in, being ignorant. It seems that on every other page she says to herself, "I didn't really want to know why." Children are being murdered and she refused to ask the questions that she should have been asking! This lead to not only her ignorance, but the readers' as well. Even when she did manage to ask questions, they were asked and answered in such a way that the reader was still left confused (but the narrator apparently knew what was going on). There are many, many questions I still don't have answers to, and whether that's by the author's design (because she wants me to purchase the next book in the series) or because she lacked the ability to create any closure in this book is unclear, although if it was by design, it certainly wasn't well thought out and planned design.
To be clear, I love books that don't give you the answer right away. I love having to guess at what is happening and try to solve the mystery on my own. What I don't love, however, is a book that looks like it wasn't even edited--because really, what kind of editor would allow this to be published? It read like a rough draft at best, and felt like I was several books into a series. It was clumsily written with weird punctuation that felt as though every conversation was stilted with awkwardness.
Moreover, the author didn't take the time to fully develop the world, leaving the reader confused, and going into weird descriptions that seem to have the purpose of taking up space on a page without actually describing anything. Some of the paragraphs felt to me as though they were the drunken ramblings of an incredibly talented author, but drunken ramblings none the less.
Additionally, while the author seemed to take great lengths to describe situations, she didn't really describe things. What exactly is this bracer? I have no clear mental picture, because she never described, which just lead to my distraction whenever it was mentioned. She vaguely describes people, places, and things, but never enough to fully form any sort of cohesive visual idea. Conversely, she describes what's happening in that drunken rambling way I mentioned earlier far too much, leaving me as the reader confused, bored, and frustrated all at once.
I think this series has amazing potential, but after reading the first chapter of the second book, I'm unsure if I will continue on as that first chapter also left me feeling as though I've skipped over several books. There seems to be a huge time jump between book 1 to 2 (or at least huge jumps in the main character's situation) without any explanation of what's happened between where book 1 ended and book 2 begins.
TL;DR--Overall, I think it's a great story with fantastic potential, but sloppy writing and even worse story telling makes me regret wasting my time on this book. My recommendation is that it is simply not worth it.