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onceuponanisabel 's review for:
Ruthless Gods
by Emily A. Duncan
NOTE ON 4/5/2021: I do NOT recommend this series or this author to anybody. This author has shown their true colors in the past but more and more keeps coming up about her (see here and here for starters) and I felt the need to include a warning on my reviews and a note that I will not be supporting them or their books in the future.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
It disappoints me to no end given that I really did like Wicked Saints, but I just did not like Ruthless Gods. I wish I could chalk it up to a bad day clouding my judgment, but I can't. (I'm kind of a binge reader, so when it takes me almost two weeks to get through a book, it usually means something.)
Usually, I would provide a plot summary for my ARC reviews, but I actually kind of feel like I can't, in this case, say all that much. The gang from Wicked Saints (Nadya, Malachiasz, Serefin, and their crew of other secondary characters I remembered nothing about) work to deal with the fallout from the events at the end of the first book. Eventually, they all, for different reasons, begin a journey to a holy site. This journey takes them through a forest that tries to kill them.
Part of the reason I can't give much of a summary is that I don't want to spoil the end of Wicked Saints, but an equally significant reason is that I'm genuinely struggling with it. I'm not really sure how such a small amount of plot was stretched out to as long as this book was. A very good chunk of the beginning of the book just involves all of the characters...debriefing on the situation? and getting cryptic warnings from our resident ~creepy~ ~mysterious~ ~all-knowing~ character. And once! They left! And couldn't commune with her anymore! Duncan just threw in a new character! To fill the same role! Who somehow just knows a bunch of plot-driving information! Just...because, I guess!
The romances in this story continue to make absolutely no sense to me. Build up? Foundations? Don't know them. It's kind of like...Ruthless Gods took all of the parts of Wicked Saints that I didn't like but was willing to overlook and then...made those parts the entire book.
Overall, I'm disappointed. I'm sure people will like this book -- it's got a lot of cool elements, too. Duncan turns the horror and more grotesque elements up to 11, which I know will appeal to a lot of readers who've been looking for more horror YA. It just wasn't for me, I guess?
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
It disappoints me to no end given that I really did like Wicked Saints, but I just did not like Ruthless Gods. I wish I could chalk it up to a bad day clouding my judgment, but I can't. (I'm kind of a binge reader, so when it takes me almost two weeks to get through a book, it usually means something.)
Usually, I would provide a plot summary for my ARC reviews, but I actually kind of feel like I can't, in this case, say all that much. The gang from Wicked Saints (Nadya, Malachiasz, Serefin, and their crew of other secondary characters I remembered nothing about) work to deal with the fallout from the events at the end of the first book. Eventually, they all, for different reasons, begin a journey to a holy site. This journey takes them through a forest that tries to kill them.
Part of the reason I can't give much of a summary is that I don't want to spoil the end of Wicked Saints, but an equally significant reason is that I'm genuinely struggling with it. I'm not really sure how such a small amount of plot was stretched out to as long as this book was. A very good chunk of the beginning of the book just involves all of the characters...debriefing on the situation? and getting cryptic warnings from our resident ~creepy~ ~mysterious~ ~all-knowing~ character. And once! They left! And couldn't commune with her anymore! Duncan just threw in a new character! To fill the same role! Who somehow just knows a bunch of plot-driving information! Just...because, I guess!
The romances in this story continue to make absolutely no sense to me. Build up? Foundations? Don't know them. It's kind of like...Ruthless Gods took all of the parts of Wicked Saints that I didn't like but was willing to overlook and then...made those parts the entire book.
Overall, I'm disappointed. I'm sure people will like this book -- it's got a lot of cool elements, too. Duncan turns the horror and more grotesque elements up to 11, which I know will appeal to a lot of readers who've been looking for more horror YA. It just wasn't for me, I guess?
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.