Katie
Full review at my blog
3.5 Stars
Overall, I enjoyed this more than I expected to. I think it had a slightly slow start that I was concerned wouldn't hook me, but about 10% it had me invested. I think it's a good read if you aren't expecting high concept “chess move” mystery and can forgive a few missteps.
Read my reviews at https://everytrickblog.com
3 Stars
I love mystery-thrillers, and I loved Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood. Yet every one of her books I've read since has fallen far short of expectations. This was no exception.
This book is what I consider a classic “diverse group of people trapped some place, usually snowy, when a murder occurs amongst them” book. There's even snow! But it's just as predictable as that all the way through.
The identity of the killer is painfully obvious as soon as you meet all the characters. I thought to myself that surely this was poorly executed misdirection, surely it wouldn't be SLAPPING ME IN THE FACE, but I was wrong. I'm not normally very good at figuring out mysteries ahead of the reveal, so the fact that I could solve this so early on says a lot.
There was also an excessive amount of irrelevant detail, about the company (Snoop) and each person's currently listening, follower counts, etc. I also learned way too much about skiing and its different techniques. I've never skied before but I feel I surely could after reading through all this...
The characters were pretty flat and one dimensional. Each person fit snugly into an archetype and never deviated, ex. the moody, loner programmer. Another example being the hippie, free spirit creative. This didn't help engage my interest but reading about all the entitled people in the group was positively grating.
As for the positives, I did generally enjoy the latter quarter of the book, despite knowing the general direction it was heading. I thought the tension was built up very nicely even if the specific details on how and why seemed rather contrived. I legitimately got scared during the final tussle and had to stop a few times to take a break. I think without that, this would be a solid 1.5 stars.
At this point, I have to really consider whether Ware is somewhat of a “one hit wonder” as far as I am concerned. I would really think before purchasing any of her future novels.
Check out my other reviews at https://everytrickblog.com
I had a really hard time with this one because I had (internally) hyped it up so much. I've had this on the shelf for a while but I knew the names of the rest of the books in the series and I felt like the premise was similar to a book I've been trying to write for years. So I guess since this felt like an similar attempt at my book in the flesh, I really wanted it to work out.
It didn't. There is a lot I could say about why this doesn't work, but it boils down to 1) contrived romance, 2) a generic chosen one, and 3) just boring.
Instalove
The protagonist, Vhalla, is primarily pursued by the Crown Prince (of course) Aldrik. There is a weird hint of a Phantom-Christine relationship through letters in the beginning, but after they meet, it's so aggressively shoved down our throats how much they're into each other. Just, out of nowhere. They've written some letters to each other and as soon as they physically meet, they're all over each other. Despite Vhalla of course being so naive and pure and inexperienced.
And of course there is another man to create a love triangle. That potential relationship is even worse because it attempts to build on a childhood friendship that we have no real concept 0f or evidence for. This one dimensional childhood friend randomly starts trying to shoot his shot and she's receptive to it, but the reader is left like: ??????? The tension between both men over her is so laughable too.
Generic Chosen One
Vhalla lacks a personality. She is a cardboard cut-out of a super special chosen one with super rare latent magical ability. Her motivations throughout the book don't exist beyond reacting to what other people do. Another character does x, Vhalla responds with y.
She is written so shallowly that I couldn't tell you a single thing about her except she is a workaholic that really likes gloves. Her existence is defined purely by the others that interact with her.
Just Boring
A good chunk, maybe 40%, is I guess supposed to be building the love triangle. It also consists of Vhalla waffling back and forth on whether to embrace her super special rare magic or have it eradicated from her. That's basically it. You could only read that one sentence and still have a good understanding of the plot.
At some point there is this out of nowhere rebel attack on the city and of course she is involved, as well as both her potential suitors. The love triangle is resolved here, and the next level of “tension” is added with Vhalla being accused of a crime.
The specifics of that piece are ridiculous, I won't spoil them here but just know the whole situation could have EASILY been resolved by MULTIPLE people at any point...but then we wouldn't have anything to do for the rest of the book.
This was so extremely disappointing. I will not continue this series.
Check out my other reviews at https://everytrickblog.com
2.5 Stars
Yet another disappointment.
I picked this up because I liked the Grishaverse well enough and because of the hype. And probably the cover. But past that cover is a whole lot of nothing. Nothing happens in this book.
That's an exaggeration because of course something happens, otherwise nobody would have liked it and recommended it. There must be something between these pages that people have enjoyed.
I'm not really sure what that something is. The MC is Alex Stern, a girl with a special, rare power, a bad attitude, and a secret soft side. There's really nothing else to her beyond that. She comes to Yale on an unexpected scholarship and finds out it's tied to her power. Then she kind of meanders around being pretentious for the rest of the book.
There's an unsolved murder in her past...barely explored.
There's a conspiracy to unravel in her present...but it grasped at straws.
There's a budding romance with a sarcastic, hot, rich boy...who you hardly see.
There are real, heavy traumas to unpack...strewn about for shock value.
I don't really know how to describe what does happen for all those pages. Were this done well, you'd have to pry this from my cold, dead hands. The reality was that I had to force myself to read past the first 30 pages, and from then I was just purely too stubborn to let it defeat me.
The ending was the part most like where expectations were. And still, it went out not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Wow, I did not like this book. Maybe it's because I'm coming off of Words of Radiance and Edgedancer (by Brandon Sanderson), but this seems like a poor imitation. Many of the concepts were clearly derivative from Sanderson's works, but not in a good way.
The middle 400 pages were so boring that I had to force myself to finish OVER FOUR MONTHS, then the end was an enormous infodump that seemed desperate to hook the reader into the sequel. Honestly, I don't care. If I wasn't so stubborn, I wouldn't have finished this first installment.
So much of the words/names/cities seem to be named at random using a fantasy name generator....a lot of hard consonants and vowels mashed together. The map is an absolute horror, with absolutely no rhyme or reason behind the names of features plotted there.
This author was clearly inspired by Islington, perhaps too inspired, but not in possession of Sanderson's skill.
