Full review [ here].

I usually try to artfully condense my reviews from my site to here, but it's also so rare that I feel so mislead by a book that I need to vent about it so, that being said...

Nocturna just isn’t sure what it wants to be.

The elements for a great book are there: a unique magic system, characters that are engaging, a Big Bad, but the execution of those elements falls very short of where it needed to be in order to succeed.

The magic system didn’t seem like it could decide on what type of magic it would go with and became confusing. If I understood correctly, most/all people have elemental magical abilities. A rare few have propio, an enhanced magical ability not related directly to elemental magic that manifests as…. anything? The tell-tale sign of a propio is someone with a moving shadow, since all magic seems to be channeled through emotions and those feelings are then emoted by the shadow. Only those who are able to maintain an *inner balance* can become great magic users.

But of the named characters, 4 out of the 5 of them seem to have propio so it maybe isn’t that rare? Oh, and then there’s the spoken element to magic as well? Because knowing your mother tongue also gives you the ability to use magic?

With an ability like Finn’s, being able to shapeshift into other human forms, thievery just seemed like a lazy execution and a little obvious. It was more than miraculous that she had any skills beyond that, but as an Earth bender elemental, her ability over earth also seemed to extend to metal with very little training on her part. Or acknowledgment in other areas of the world.

Where are the Earth bending elemental smiths? Do they have water benders elementals using their ability to blood bend? It’s already established early on that fire benders elementals can, with lots of practice and skill, control lightning, so why does someone who can control earth get to so easily control metal?

So. Disappointed. In. This. Magic. System.

The main characters, arguably Finn, Alfie, and sometimes Luka, are so wildly inconsistent with their motivations, actions, and reactions. Finn and Alfie also seem to have massive chips on their shoulders, so their argumentative dynamic makes sense, but no one is calling them out on their nonsense either.

Luka, seemingly the only LGBT character, feels a bit like an after thought, despite being given some POV chapters. I didn’t get much of a grasp on him as a character, even in the chapters where he isn’t the focus of the POV.

The thing that really started making me dislike the book was the overuse of “maldito.” When I started keeping track, in the short span of 100 pages, there had already been close to 40 uses of the word. I’m not a prude by any means, but I couldn’t find any plausible use for repeating the word to such an extent. Additionally, t was used almost solely by Finn, maybe as a way to show her… street smarts? Lack of book smarts? I honestly don’t know.

And then there’s the world building.

The maps on the inside cover show a world that is a very thinly veiled reworking of ours. Castallan looks like South America. Englass, like England. Ygosi like a shrunken Africa, Mirai like China, and Uppskala like Russia. Beyond that, the nations mentioned in the book correspond with their climates to the nations as we know them outside the book. Little is done to develop a culture unique to Castallan beyond a seemingly traditional European fantasy setting, but with some Spanish words thrown in for flare. Sangria and tequila in place of wine and whiskey. Sugar cane fields in place of wheat.

In the rare instances where the world is being built, like with describing the Clock Tower prison, or the docks at the beginning, Motayne’s writing thrusts readers into an unnecessary info dump or memory of the place, and then throws them back into the present at that very same place! The expositions could have been so much smoother, but it just wasn't. In some ways, this felt more like a draft than a finished novel, there were so many things a discerning editor could have pointed out, especially when it comes to the originality.

The Big Bad felt like a poor impersonation of Graceling’s King Leck, or Killmonger in Jessica Jones. It was fairly easy to guess the Big Bad’s identity as well, even before it’s revealed (rather quickly). Ignacio can compel people to do his bidding with his propio, but supposedly Finn has put an end to that by blinding him before the book starts. Since she somehow thinks his power comes from his eyes... and not his ability to speak...like we observe later in the novel. If she were half as smart as she thinks she is, she would have cut out his tongue and blinded him. And then there’s the other part of the Big Bad, the black magic. That, actually, felt original since it was given sentience. However, given Motayne’s propensity for trying to over complicate the plot and nearly kill her characters, this supposedly malevolent magic winds up saving Alfie and Finn, when it only had to save Finn because for some reason the magic needed vessel. Sigh.

The characters seem to have little agency in the novel, and often Alfie and Finn’s lives being saved is entirely too convenient and arbitrary to lend them any control. And yet they keep trying to save the world without asking anybody but each other for help. Not even the trained bruxo who originally helped seal away the Evil Black Magic. All because Alfie goes into a shame spiral whenever he thinks about it, so instead of being mature and owning up to his mistakes, decides to take the toddler route.

There is little about this story that feels organic. Choices have been made and characters will go along with those choices, even if its against their better nature. A broken magic system gets broken further, an ultimately unoriginal Evil, and characters that should feel alive are little more than puppets.

Nocturna wants you to think it is unpredictable and edgy, but the plot points have either large plot holes, or are far too neat to be considered plausible. I wanted to love this book. It’s #ownvoices, it has little to no romance (but some great chemistry, which is saving this from a one star), and what initially sounded like a compelling premise. Overall, this is a mess of a book that I decided not to finish reading when there were other, potentially more original, fantasy books to read. I’m definitely looking at all the reviewers who have pointed out how similar this book is to V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic. Based off their input, I’ll probably like that book better anyways.