Clara

Easily read, mostly because this is more in the YA genre than in the adult genre.
The 20-year mc behave a little to often like a 15/16yo for my taste, and sometimes I really miss some more world-building. I often had a too hard time imagining the world they moved in, and placing the different locations in relation to one another.
And then there were smaller mistakes like a full moon's glow lighting up the night during a storm (with heavy rain).

The plot is the element pulling this book in direction of the adult-genre. It's complicated and filled with ancient history affecting the many characters motives and the plot in general. I appreciated that and kept me interested, even though I sometimes lost track because it went a tiny bit too fast.

It's decent. And yes, I'm picking up the next one from the library right away. I hope the mc grows with the challenges and becomes more adult than teenager with time.
Do I want to spend money on it, and have it take up space on my book-shelf to read again? Probably not.

Going into this book, I thought this was first and foremost a war-story and how a mother and son experienced the coming difficulties. But oh boy, how wrong I were!
This is first and foremost a story about identity, family, trauma and the consequences it has on ones identity and relations. M.L. Wang has proven herself an expert in dealing with the heavy themes of generational trauma and identity-struggles without ever explicitly shoving it in the readers face.
The story reminded me of so many elements from the ‘real world' like the political propaganda in the Sovjet Union and drug abuse in families, but this is not a story of either propaganda or drug abuse, but rather what it does to the individuals. It will make sense when you read the book, I promise!

This is a character-driven book. It is mainly centered around Misaki and her struggles to find meaning in her new existence. Everything that happens plot-wise is contributing to this, often in a very subtle way. The first 1/3 of the book might feel kinda slow, but when the action picks up, all the knowledge and insight you've been given up till then makes perfect sense and has great value in the following plot. It perfectly contributes value to the climaxes of the story: I was straight up bawling for more than one chapter, and it had me reading hours into the night, because I simply would not be able to sleep with so many strong emotions churning in me. A small warning: it might be difficult to read the middle of the book while you're pms'ing...

The magic system and the magical abilities of the main characters is not the focal point of the story, but rather a contributing element to the characterization and the characters relations. There is no epic world-building, nor an extensively actionpacked plot; it would not drive the story forward, so I never felt I missed it. There is just the right amount of action and no scene feel redundant.
The writing is beautiful and easy to read, the action sequences (yes, there are some action!) are a breeze to follow, without the scene being boring or simplistic. There are a lot of japanese(inspired?) words and frases, but there's a very handy glossary in the back to help you through, so it really only contributes to the social setting of the story.

Read this if you are a sucker for some chefs kiss perfect character arcs and stories that makes you think and feel all the feels!

The first book in a really long time I DNF'ed in pure frustration. I really tried, I did!
I read to 60% of the book and I really wanted to like this book, so I kept on reading, waiting for the plot to thicken, for the characters to develop, but... neither ever happened!
I dislike this book because:
1. the main character: he's just so incredible simple and often straight up stupid. That he has this ‘banter' that other readers refer to with this 10yr old little kid, only shows his immaturity. I don't know whyyyy the characters he meet on his way helps him or continue to place trust in him to do important tasks for him, ‘cause he keeps completely fucking things up with his complete incapability to figure things out. He goes directly into traps, even when the 10 year old kid says “this feels like a trap”, and then gets people killed, and then theres NO FURTHER CONSEQUENCE! Which leads me to my next point of criticism;
2. Is this supposed to be a gritty and cutthroat world? I can think of so many worlds in other books, where if Lukan walked into their city and tried what he's trying here, he'd be stabbed 5 times, and thrown in the gutter on page 12. He has no sense for survival, and yet keeps on surviving on pure dumb luck.
3. The plot is fast paced, I will give you that, but that's only because it is so simplistic. The thing about there being no consequences for his fuck-ups is a perfect example of one of a million loose ends. There's so many points in this story, where the plot could (and should?!) spread out and become more complicated, but just doesn't. It is very ‘then-this-happened-and-then-this-happened-and-so-on'...
I was also completely thrown off by the whole starting point of the story: the ‘silverblood promise'. It's supposed to be a goldblood promise, but because he has no gold, he have to make do with silver - ...whaaat?? We never get any real explanation of the meaning of this kind of promise, that supposedly means a lot, but then again, he makes it to his family's servant? To find out why his dad got murdered? They are in perfect agreement that it is important to figure our why and who did it, so why is this fancy promise necessary? Shouldn't it be perfectly clear when the whole book got the name from this scene? Shouldn't it be a focal point in the story? It didn't feel like it; 60% into the book, it never got mentioned again.
4. There's way to much telling and not nearly enough showing. I got the feeling more times to count, that the author didn't trust me to read the characters and situations right, and therefor directly told me how he would like me to perceive things. He did that a lot through Lukan's inner monologue, which felt odd; who describes people and their surrounding aloud inside their head?

I've never seen Indiana Jones, so I can't comment on the comparisons to that, but what I can say is that the comparisons to The Lies of Locke Lamora is waaaaaaay of. Lukan is FAR to stupid to keep up with the gentlemen bastards, the city of Saphrona has nothing on Camorr as a setting, the complexity of the plot is an ant to an elephant, and then there's the complete lack of interesting characters and engaging dialogue.

I cannot fathom how this book has 4 stars on Goodreads.
I spent £20 on this book and I want them back!