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DNF@ 50%
Plot: I've been told this is a gender-flipped Count of Monte Cristo, but I think most of the similarities are supeficial (caveat: I could be wrong; it's been a while since I read Monte Cristo). It's really more multiple mysteries with a dash of romance than it is a vengence narrative?
1. It's possible I might have expected too much from this book. I love a good vengence narrative, but only if the character is gleefully controlling everything- or at the very least enough things to make the people around them scramble to keep up. (I had a lovely time with The Third Mrs. Durst, for example.) So Amaya being more pawn than puppetmaster really cut into my enjoyment, because that isn't idk- true to the spirit of Edmund Dantes? A character being a pawn isn't inherently a bad thing, but neither should it be a central point of a Monte Cristo retelling.
2. I think the story started out really well- I got attached to both Amaya and Cayo and their conflicts within the first few chapters. We got to the finding of the treasure and I got a little concerned about the smuggler conclave because that's a whole different dynamic from the original untold riches no obligations thing, but I decided to shrug and roll with it. Then we got to the whole dresses and parties and high society thing and I felt both my interest and my patience dropping like a rock.
3. Cayo's plotline is still interesting! He's absolutely not in control of anything either, but I wasn't expecting him to be Dantes so it didn't bother me as much. His aims and motives are far more sympathetic and immediate than Amaya's, and fine so he's digging himself into a deeper hole with every new chapter but at least I know he's trying his best. He's sympathetic! He's proactive! So what if he's not particularly competent I can cut the guy some slack. But the thing is, he's sharing a lot of screentime with Amaya and there are plot overlaps and Amaya's storyline is... ehhh.
4. Amaya says she wants vengence, but she's mostly just henching (facing?) for the smuggler conclave, who I'm starting to suspect are the real bad guys here. Her vengence narrative has so far been pushed aside in order to establish her as being more sympathetic, which I frankly thought was unnecessary. She fails in her primary objective of murdering this one irredeemably evil guy and then spends time being lectured (and I do mean lectured, not told or advised- Amaya come off very much like a thwarted child here) about how she doesn't want to cross the line into being a murderer. Which is, for the record, perfectly fine under most circumstances that aren't being the Edmund Dantes expy in a Monte Cristo retelling.
5. Another personal disappointment: The high society scenes aren't about social Kung Fu or passive aggressive combat. They are about how the disillusioned love interest can observe how different and non-shallow Amaya is while everyone else entrenches themselves into the "disposable corrupt people" archetype.
6. There are just... too many plot elements in this story that suffer from being underdeveloped. We spend too little time in the smuggler conclave and vice city- we get only the most cursory interactions with the major players from both of these places; and that greatly influences how much I care about the plot. Amaya and Cayo (yes Cayo, being the better of the two options does not mean you're off the hook) simply aren't interesting enough to carry me through the story by themselves, not when I know next to nothing about the things/places/people they are wrapped up in.
7. There was this one TV series called Revenge which I didn't fully watch because I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to video stuff but I did watch one season and I think that probably did the genderflipped Monte Cristo thing a lot better? Just a thought.
Plot: I've been told this is a gender-flipped Count of Monte Cristo, but I think most of the similarities are supeficial (caveat: I could be wrong; it's been a while since I read Monte Cristo). It's really more multiple mysteries with a dash of romance than it is a vengence narrative?
1. It's possible I might have expected too much from this book. I love a good vengence narrative, but only if the character is gleefully controlling everything- or at the very least enough things to make the people around them scramble to keep up. (I had a lovely time with The Third Mrs. Durst, for example.) So Amaya being more pawn than puppetmaster really cut into my enjoyment, because that isn't idk- true to the spirit of Edmund Dantes? A character being a pawn isn't inherently a bad thing, but neither should it be a central point of a Monte Cristo retelling.
