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citrus_seasalt 's review for:
The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray
by Christine Calella
Not sure whether to settle on 3.5 or 3.75(my designated “fun rating”unless explicitly stated otherwise), but I’m going with the lower option because this was more of a disappointment. It took a while for me to get used to this being a different kind of sibling story than I expected—despite this featuring both sisters on the cover, they’re apart for most of the book—but I acclimated to that aspect at least. I feel like their parallels excused them having arcs separate from each other. (Even if I was a little bummed.)
I predicted the twist villain ahead of time. Even before he became an enemy of Ophelia’s, he was a gross human being, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from an entitled misogynist. That seemed intentional, but I still don’t think there was anything spectacular about the kind of villain he was. He was a little cartoonish.
I wish Ophelia’s other half sisters had been fleshed out more, the island portion felt strangely paced. (Some part of the Cray’s Island wonkiness definitely has to do with the fantasy elements in this book being scarce, though. That also made the “curse” part confusing!! I couldn’t tell which “curses” were legitimate, overthinking, or metaphorical.) I also wanted to see more development for Ravi, his romance with Betsy was incredibly quick and didn’t give the readers time to start rooting for them to get together.
I’m not sure where in my review to put this, but I think the author really nailed the familial grief! (Sure, I would’ve appreciated being able to go without getting some flashbacks to my *own* parent’s death, but that’s a me problem.) Even if the impact wasn’t mentioned very much in the POVs, I appreciated when it was. But I would appreciate a less cryptic trigger warning list at the beginning of the book.
Anyhow. Even if this doesn’t do anything particularly new with the pirate adventure genre(besides having one of the protagonists be asexual and implied aro), I still enjoyed myself for most of the time I read this. It delivers on what it promises to: action, some family drama, high stakes(with surprisingly graphic violence), and of course, piracy. I can be a little disappointed with the delivery, but that’s it.
I predicted the twist villain ahead of time. Even before he became an enemy of Ophelia’s, he was a gross human being, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from an entitled misogynist. That seemed intentional, but I still don’t think there was anything spectacular about the kind of villain he was. He was a little cartoonish.
I wish Ophelia’s other half sisters had been fleshed out more, the island portion felt strangely paced. (Some part of the Cray’s Island wonkiness definitely has to do with the fantasy elements in this book being scarce, though. That also made the “curse” part confusing!! I couldn’t tell which “curses” were legitimate, overthinking, or metaphorical.) I also wanted to see more development for Ravi, his romance with Betsy was incredibly quick and didn’t give the readers time to start rooting for them to get together.
I’m not sure where in my review to put this, but I think the author really nailed the familial grief! (Sure, I would’ve appreciated being able to go without getting some flashbacks to my *own* parent’s death, but that’s a me problem.) Even if the impact wasn’t mentioned very much in the POVs, I appreciated when it was. But I would appreciate a less cryptic trigger warning list at the beginning of the book.
Anyhow. Even if this doesn’t do anything particularly new with the pirate adventure genre(besides having one of the protagonists be asexual and implied aro), I still enjoyed myself for most of the time I read this. It delivers on what it promises to: action, some family drama, high stakes(with surprisingly graphic violence), and of course, piracy. I can be a little disappointed with the delivery, but that’s it.