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g00sereads 's review for:
And I Darken
by Kiersten White
(actual rating: 3.5
i just didn't want to give it a 4)
warning: the following text is basically a badly structured essay on this book so
proceed with caution
(also there are spoilers)
hmm this book was a difficult one for me to rate. normally i try to rate with an overall impression based on the plot, setting, and characters, but i had really different opinions about each of those three things so i'm just going to break it down in this review and hope it kinda sorta makes sense.
setting:
very nice! 5/5 i would say. i enjoy retellings, alternate history, and elaborate historical fiction. there wasn't much to criticize here, and i think that the balance between setting and background detail to character and dialogue was very well achieved. i was particularly pleased that the book managed to avoid going into long-winded detail about how everything looks and the cities and all the stuff which i end up skimming over when i'm reading historical fiction.
plot:
well. here's the thing. i thought that for the most of the book, the plot was a very......... messy and uninteresting thing. i abandoned this book halfway a few months ago and essentially restarted a few days ago because i could not care less about what was going on. i think the main part of it which i found problematic was everything between when mehmed became the sultan the first time and the second time. i see pretty much......no reason for that bit to exist, it felt so random and threw off the pacing of the book. its only purpose was character development and hey this seems like a pretty good transition into the next bit.
characters:
ugh. characters like Lada are some of my least favourite in YA. i know everyone loves her because she's a strong independent woman who's ruthless and blah blah blah but here's the thing: she literally accomplishes nothing until like the last 10 pages of the book. yup. everything else that happens to/for her, is because mehmed for some reason is so in love with her that he makes concessions to the entire ottoman culture and tradition (btw: highly unrealistic. annoyed me very much. she could never have been such an integral part of military in the ottaman empire). but she's basically all like "oooo i'll stab a bitch" without any actual power because she just blindly does whatever mehmed wants her to do.
now Radu on the other hand, to me, was a much more interesting character. yes, he struggled with the same icky toxic love triangle thing but i like how much political intrigue and complex narrative was present in his parts of the story. his ability to take his charm and wield it so efficiently in court, especially when he saves Lada from execution, is probably when i started liking him. i would say he's probably my favourite throughout the series.
Mehmed: does anyone actually remember any character traits about him? i'm sorry but i can't think of a single thing which made him interesting or special other than "is the sultan". i don't know why lada and radu are so obsessed with him tbh and that contributed a lot to making this story kinda boring for me. there's a reason we don't get much narrative perspective from mehmed: he has absolutely 0 personality.
anyway TLDR it was an okay book i guess, i read all of it so i can't really say it was bad but i don't have any motivation to read the sequels, mostly because i can't stand radu and lada bitching about how their crush won't love them back. thanks for coming to my ted talk
i just didn't want to give it a 4)
warning: the following text is basically a badly structured essay on this book so
proceed with caution
(also there are spoilers)
hmm this book was a difficult one for me to rate. normally i try to rate with an overall impression based on the plot, setting, and characters, but i had really different opinions about each of those three things so i'm just going to break it down in this review and hope it kinda sorta makes sense.
setting:
very nice! 5/5 i would say. i enjoy retellings, alternate history, and elaborate historical fiction. there wasn't much to criticize here, and i think that the balance between setting and background detail to character and dialogue was very well achieved. i was particularly pleased that the book managed to avoid going into long-winded detail about how everything looks and the cities and all the stuff which i end up skimming over when i'm reading historical fiction.
plot:
well. here's the thing. i thought that for the most of the book, the plot was a very......... messy and uninteresting thing. i abandoned this book halfway a few months ago and essentially restarted a few days ago because i could not care less about what was going on. i think the main part of it which i found problematic was everything between when mehmed became the sultan the first time and the second time. i see pretty much......no reason for that bit to exist, it felt so random and threw off the pacing of the book. its only purpose was character development and hey this seems like a pretty good transition into the next bit.
characters:
ugh. characters like Lada are some of my least favourite in YA. i know everyone loves her because she's a strong independent woman who's ruthless and blah blah blah but here's the thing: she literally accomplishes nothing until like the last 10 pages of the book. yup. everything else that happens to/for her, is because mehmed for some reason is so in love with her that he makes concessions to the entire ottoman culture and tradition (btw: highly unrealistic. annoyed me very much. she could never have been such an integral part of military in the ottaman empire). but she's basically all like "oooo i'll stab a bitch" without any actual power because she just blindly does whatever mehmed wants her to do.
now Radu on the other hand, to me, was a much more interesting character. yes, he struggled with the same icky toxic love triangle thing but i like how much political intrigue and complex narrative was present in his parts of the story. his ability to take his charm and wield it so efficiently in court, especially when he saves Lada from execution, is probably when i started liking him. i would say he's probably my favourite throughout the series.
Mehmed: does anyone actually remember any character traits about him? i'm sorry but i can't think of a single thing which made him interesting or special other than "is the sultan". i don't know why lada and radu are so obsessed with him tbh and that contributed a lot to making this story kinda boring for me. there's a reason we don't get much narrative perspective from mehmed: he has absolutely 0 personality.
anyway TLDR it was an okay book i guess, i read all of it so i can't really say it was bad but i don't have any motivation to read the sequels, mostly because i can't stand radu and lada bitching about how their crush won't love them back. thanks for coming to my ted talk