2. I think the story started out really well- I got attached to both Amaya and Cayo and their conflicts within the first few chapters. We got to the finding of the treasure and I got a little concerned about the smuggler conclave because that's a whole different dynamic from the original untold riches no obligations thing, but I decided to shrug and roll with it. Then we got to the whole dresses and parties and high society thing and I felt both my interest and my patience dropping like a rock.
3. Cayo's plotline is still interesting! He's absolutely not in control of anything either, but I wasn't expecting him to be Dantes so it didn't bother me as much. His aims and motives are far more sympathetic and immediate than Amaya's, and fine so he's digging himself into a deeper hole with every new chapter but at least I know he's trying his best. He's sympathetic! He's proactive! So what if he's not particularly competent I can cut the guy some slack. But the thing is, he's sharing a lot of screentime with Amaya and there are plot overlaps and Amaya's storyline is... ehhh.
4. Amaya says she wants vengence, but she's mostly just henching (facing?) for the smuggler conclave, who I'm starting to suspect are the real bad guys here. Her vengence narrative has so far been pushed aside in order to establish her as being more sympathetic, which I frankly thought was unnecessary. She fails in her primary objective of murdering this one irredeemably evil guy and then spends time being lectured (and I do mean lectured, not told or advised- Amaya come off very much like a thwarted child here) about how she doesn't want to cross the line into being a murderer. Which is, for the record, perfectly fine under most circumstances that aren't being the Edmund Dantes expy in a Monte Cristo retelling.
5. Another personal disappointment: The high society scenes aren't about social Kung Fu or passive aggressive combat. They are about how the disillusioned love interest can observe how different and non-shallow Amaya is while everyone else entrenches themselves into the "disposable corrupt people" archetype.
6. There are just... too many plot elements in this story that suffer from being underdeveloped. We spend too little time in the smuggler conclave and vice city- we get only the most cursory interactions with the major players from both of these places; and that greatly influences how much I care about the plot. Amaya and Cayo (yes Cayo, being the better of the two options does not mean you're off the hook) simply aren't interesting enough to carry me through the story by themselves, not when I know next to nothing about the things/places/people they are wrapped up in.
7. There was this one TV series called Revenge which I didn't fully watch because I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to video stuff but I did watch one season and I think that probably did the genderflipped Monte Cristo thing a lot better? Just a thought.
Technically, there was nothing wrong with this book. There was plot, good writing and the characters didn’t act like overgrown babies. However, I didn’t really enjoy it because I couldn’t connect to the characters, and I couldn’t entirely visualize them or the setting.
Descriptions are tricky. Give me too much and I’m tempted to skim ahead, but give me too little, and I don’t know what is going on half the time. In this book, I found myself leaning toward the latter. Some of the characters are described vaguely or not at all, so you only have a name floating on your page and no face to go with it. I found it particularly difficult to imagine the Water Bugs and Landless people that were with Amaya. Same goes for the setting.
There seemed to be many things happening, but not enough interactions amongst the characters to bring me to really care about them. The scenes between the two protagonists were nice to read, but they were too few, and the secondary characters felt more like they existed merely to move the plot of the main characters forward rather than to give life to the story. There’s a subtle difference between the two things that I’m not really sure I can convey, but long story short, there was nothing memorable about any of them.
We have two POVs: Amaya’s and Cayo’s. Between the two, I enjoyed Cayo’s a lot more. At least there seems to be some texture to the characters that surround him, and there are plenty more interactions in his chapters. The majority of the things we see in Amaya’s chapters are her own emotional turmoils and small flashback sequences with either her parents or her mentor, Boon, who is the only character in her chapters that I didn’t have too much of a problem identifying—and even then, there was nothing extremely special about him. The rest were a sequence of already forgotten names that I couldn’t match to a face or a personality.
I like plot, but if there isn’t a cast of characters equally compelling to go with it, then I’m not compelled to continue with the story. Three stars, because I can’t fault the writing or the plot, but the characters were not done the way I like them.
