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awholelottachar 's review for:

Song of the Forever Rains by E.J. Mellow
3.25

I picked this book because I was trying to finish the Kindle Summer Reading Challenge and one of the achievements was to read something from a set list. (Because lets be honest if I can get competitive with something I am going to (you will be pleased to know I completed all 15 achievements with a few weeks to spare)). While this was not something I was initially interested in it seemed good enough so I went with it. I mostly enjoyed the book. It had a bit of a victorian mystery but also fantasy vibes which I was down for. Ultimately I think the world building was a bit rushed and confusing but interesting. I liked the characters pretty well even if I wish they made like 2% better decisions. Honestly I was all set to read the next book and generally felt positively meh about it until I got to the authors note at the end of the book. There was a detailed breakdown as to why each character was named what they were and nothing will turn me off a book faster than white author telling me why she picked an Arabic name for this character because it ‘means’ this thing intrinsic to their personality. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t hate intentional naming, a number of characters had Greek or Latin based names and I was like cool sure, but the picking and choosing of so many cultures which are not yours (including indigenous American and Australian as well as other cultures) to name your little characters turned me off the book so much I refused to engage with any of the books further than this one.