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schmolls 's review for:
To Kill a Shadow
by Katherine Quinn
Okay so overall good but I have some major issues with this book:
The main character is 18 but the whole book the author uses words like “kid” and “boy” and “girl” to describe them. She makes them sound as if they’re like 14/15 but actually they’re adults. So it’s this weird thing of them being written and sounding like they’re actually kids but… they’re not. And it’s just very odd. Like, stop calling them “kids”.
The commander however is initially written as a “man” but he is *drumroll* 19, so just one year older. Like… okay. Also somehow he’s a commander and famous fighter at 19? Sure.
The foreshadowing is TOO MUCH. Like OMG hit me over the head with your clues, I totally didn’t understand what the climax was gonna be the first 100 times. All the little epithets before each chapter were too much. You only needed like 2. I know this is YA but you don't need to dumb it down this much.
Ki meets these boys Patrick and Jake and suddenly starts talking about them like she’s loved them as friends forever, but she’s known them like one week before they head out on their journey. She literally says stuff like “he’s always there for me” and I’m like “when? You JUST MET HIM”. One time she’s like “he taught me to open myself up” - again, I'm like “WHEN GIRL LIKE YOU DONT KNOW HIM”
Overall I feel like some easy editing could have been done to help this - like a paragraph or two being like “the weeks passed and Jake and Patrick and I became inseparable… blah blah blah” Basically we barely know Patrick and Jake before we’re supposed to start caring about them like Ki apparently starts doing immediately.
Finally, the world building - it was lacking. There were background "vibes" but really not enough setting of the stage of this world - what do the people think the mist is, how is magic described, how long as the king reigned, what do the guards protect against, etc. etc.
The main character is 18 but the whole book the author uses words like “kid” and “boy” and “girl” to describe them. She makes them sound as if they’re like 14/15 but actually they’re adults. So it’s this weird thing of them being written and sounding like they’re actually kids but… they’re not. And it’s just very odd. Like, stop calling them “kids”.
The commander however is initially written as a “man” but he is *drumroll* 19, so just one year older. Like… okay. Also somehow he’s a commander and famous fighter at 19? Sure.
The foreshadowing is TOO MUCH. Like OMG hit me over the head with your clues, I totally didn’t understand what the climax was gonna be the first 100 times. All the little epithets before each chapter were too much. You only needed like 2. I know this is YA but you don't need to dumb it down this much.
Ki meets these boys Patrick and Jake and suddenly starts talking about them like she’s loved them as friends forever, but she’s known them like one week before they head out on their journey. She literally says stuff like “he’s always there for me” and I’m like “when? You JUST MET HIM”. One time she’s like “he taught me to open myself up” - again, I'm like “WHEN GIRL LIKE YOU DONT KNOW HIM”
Overall I feel like some easy editing could have been done to help this - like a paragraph or two being like “the weeks passed and Jake and Patrick and I became inseparable… blah blah blah” Basically we barely know Patrick and Jake before we’re supposed to start caring about them like Ki apparently starts doing immediately.
Finally, the world building - it was lacking. There were background "vibes" but really not enough setting of the stage of this world - what do the people think the mist is, how is magic described, how long as the king reigned, what do the guards protect against, etc. etc.