Descriptions are tricky. Give me too much and I’m tempted to skim ahead, but give me too little, and I don’t know what is going on half the time. In this book, I found myself leaning toward the latter. Some of the characters are described vaguely or not at all, so you only have a name floating on your page and no face to go with it. I found it particularly difficult to imagine the Water Bugs and Landless people that were with Amaya. Same goes for the setting.
There seemed to be many things happening, but not enough interactions amongst the characters to bring me to really care about them. The scenes between the two protagonists were nice to read, but they were too few, and the secondary characters felt more like they existed merely to move the plot of the main characters forward rather than to give life to the story. There’s a subtle difference between the two things that I’m not really sure I can convey, but long story short, there was nothing memorable about any of them.
We have two POVs: Amaya’s and Cayo’s. Between the two, I enjoyed Cayo’s a lot more. At least there seems to be some texture to the characters that surround him, and there are plenty more interactions in his chapters. The majority of the things we see in Amaya’s chapters are her own emotional turmoils and small flashback sequences with either her parents or her mentor, Boon, who is the only character in her chapters that I didn’t have too much of a problem identifying—and even then, there was nothing extremely special about him. The rest were a sequence of already forgotten names that I couldn’t match to a face or a personality.
I like plot, but if there isn’t a cast of characters equally compelling to go with it, then I’m not compelled to continue with the story. Three stars, because I can’t fault the writing or the plot, but the characters were not done the way I like them.
I really liked the plotline of this and all the twists and turns within it. The chemistry between Amaya and Cayo was there from the beginning and I liked how it evolves and changes. All of the water bugs were amazing and my heart definitely broke for them. My absolute favorite character was Cayo because he loves his sister so much that he changed his life for her and will do everything to save her life.
Overall I thought it was a fantastic story and I cannot wait to read the sequel.
Overall I thought it was a fantastic story and I cannot wait to read the sequel.
Technically, Scavenge the Stars had many elements that could have made it a favorite of mine: there was diversity (many characters have brown or darker skin, there is a lesbian couple and one of the main characters, Cayo, was bisexual), a clear plot and a quick pace between one plot point and the next. I also enjoyed the writing, which was easy to read but also rich with vivid imagery that immerged me into the setting. It was like walking through the streets of an historical Las Vegas, with criminals on the loose and vices of every shape and size ready to creep up on you and claim your soul.
Unfortunately, the book fell flat where world-building and characters are concerned.
Apart from Moray (our historical Vegas), there are many locations that are mentioned, but they are no more than a word on a page. There is no map in the book, so I couldn’t visualize what this world looked like, how much distance was between one place and the next, nor could I understand how these places differed in culture or traditions with Moray, hence making it impossible for me to remember which place was which.
The same sort of problem was with the characters. Apart from the protagonists, Cayo and Amaya, every other secondary character is either vaguely described or not described at all, and their personalities had nothing unique that could help you separate one name from the other. Secondary characters were treated more like plot devices than anything else, and the limited amount of scenes where these characters interacted with one another did not help me grow any sort of attachment to them.
The main characters, Cayo and Amaya, suffered the same fate, to some degree. Singularly, Cayo and Amaya have nothing that sets them apart from other YA characters. Cayo was the most interesting between the two, mostly because we got to see more of his history and the way he interacts with the world and characters around him. Amaya’s chapters, on the other hand, felt more like a stream of unnecessary flashbacks and inner dialogue, which made her chapters especially heavy to read. I did, however, enjoy the interactions between Cayo and Amaya, which had the right amount of banter and awkwardness to make them cute.
Cute, but not memorable—which is the perfect way to summarize this book.
Unfortunately, the book fell flat where world-building and characters are concerned.
Apart from Moray (our historical Vegas), there are many locations that are mentioned, but they are no more than a word on a page. There is no map in the book, so I couldn’t visualize what this world looked like, how much distance was between one place and the next, nor could I understand how these places differed in culture or traditions with Moray, hence making it impossible for me to remember which place was which.
