Katie
2.5 stars
I got this book back when it first came out and just hadn't gotten around to reading it, assuming I'd enjoy it regardless, but I'm not really sure what I was waiting for. Just....this? Not worth it.
Both fast-paced and too long somehow. The plot is mostly tight but why on earth that needed to be 400+ pages is anyone's guess. I appreciated the different perspectives but some of the characters were far more interesting than others. Much of the relationships felt contrived, especially the romances. No idea why people rave about it.
Not going to read the sequel.
3.75 stars.
I read this in two days, which is a testament to how fast-paced it is. This is nonstop action from page 1, something I appreciated a lot after some slower reads. While I enjoyed the premise, this pacing is also what hurt it. I think that a lot of things I read err on the “dragging” side than not, but this swung a little too hard in the opposite direction. There was a LOT that could've been explored regarding the emotional and psychological impact of what transpires, and there is some. But far too little for my taste. I feel uncomfortable with a full four stars, and with a 3.5.
It's interesting to me that I happened to catch episode 4 (only) or so of the TV series before reading this book, and knowing the main secret didn't really hamper my enjoyment of this book at all.
3.5 stars
I read the Mortal Instruments series so I already knew of the author and all her associated drama, which kept me away from her works. However, I follow some booktubers that seemed to enjoy this, so I thought to give it a chance.
It's not...awful? It certainly seems better plotted than TMI, with better character work and dialogue as well. Also less cringe. However I believe it has two basic problems: it's too long, and it doesn't do enough.
Paperback is about 604 pages for the story, which is quite a chunk for a new series but not super weird for fantasy. I expected a lot to happen in that many pages, but it just wasn't enough - especially in the last 100 pages.
The last 100 felt like we were leading up to something, but there wasn't any payoff. Sure, there are events that happen but they don't feel large enough or important enough to be the climax. It's like you're reading and gripping pages waiting for The Big Reveal and it never comes. Nothing is resolved. It was disappointing in the truest sense of anticlimax.
Speaking of events in the last 100 pages...there's not a ton of foreshadowing for them either, so a good bit of them seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Specially what happens from Lin's perspective the last few times we see her. Actually, even what Kel experiences. Just the entire last 30 pages felt kind of random and out of place??
I also read the excerpt of the next book, The Ragpicker King. It did not capture me at all. I have no desire to read it. I am not immune to hate reading sequels, but I don't hate this enough for that. It just seems boring.
A solid 4 stars. I read this over the span of a few days because I got really roped in. I would say that the beginning is kind of a wall of infodump/terms that can be pretty off-putting, but I stuck with it and adjusted after a bit. I can see where some of the criticism comes from, but I liked this.
1.5 stars.
IDK what to even say about this. I'm not a big fan of Greek retellings to begin with, and this didn't help.
This dragged so much for absolutely no reason; it meandered on and on but got nowhere specific. Lots of threads are created and abandoned, just as filler I guess? Lots of characters are introduced just for a single scene or a to-be-abandoned thread. This could've been cut by several chapters.
The main character is extremely frustrating to follow. He is BEYOND dumb. I don't mean naive, just that he thinks things clearly because the author needs him to, not because he was convinced of anything in particular. Especially the “tension” in the latter half.
There are a few conflicts that all felt very shoehorned in. Several things are revealed over time but don't really make sense given what we know. I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to have concluded about a few things near the end.
The romance was one of the worst parts. It was so contrived that it was hard to support. You barely get any support for it but you're supposed to be so excited. Sure they interact and are a little cute with each other, but the intensity it's portrayed with later is just bizarre.
The end was awful. So many random things are thrown out last minute in the last few chapters. I kept reading and wondering why we were still in the book since it didn't seem to be leading to any particular point.
Crumbs of positivity: the beginning...Helios....um....
felt like i was reading the author's snippets file.
just a hot fucking mess. there are untold issues with this but one big one is that nothing is earned. it's a lot of sex surrounded by random plot ideas. and of course, it all wraps up very quickly to make room for more sex.
kipp is the best character.
2.5 stars
Um, what was that? There are other, better written reviews that describe the problems with this, but I'll try.
It's just boring. The first 10% and the last 10% are the most interesting parts of the book. The middle part is SUCH a slog. It's an overly long traveling sequence. None of the stops added any dimension to the journey.
I didn't care about anyone. It never developed any sort of tension because “twists” were teased so much that you'd have to be skimming to not see what was coming.
The romance is beyond out of nowhere, especially the sex scene. It feels like a section of a different book with these characters was crammed in.
The world IS interesting, the way that people engage with the gods and how the different personalities clash. I'd rather spend more time reading about this, like a story about a cleric or something?
I read some spoilers for the other two books and I'm glad I'm not going to waste anymore time on this.
I really enjoyed this BUT first of all, it didn't have to be this long.
The way the characters connected to each other was pretty cool, but especially near the latter 15% some choices were made that detracted from the momentum of the plot. Certain choices about the fates of some of these characters felt very arbitrary.
A hesitant 3 stars.
I've known about this book for a long time; it came out during my peak book blogging time. I'm not sure why I never read it until now - I think I heard anecdotally some bad things so I just left it alone. One night however, I was scrolling my elibrary and took a wild leap.
Now I couldn't remember even the basic premise of this, I didn't read the summary or anything beforehand. So I was a bit surprised when I realized we were following Aurora's (Sleeping Beauty) POV IMMEDIATELY after she is kissed and awakens from her cursed sleep. But I was instantly captivated by it.
The first 85% of the book is good. The latter 15% I felt like was a last minute shoehorn of details to setup the second book. I actually checked my progress at the ~80% mark because I thought to myself - where is this going? Where is the climax? Where is the payoff?
I'm definitely not a literature expert but the classic three acts structure seemed to be blended near the end. This is okay - people should bend and break rules - when it works. It didn't work here.
I'm pretty conflicted on whether to read the second book. I think part of me yearns for the feeling I had during the beginning of the first book when Aurora is totally overwhelmed by this new world. And a larger part of me knows that I probably won't find that.
She's more awake now than she ever has been. She's finding her voice, and yet fading behind the curtain. The open questions alone aren't enough for me.
