A review by coralinejones
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

2.0

OKAY DON'T KILL ME. WAIT LET ME EXPLAIN!

I absolutely could not stand the pacing of this book. I know in fantasy, or really any series, the second book is oftentimes used as filler so when the story progresses there's meat for books three and four. I get that! But the amount of BLOAT that's in this book ripped me to shreds in a bad way. This novel is almost 900 pages long and nearly half I did not care about. I don't understand why, either. I loved book one and thought the pacing and everything was spectacular. I was gripped and couldn't believe how the book ended. But book two? I couldn't wait for this to end.

First of all, Vin kept getting on my nerves. Considering how much development she's gotten since the beginning of the story, I don't understand why/how she's still really naive? She makes such stupid choices. I know she's a teenager but I feel like, because of her upbringing, how smart she was in all of book one, and how much safer and protected she is in this book her personality and actons would switch up a bit? But no. I also HATED the romance in this one. I didn't like Elend in book one but understood why he was there. In this one he felt like the most incompetent ass character amongst them all, and so much of the narrative revolves around him. And the love triangle? Please.

Funnily enough, I actually liked Zane more than Elend and found him compelling and interesting to read at least...

Sorry to be the outlier. I continued to read because I do plan on moving onto book three, as others said it's loads better, but I am beyond disappointed in this one.