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lemonpop's review against another edition
1.0
I had to dnf this book :(
I try really hard not to dnf books and I might give it another shot sometime later in the future but for now I am putting it down
*spoiler free*
I don’t want to say this book is bad, I think it’s a cute idea and has a lot of potential but the writing style really rubs me the wrong way; it’s very tell not show and the third person parts are written as if in first person where we are told what the character is internally thinking as if it’s first person but it’s actually third and so it’s very off putting…
The two main characters are not very likable (and not in a good way), it seems each POV is just them complaining and they don’t have a personality outside of that.
I want to preface that I don’t think the book was bad it just wasn’t for me, and I still encourage people to give it a try! No hate towards the author, I really really wish I enjoyed this book more it just did not do it for me :(
BUT
I love that there is some queer and genderfluid rep in this book ♡ It makes my heart happy but I wish the author did a better job of explaining how this ideology affects the rest of society. They seem so open minded about gender and sexuality and yet this openmindedness is not reflected anywhere else in the society and i find that super disappointing. It feels very forced and the way the book explains it is also just a cop-out? It’s explained to one of the main characters who is new to the land by a stranger he encounters and it’s just not well done at all. Almost feels like a publicity stunt. Like the author just threw it in there to be able go say “hey queer community! look! genderfluid representation!”
I try really hard not to dnf books and I might give it another shot sometime later in the future but for now I am putting it down
*spoiler free*
I don’t want to say this book is bad, I think it’s a cute idea and has a lot of potential but the writing style really rubs me the wrong way; it’s very tell not show and the third person parts are written as if in first person where we are told what the character is internally thinking as if it’s first person but it’s actually third and so it’s very off putting…
The two main characters are not very likable (and not in a good way), it seems each POV is just them complaining and they don’t have a personality outside of that.
I want to preface that I don’t think the book was bad it just wasn’t for me, and I still encourage people to give it a try! No hate towards the author, I really really wish I enjoyed this book more it just did not do it for me :(
BUT
I love that there is some queer and genderfluid rep in this book ♡ It makes my heart happy but I wish the author did a better job of explaining how this ideology affects the rest of society. They seem so open minded about gender and sexuality and yet this openmindedness is not reflected anywhere else in the society and i find that super disappointing. It feels very forced and the way the book explains it is also just a cop-out? It’s explained to one of the main characters who is new to the land by a stranger he encounters and it’s just not well done at all. Almost feels like a publicity stunt. Like the author just threw it in there to be able go say “hey queer community! look! genderfluid representation!”
wee_ashes's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
dellereadsbooks's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Disappointed
sagareads's review against another edition
Really sad to give up on this one, as I love the premise, but by the end of the first chapter, it was a slog; by chapter 3, I gave up completely. The characterization and lore-building was rather clumsy, but I would have stuck with it longer if the prose weren't so poorly-crafted at the paragraph level. The author used the same structure for what felt like 90% of their sentences, so the prose had no rhythm or flow to it whatsoever.
scifi_rat's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
overall rating: 2.5 stars
+plot: [.5] i'm not always a huge fantasy fan no matter how hard i try to like this genre but the plot for this one was surprisingly interesting and intriguing enough for me to engage in. the reveal at the end was planted really well early on and genuinely surprised me.
+prose: [.25] it was good but it wasn't great. something about the moodiness of it felt very ya in not a good way. the differences between povs didn't exist and the only way i could tell apart everen's and arcady's was because of the second person use in everen's part. speaking of, i was glad the second person use actually had a purpose and somewhat of a plot relevance so kudos for that.
+pace: [.25] if the book only had everen's and arcady's povs, the pacing would've been just right. however the addition of sorin's and cassia's povs added nothing interesting to the plot that couldn't have been done with the first two povs, and it pulled you out of the story and slowed down the pacing considerably. i had to skim those povs simply because they were uninteresting and added nothing.
+main characters: [.25] everen and arcady were interesting enough on the surface but maybe it's because of the melodramatics but i was not emotionally invested in them. although i did want to keep reading to find out what happened to them. the inevitable betrayal did not make me feel dread the way it would for characters i cared about. instead i was just looking forward to seeing how they would react with that same kind of glee you feel when you're watching reality tv and the contestants get what they had coming. it was more of unattached entertainment.
