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mellamaron 's review for:
This Raging Sea
by De Elizabeth
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you to Holiday House Books and Netgalley for the eARC!
To say I’m disappointed by this book is a huge understatement. And partially I think it was the marketing of this one. This should have been solely marketed as a horror - maybe a horror romance. It’s so very loosely a fantasy and there ain’t no physics-based “magic system” - it’s run-of-the-mill multiverse hopping. 😅 Theoretical physics at best - you know, stuff that is not practical. As an engineer, I definitely thought we’d be getting practical physics: statics, dynamics, F=ma, hell, fluid mechanics even. And the way they use the “magic” in this book is not a system. 😩 I feel like I was misled. Why not just call it a time travel / multiverse book? Why even mention physics?? Or why not specify that it’s THEORETICAL physics??
Sigh.
Anyway, I have way more issues with this one.
- Briar is the worst protagonist I’ve ever seen. Her best friend and the guy she is supposedly in love with disappears from the timeline. She finds out she’s going to die. Then she also finds out she’s descendant of a witch. What does she do? Has sex with the girl she bullied for 13 yrs! 🤨 Obviously. 🙄 And everything that happens, she turns back to herself. She constantly thinks the world revolves around her. It is infuriating!!! And two people are in love with her???? Why, Finn??? Why?? This girl sent $500 worth of flowers that DIE to a girl she bullied whose mom died of cancer! 💩 to make herself feel better!! Because charity what? Giving it to the person herself, what? Nahhhh flowers! 🌺 That’s soo nice!!! 🙄
- Morgan was… unnecessary. I hated her character too. She felt like a plot device, not a human.What person would be tortured for 13 yrs by a girl and then be super up for getting it on with her?? 🤦♀️ We needed more backstory.
- Finn’s two personality traits were “smart” and “obsessed with Briar.” 🤷♀️ idk why. It doesn’t make sense. Six year old seeing an angel? 😐 Ok.
- The villain was non-existent to me - he was a voice inside their heads, not an evil being. He felt like an afterthought when advertising made me think he was going to be Darkling-level of amazing. Nope. We didn’t even actually get to SEE him defeated. He just kinda didn’t exist anymore. Yay?
- This book felt like book two in a series. I had no chance to get a sense of Briar and Finn’s relationship bc he just disappears.And no idea why tf Morgan and Briar even remotely see each other in a romantic aspect. Six year olds falling in love. Obviously. A 6yo who is so cognizant of things that she decides never to tell what she saw to anyone…. Umm my 7yo would have told me in five seconds k.
- The action was never IN the story!!! I always felt like I was being TOLD about the action. The entire book felt like I was watching people watch other things. Or watching people tell me about world-building that made no sense. It was all atmosphere and no action.
- The endingwas too nice. Too clean. Too picture perfect. A book where we get some crazy grotesque horror and they’re just like “yay, love wins!” Please. Even Bly Manor made it bittersweet.
Ultimately, here’s the deal. If you liked A Study in Drowning and Skyla Arndt’s books, you’ll like this one. This is first and foremost, a horror.
If you want a better “I’ll find you in every multiverse” book: go read A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. I liked that more.
To say I’m disappointed by this book is a huge understatement. And partially I think it was the marketing of this one. This should have been solely marketed as a horror - maybe a horror romance. It’s so very loosely a fantasy and there ain’t no physics-based “magic system” - it’s run-of-the-mill multiverse hopping. 😅 Theoretical physics at best - you know, stuff that is not practical. As an engineer, I definitely thought we’d be getting practical physics: statics, dynamics, F=ma, hell, fluid mechanics even. And the way they use the “magic” in this book is not a system. 😩 I feel like I was misled. Why not just call it a time travel / multiverse book? Why even mention physics?? Or why not specify that it’s THEORETICAL physics??
Sigh.
Anyway, I have way more issues with this one.
- Briar is the worst protagonist I’ve ever seen.
- Morgan was… unnecessary. I hated her character too. She felt like a plot device, not a human.
- Finn’s two personality traits were “smart” and “obsessed with Briar.” 🤷♀️ idk why. It doesn’t make sense.
- The villain was non-existent to me - he was a voice inside their heads, not an evil being. He felt like an afterthought when advertising made me think he was going to be Darkling-level of amazing. Nope.
- This book felt like book two in a series. I had no chance to get a sense of Briar and Finn’s relationship bc he just disappears.
- The action was never IN the story!!! I always felt like I was being TOLD about the action. The entire book felt like I was watching people watch other things. Or watching people tell me about world-building that made no sense. It was all atmosphere and no action.
- The ending
Ultimately, here’s the deal. If you liked A Study in Drowning and Skyla Arndt’s books, you’ll like this one. This is first and foremost, a horror.
If you want a better “I’ll find you in every multiverse” book: go read A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. I liked that more.