nacy_athana 's review for:

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

3.25

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I love the story, the magical system and the ending was epic but this book was draaaaggging for 500 pages. The characters with the exception of Elend also seemed weaker and less developed than the first book. Specifically Vin’s arc seems problematic to me. She is supposed to be the most powerful and street-smart person due to her upbringing and yet for the entirety of the book she just hops from rooftop to rooftop contemplating whether she can wear dresses or not and if she is feminine and cultured enough for Elend. She has no opinions whatsoever, everything flies over her head and she just smashes things and then feels guilty. No logic is used only emotion-based actions. This is supposed to be the protagonist of the series. It is really disappointing especially when there are only two somewhat serious female characters so far while the rest are either the discussion of rape and pity or complete trollops. Hopefully, the last book has some saving grace. I really hope that this is not the best Brandon can do with female characters. I’m also disappointed in how rape and abuse is handled in the books. First of all it happens to almost all the female characters (as we learn about their stories, not actively) in various degrees, or it’s a constant threat but not really that important. You know just an everyday occurrence that is referenced, overused but not really sth worth fussing over so we move on quickly. It just doesn’t have the depth of emotion and impact these kind of acts produce and that’s ok since it’s for younger audiences it should get glossed over but not go the other way and present it like sth almost normal and it definitely doesn’t have to be the backstory of every female character just so they can have some interest. That’s just lazy writing especially when you dedicate a whole book to develop Elend and characters like Sazed and OreSeur.