The same sort of problem was with the characters. Apart from the protagonists, Cayo and Amaya, every other secondary character is either vaguely described or not described at all, and their personalities had nothing unique that could help you separate one name from the other. Secondary characters were treated more like plot devices than anything else, and the limited amount of scenes where these characters interacted with one another did not help me grow any sort of attachment to them.
The main characters, Cayo and Amaya, suffered the same fate, to some degree. Singularly, Cayo and Amaya have nothing that sets them apart from other YA characters. Cayo was the most interesting between the two, mostly because we got to see more of his history and the way he interacts with the world and characters around him. Amaya’s chapters, on the other hand, felt more like a stream of unnecessary flashbacks and inner dialogue, which made her chapters especially heavy to read. I did, however, enjoy the interactions between Cayo and Amaya, which had the right amount of banter and awkwardness to make them cute.
Cute, but not memorable—which is the perfect way to summarize this book.
I’m not entirely convinced I read the same book everyone else did because that was not good. At all.
When I heard that this was a Count of Monte Cristo retelling, I thought it would be more action, more adventure. Not some cheap romance and gambling debts.
The world building is mediocre at best and honestly doesn’t make sense. Is Moray an island? If so why is there a neutrality agreement? The Empires would have the same water access and if it’s not an island...what is it? The entire Moray sounds like the Vice sector so how is it “underground”?
This story starts out sad, I’ll admit. A little orphan girl is on a debtor ship to pay off her parent’s debt, and that’s sad. It is. But... okay, let’s discuss the entire concept of these ships first. They don’t make sense, how did they get away with it, how did they begin? I have more questions than answers, especially because they seem so prominent...
Then let’s talk about Amaya. She knows that she shouldn’t trust anyone, and yet she easily falls for Boon because of his gold? And then falls for Cayo because of how pretty and “soft” he is??? I cannot. If you’re gonna be a touch bitch than be a tough bitch? You can’t be soft for a boy when you’re getting revenge!
Cayo, Cayo, Cayo. That boy is a drunken mess no matter how much “redemption” his poor sister is forcing into him. It’s admirable, really, what he would do for his sister. But the fact that he so easily falls back into that whole of a vice... I cannot. People slip, I get it. But you cannot spend an ENTIRE BOOK talking about “I’m better” just for that to happen. Romara, the Slum King’s one daughter, deserved better than that.
Speaking of the Slum King, let’s talk about that plot. It was almost like the author couldn’t decide how to connect all these men together and then was like “let’s find a crazy plot twist that makes no sense and then spin it around until it does”. The Slum King and Mercado makes sense but her dad? It was so convenient to have him as the “blackmailer” that it wasn’t believable.
Also Boon is her father.
When I heard that this was a Count of Monte Cristo retelling, I thought it would be more action, more adventure. Not some cheap romance and gambling debts.
The world building is mediocre at best and honestly doesn’t make sense. Is Moray an island? If so why is there a neutrality agreement? The Empires would have the same water access and if it’s not an island...what is it? The entire Moray sounds like the Vice sector so how is it “underground”?
This story starts out sad, I’ll admit. A little orphan girl is on a debtor ship to pay off her parent’s debt, and that’s sad. It is. But... okay, let’s discuss the entire concept of these ships first. They don’t make sense, how did they get away with it, how did they begin? I have more questions than answers, especially because they seem so prominent...
Then let’s talk about Amaya. She knows that she shouldn’t trust anyone, and yet she easily falls for Boon because of his gold? And then falls for Cayo because of how pretty and “soft” he is??? I cannot. If you’re gonna be a touch bitch than be a tough bitch? You can’t be soft for a boy when you’re getting revenge!
Cayo, Cayo, Cayo. That boy is a drunken mess no matter how much “redemption” his poor sister is forcing into him. It’s admirable, really, what he would do for his sister. But the fact that he so easily falls back into that whole of a vice... I cannot. People slip, I get it. But you cannot spend an ENTIRE BOOK talking about “I’m better” just for that to happen. Romara, the Slum King’s one daughter, deserved better than that.
