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This book had a really nice premise, but the execution ended up being full of clichés. It was so bad that I wasn't even halfway through it when I realized what the big twist was going to be. Yes, it was that obvious.
All characters were bland and trope-ish. An evil queen, a powerful crown prince and his weaker, less noticeable younger brother, the Mean Girls who hate the protagonist just because, the childhood friend who is obviously in love with the main character, and so on. Oh, and instalove, obviously. The love triangle wasn't so bad (even though I absolutely hate when both love interests are siblings because, ugh, just don't), but the instalove was almost painful.
Mare was a so so protagonist. She didn't bother me as much as other YA protagonist did in the past, but her tendency to be dramatic was a little annoying some times. But Maven (the weaker, less noticeable younger prince) was the only character I really cared about. But then... Well, the ending happened. Sigh.
Anyway, I really liked Aveyard's writing. It's simple but efficient. Red Queen was an easy read mainly because of that. The pacing was also really good, so yeep, what made me dislike this book this much were the clichéd characters and the obvious twist. I won't be reading the sequel, sadly. 2.5 stars.
REREAD 07/12/2020: kinda bizarre reading the review below and realizing that this second read, years later, made me do a 180 on this book. i liked it a lot more now. like, /way/ more. its not in my favorite books lists by any means, but i looooooove the mystery and i found the character development pretty good actually. not sure what happened in the first read. im gonna read the whole trilogy now i guess
Angry Elves.
Hype is a dangerous thing.
I started reading Mistborn expecting a groundbreaking fantasy novel with interesting characters and original worldbuidling, because, well, it's a Sanderson book. I had read Elantris before and thought it was nice but a bit boring, but so many people told me it was because Elantris was his first book and blah blah blah, that somehow I ended up getting really excited for Mistborn. No need to say I was disappointed.
Sanderson is known for his magic systems and I loved Elantris's, so I thought I would love the one used here too, but it bored me to death. Allomancy is indeed interesting, but the actions scenes where the characters actually use it? Boring. They always felt like one of those movies when the actions scenes are so long they stop being fun and end up being a distraction. Also, I'm not a fan of “hard magic”, so I get that the problem is me and not the book, but well, I was bored anyway.
To be honest, I think my whole relantionship with Mistborn can be summarized with “it's not you, it's me.”
The preparation for the skaa rebellion? Again, boring. I couldn't wait for the rebellion to actually happen, but the preparation was a lion I had to kill to get to the fun parts and it was not pleasant. I have no interest in preparations for rebellions; so yeah, it's a me thing.
Vin going to balls and being a spy (kinda)? Boring. I am interested in balls/spies, but only when it really gets the attention it deserves. I know Mistborn is not a book about court politics, but Vin's plotline felt half-finished and clumsy. Another me thing, I guess.
Hard magic? Again, interesting, but not for me.
I also have to say I was expecting something different. Mistborn isn't more of the same, yes, but it isn't that original too. We have the mean nobles, the poor commoners/skaa, the Dark Lord, blah, blah, blah. In the end, nothing new. In my opinion, at least.
So I guess we can say yes, Mistborn, it's me, not you, except it is. I can stand a weak plot or a plot I don't find interesting if I like the characters, and in Mistbornall characters are bland and one dimensional. Not even Vin and Kelsier are that good. Vin's development and characterization are more told then showed to the reader, which was annoying and made the whole thing way too obvious. It was almost as if the book was screaming at me, hey this is our young protagonist who doesn't believe in love/friendship but that really only wants a family/friends! Meh.
But I liked the ending and owner of the diary. He's a really nice character, the only one I had fun reading about (with only two paragraphs before each chapter, yeah). Also, Mistborn suffers from the Smurfette Principle; Vin is the only female that really matters in the whole book (it wouldn't hurt that much to make one of Kelsier's friends a woman, you know). And Kelsier's wife is in the refrigerator, obviously. Sighs.
I have the whole trilogy sitting on my shelf, but I don't think I'll ever read it. I'll give a chance to The Way of Kings though. Eventually. One day. I guess.
Anyway, 2.5 stars.
the writing is so bad
i just can't keep going.
i never saw a premise so awful
like... how can anyone not see how inherently transphobic and enbyphobic this is
i bet there isn't a single trans character in this book & that non-binary genders aren't mentioned at all
this looks like it's such a huge mess smh
what the fuck is this book?
i've never been more disgusted in my life jfc
haven't read this one yet, but antisemitic trolls are flooding in with 1 star reviews, so here this 5 star review will stay until they are gone.
this book is super racist, queerphobic & ableist. more info: http://b00kstorebabe.blogspot.com.br/2017/03/review-black-witch-by-laurie-forest.html
I requested this one on netgalley, but I didn't notice it was the second book in a series :/ Tried to read it anyway, but I don't think it's a good idea to keep going. I can understand everything just fine (kinda), but starting a series in the second book is something I really don't want to do. Hopefully I'll come back to this one in the future.
look, i tried. the first 10% of this book is really interesting, but i'm at 40% already and there is no sign of a plot. most of it seems to be about the main character rambling about his life in the citadel, with the only hint of the conflict being that is telling this story from a prison cell so something must have happened. not enough to keep me interested/reading tho.
DNF @ 20%
The writing REALLY bothered me in this one. It's the main reason I'm giving up on it. The story seems to be interesting - I still am very curious about it, tbh - but it feels like the book didn't go through any kind of editing or proofreading and, honestly, this is one of my pet peeves :/
dnf at 40%
couldn't keep reading this one. too boring & not really my thing.
the writing is so bad. i've never seen so many adverbs in my life.
i really wanted to like this book bc angels but 1) annoying writing style (why so many semicolons? seriously) 2) story way too slow 3) boring characters (my favorite died at 20% and he was super minor, so i'm out).
updated review on october 4th 2018: i was really excited for this story, but i couldn't get into it, mostly because of the writing. i liked the characters well enough (especially alice and her mom tbh) and the story is interesting, but i only got /really/ interested on what was going on in the last 15% or so. not enough to make me want to read the next book, to be honest, but i admit i'm intrigued by what might happen in this story.
comment made on may 18th 2018: racists are giving this book one star for no reason, so here are five stars. gonna update it with my real rating when the book is out ✌🏻