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A review by smokedshelves
The Hunter's Gambit by Ciel Pierlot
2.0
thank you to angry robot publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
i think this book had so much potential for it to be something i loved. polyamorous vampires in an extravagant palace setting with political games and secret rituals. what isn’t there to like? (apparently a lot of things, unfortunately).
our main character, kazan, well to me her only character traits were that she lies a lot and she has this *huge* scar across her face that makes her “so ugly” and “unattractive” and literally all that anyone says to her. and well… she was just incredibly boring to be following inside their head. i would definitely agree that she’s quite smart and is able to navigate the vampire world she’s dropped into fairly well. but truly, the only defining things about how she makes decisions is based off of those two “traits” that i stated. and after 300 pages, to me, it just became difficult to trudge through unfortunately.
you could also argue that her third personality trait was brought upon by an incredibly magical sword that can kill vampires (seemingly without leaving a trace). most of how she moves throughout the vampire palace is to find that damn sword. and it hinders her ability to think through things more than once. it’s sadly true that there was more personality in either of the love interests than the main character. and not only that, but their personality was supplied with some very interesting lore that i wish were learned way more about than the passing paragraph or two we got from them.
objectively, i think this story could have been so much better. had we had another pass through to flesh out these characters. to pace the story better, because that last 1/3 was rushed for sure. to build out this vampiric society just a tad more. we were not given enough! i’m only slightly curious to see what ciel has in store next, but it unfortunately won’t be one i’m reaching to pick up first.
and side note: it’s never a flex to have your story compare to jay kristoff. that man is problematic through and through.
original review:
full review to come when i'm not jetlagged lol.
i think this book had so much potential for it to be something i loved. polyamorous vampires in an extravagant palace setting with political games and secret rituals. what isn’t there to like? (apparently a lot of things, unfortunately).
our main character, kazan, well to me her only character traits were that she lies a lot and she has this *huge* scar across her face that makes her “so ugly” and “unattractive” and literally all that anyone says to her. and well… she was just incredibly boring to be following inside their head. i would definitely agree that she’s quite smart and is able to navigate the vampire world she’s dropped into fairly well. but truly, the only defining things about how she makes decisions is based off of those two “traits” that i stated. and after 300 pages, to me, it just became difficult to trudge through unfortunately.
you could also argue that her third personality trait was brought upon by an incredibly magical sword that can kill vampires (seemingly without leaving a trace). most of how she moves throughout the vampire palace is to find that damn sword. and it hinders her ability to think through things more than once. it’s sadly true that there was more personality in either of the love interests than the main character. and not only that, but their personality was supplied with some very interesting lore that i wish were learned way more about than the passing paragraph or two we got from them.
objectively, i think this story could have been so much better. had we had another pass through to flesh out these characters. to pace the story better, because that last 1/3 was rushed for sure. to build out this vampiric society just a tad more. we were not given enough! i’m only slightly curious to see what ciel has in store next, but it unfortunately won’t be one i’m reaching to pick up first.
and side note: it’s never a flex to have your story compare to jay kristoff. that man is problematic through and through.
original review:
full review to come when i'm not jetlagged lol.