Speaking of the Slum King, let’s talk about that plot. It was almost like the author couldn’t decide how to connect all these men together and then was like “let’s find a crazy plot twist that makes no sense and then spin it around until it does”. The Slum King and Mercado makes sense but her dad? It was so convenient to have him as the “blackmailer” that it wasn’t believable.
Also Boon is her father.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hmmm... I liked it, but the second half of the book felt a bit off to me. I don't know why, maybe because the plot felt a little convoluted. Need to think on it.
"Never corner a man on a losing streak. Desperation is deadlier than a bullet."
I really enjoyed this! Which makes me VERY happy because I got it in the January Owlcrate box and I LOVED LOVED LOVED the pin it came with so now I can say I loved the book too!
I've never read The Count of Monte Cristo and I didn't really know any of the premise behind it (besides the revenge plot). From reading a few other reviews it looks like some people who had read the original didn't enjoy this book so much, so I'm glad I came in fresh! I seem to usually enjoy pirate/sea/ship/etc books, and this was no exception.
"It's funny, isn't it, how you only ever see the surface of a person? I feel like most of the time, beneath my surface, I'm drowning. And no one can see it."
I really enjoyed the twisty, turny plot- especially at the end! A buuunch of twists that I wasn't expecting. There were a few areas that I think could've been cut down-- I could've done without some of Cayo's forays through the city-- but overall I thought everything flowed pretty well. Amaya was likeable and it was fun to root for her to get some answers. The relationship between Amaya and cayo was obviously a highlight for me, bc I love a Romance, and I'm excited to see where the sequel takes them!
The beginning was definitely slow. It was hard to find the determination to focus and get a feel for the characters. The timeline is a bit wonky for the first bit and though I figured out fairly quickly what was happening, it was still a bit difficult to get a grasp on. I'm not super enthralled by the world building; some of the mentions of different areas or groups of people were never fully explained (I'm guessing we'll learn more in the sequel) so I never got full clarity or investment. Also, none of the side characters really grabbed me- I did like Soria and Roach- but no one super stood out.
Overall, really happy with this and will definitely pick up the sequel! Also, Bay Area author- yay!
I really enjoyed this! Which makes me VERY happy because I got it in the January Owlcrate box and I LOVED LOVED LOVED the pin it came with so now I can say I loved the book too!
I've never read The Count of Monte Cristo and I didn't really know any of the premise behind it (besides the revenge plot). From reading a few other reviews it looks like some people who had read the original didn't enjoy this book so much, so I'm glad I came in fresh! I seem to usually enjoy pirate/sea/ship/etc books, and this was no exception.
"It's funny, isn't it, how you only ever see the surface of a person? I feel like most of the time, beneath my surface, I'm drowning. And no one can see it."
I really enjoyed the twisty, turny plot- especially at the end! A buuunch of twists that I wasn't expecting. There were a few areas that I think could've been cut down-- I could've done without some of Cayo's forays through the city-- but overall I thought everything flowed pretty well. Amaya was likeable and it was fun to root for her to get some answers. The relationship between Amaya and cayo was obviously a highlight for me, bc I love a Romance, and I'm excited to see where the sequel takes them!
The beginning was definitely slow. It was hard to find the determination to focus and get a feel for the characters. The timeline is a bit wonky for the first bit and though I figured out fairly quickly what was happening, it was still a bit difficult to get a grasp on. I'm not super enthralled by the world building; some of the mentions of different areas or groups of people were never fully explained (I'm guessing we'll learn more in the sequel) so I never got full clarity or investment. Also, none of the side characters really grabbed me- I did like Soria and Roach- but no one super stood out.
Overall, really happy with this and will definitely pick up the sequel! Also, Bay Area author- yay!
I enjoyed this story for it's twists that were thrown in. My only complaint would be the ending felt rushed. Too much information, and at the same time more loose ends were left open. But I liked it overall and am curious to see where it goes!