A review by cxrriemc
When Shadows Grow Tall by Maressa Voss

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

 *ARC received from Netgalley - all opinions are my own*

TLDR: The magic and lore are vague but interesting, and the story is well written but incredibly slow until 40ish%. Kylene is the most interesting POV but Lovelace gets more chapters. Think most will like or thoroughly enjoy this book but I don't think it’s worth continuing with for me as the conclusion is very anticlimactic and the overarching story is a bit lacklustre.

The best point of When Shadows Grow Tall is Voss’ use of descriptives and has a great talent for writing a scene and helping you to imagine everything without needing to go overboard. Despite having finished the book over a week ago, I can still clearly picture multiple scenes from the book.

This is a dual POV book, with Lovelace and Kylene being our two main characters. Lovelace has the majority of page time which, in my opinion, really makes the book drag and some of his chapters just feel neverending. Kylene, on the other hand, is a much more interesting character to read about and I don't know if it’s just due to her being younger or the fact that we are following her through such a tumultuous time where she’s experiencing a lot of things for the first time but her chapters really helped me get through this novel. I will say that Lovelace does get more likeable as the story progresses, just not massively.

The first 40% or so are an absolute drag to get through and I would have likely DNF’d if this wasn’t for review. It really gets going around the 50-60% mark and I finished it pretty quickly after that. The story is interesting and I enjoyed the rough magic system and lore that we have and while we don’t get loads of details, I didn’t feel like I needed things to be more in depth than they were for the most part. The ending “big fight bit” with Cora was the only part where it was so ridiculously vague as to how her powers worked and the whole situation unfolded. It just felt really unrealistic (yes, I know we’re talking about fantasy here).

Overall, it’s a perfectly fine book that I feel most will like, if not really enjoy. However, while I liked the When Shadows Grow Tall, I will not be continuing the series.