+side characters: [0] if i only felt detachedly entertained by the main characters, i felt next to nothing about the rest of the characters. nothing memorable or interesting was happening in this department and everyone just felt like props for the main plot. the only one that piqued my interest was mariel but she was used for the plot and discarded immediately.
+worldbuilding: [.25] decent and solid enough but left me with some questions, especially the way the society dealt with gender. we are constantly told that this society doesn't care about binary gender roles but that's not necessarily ever reflected in anything concrete. there's also a few parts when arcady says that people wouldn't know what to make of their gender fluidity, which just contradicts the setup of people not caring about gender. there are a lot of vague contradictions and the world, other than the magic system, feels more or less generic fantasy.
+tropes: [.25] i did enjoy the trope of close proximity but characters can't touch. it actually was able to create genuine chemistry between everen and arcady. however the enemies to lovers part was not done well at all and was at times unnecessary and even juvenile in a very ya way.
+ending: [.25] i do wish the book would've ended one chapter earlier than it did but i do understand why it didn't.
+entertainment value: [.25] i did enjoy reading most of it even if i wasn't necessarily invested emotionally. it just kind of felt like reading relationship gossip.
+continuing to sequel?: [.25] i personally will not be but the setup for the next book was well done and i can absolutely see why people would.
+plot: [.5] i'm not always a huge fantasy fan no matter how hard i try to like this genre but the plot for this one was surprisingly interesting and intriguing enough for me to engage in. the reveal at the end was planted really well early on and genuinely surprised me.
+prose: [.25] it was good but it wasn't great. something about the moodiness of it felt very ya in not a good way. the differences between povs didn't exist and the only way i could tell apart everen's and arcady's was because of the second person use in everen's part. speaking of, i was glad the second person use actually had a purpose and somewhat of a plot relevance so kudos for that.
+pace: [.25] if the book only had everen's and arcady's povs, the pacing would've been just right. however the addition of sorin's and cassia's povs added nothing interesting to the plot that couldn't have been done with the first two povs, and it pulled you out of the story and slowed down the pacing considerably. i had to skim those povs simply because they were uninteresting and added nothing.
+main characters: [.25] everen and arcady were interesting enough on the surface but maybe it's because of the melodramatics but i was not emotionally invested in them. although i did want to keep reading to find out what happened to them. the inevitable betrayal did not make me feel dread the way it would for characters i cared about. instead i was just looking forward to seeing how they would react with that same kind of glee you feel when you're watching reality tv and the contestants get what they had coming. it was more of unattached entertainment.
+side characters: [0] if i only felt detachedly entertained by the main characters, i felt next to nothing about the rest of the characters. nothing memorable or interesting was happening in this department and everyone just felt like props for the main plot. the only one that piqued my interest was mariel but she was used for the plot and discarded immediately.
+worldbuilding: [.25] decent and solid enough but left me with some questions, especially the way the society dealt with gender. we are constantly told that this society doesn't care about binary gender roles but that's not necessarily ever reflected in anything concrete. there's also a few parts when arcady says that people wouldn't know what to make of their gender fluidity, which just contradicts the setup of people not caring about gender. there are a lot of vague contradictions and the world, other than the magic system, feels more or less generic fantasy.
+tropes: [.25] i did enjoy the trope of close proximity but characters can't touch. it actually was able to create genuine chemistry between everen and arcady. however the enemies to lovers part was not done well at all and was at times unnecessary and even juvenile in a very ya way.
+ending: [.25] i do wish the book would've ended one chapter earlier than it did but i do understand why it didn't.
+entertainment value: [.25] i did enjoy reading most of it even if i wasn't necessarily invested emotionally. it just kind of felt like reading relationship gossip.
+continuing to sequel?: [.25] i personally will not be but the setup for the next book was well done and i can absolutely see why people would.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Alcohol
_starbuck_'s review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
chrliesangel28's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
peytonpressly's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
raye_loves_reading's review against another edition
Not going to rate it because I just simply couldn't finish it. I managed to read to pg 120 and realised life is too short to read something that I am struggling with. Writing style, characters, and everything else simply weren't for me. This was my first DNF of 2023...and I hate the fact that it was a book I had been looking forward to.