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narcobunbun 's review for:
Soul of Shadow
by Emma Noyes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC! All opinions expressed are my own.
Okay, so “Soul of Shadow” by Emma Noyes just left me feeling kind of meh, and I hate when that happens with a book that has such a promising setup. The writing itself is solid, don’t get me wrong, but the whole thing skewed way younger than I expected. I was gearing up for some serious high-stakes tension, but instead got this oddly campy vibe that made me wonder if I accidentally picked up someone’s middle grade manuscript by mistake.
The circus background and magic obsession could have been such a cool character trait, but it just felt flat and underbaked to me. Like, I could tell the author was really trying to create this mysterious, quirky protagonist, but it came across more forced than fascinating. There were definitely glimmers of what this book could have been, and Noyes clearly has talent, but the execution just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I’m landing at 3 out of 5 stars, perfect for a lazy afternoon read but not the page-turner I was hoping for.
Okay, so “Soul of Shadow” by Emma Noyes just left me feeling kind of meh, and I hate when that happens with a book that has such a promising setup. The writing itself is solid, don’t get me wrong, but the whole thing skewed way younger than I expected. I was gearing up for some serious high-stakes tension, but instead got this oddly campy vibe that made me wonder if I accidentally picked up someone’s middle grade manuscript by mistake.
The circus background and magic obsession could have been such a cool character trait, but it just felt flat and underbaked to me. Like, I could tell the author was really trying to create this mysterious, quirky protagonist, but it came across more forced than fascinating. There were definitely glimmers of what this book could have been, and Noyes clearly has talent, but the execution just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I’m landing at 3 out of 5 stars, perfect for a lazy afternoon read but not the page-turner I was hoping for.