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A review by maramalade
Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
While the world-building and storytelling in this book were overall good, I can tell it was a little off-balance compared to the last one. As in, Denna is the only one pushing the plot forward for most of it. For a good portion of the middle of the book, I rolled my eyes at the end of the chapter when Denna's perspective was getting good and I remembered that I had to go back to Mare being emo. She was such a strong character in the first book, and that character doesn't shine thru until she's suddenly a better person at the end. Also, I'm just now realizing that we didn't get a single word from Faye after the final fight and Aleks death got maybe a few paragraphs. And in this book we got more about her being sad about her dad than we did about Nils! In the first book I felt like she was upset about her dad but Nils death carried so much more of an impact to her life, and she literally watched him die. So what's all that about?!?
Also, I didn't get as attached to the side-characters in this one, I feel like I didn't know much about any of them other than Faye and maybe Alek which seems like such a shame bc they all seem interesting from the little bits we do get. I feel like this book would have done good with an additional 100 pages or so to give more time to flesh out the characters and plot points and yet at the same time the pacing feels much slower than the previous book. Maybe could've done with a few more side-plots to even out the pacing and give us some resolutions throughout the book instead of putting it all to the end.
Either way, it was still an enj yable read. I like the new world-building elements we learned about, and I liked the moments we get between the girls.
Also, I didn't get as attached to the side-characters in this one, I feel like I didn't know much about any of them other than Faye and maybe Alek which seems like such a shame bc they all seem interesting from the little bits we do get. I feel like this book would have done good with an additional 100 pages or so to give more time to flesh out the characters and plot points and yet at the same time the pacing feels much slower than the previous book. Maybe could've done with a few more side-plots to even out the pacing and give us some resolutions throughout the book instead of putting it all to the end.
Either way, it was still an enj yable read. I like the new world-building elements we learned about, and I liked the moments we get between the girls.