ill admit when i started this i was notttt feeling this, but it defo grew on me, mostly in part to the characters and slightly due to the plot. no shade but it defo wasn’t the writing 😶

OK OK LET ME EXPLAIN. most YA books always write in a certain style and ofc this book is a culprit. but i swear this book took YA to a new meaning. it kept having character’s repeat their true motivations, goals, etc. when i already knew what they were because its a first person POV!!!! girl i already know ur trying to save ur brother stop telling me that every 4 seconds!!! i promise i haven’t forgotten!!! maybe you have but i haven’t!!!

speaking of laia….. oooo she pissed me off BADDD at the beginning. i was actually shocked she’s supposed to be 17 y/o because. How. for the first half of the book she reads like the most insufferable 13 y/o you’ll have the displeasure of knowing. she’s whiny, she’s pathetic, and she’s a pain in my ass. i do like that as the story grows her character develops into someone more courageous and a lot of her character flaws are minimised because she grows as a person but Goddddd she’s rough at the beginning. i was seriously tempted to put the book down she pissed me off so bad. i do like how she ended up being characterised but ohhh she was written too well at the start to the point i was ready to beat her ass. 

the other main character, elias, had the opposite thing happen to him imo. i really liked him at the beginning, and then the trials started, and he became whiny and annoying. especially in the first trial. yet again he kind of became less annoying after the trials, but there was a good chunk in the middle part of this book where i was also ready to choke him out because he was so hard to like. 

the other side characters are a mixed bag. the only character who really stuck with me was helen, and im happy with how her character developed. i hated her for like 90% of the book, but by the end i decided i am giving her One Free Pass. she is a girlboss even though i couldn’t stand her i have to respect that. the commander or commandant or whatever is Fine. she comes off like a caricature of a villain. izzi ft very one-dimensional, and…. that’s it. no other character really made an impact on me. even keenan he annoyed me as well.

the plot itself was. Ok! i thought elias’ plot would be the more interesting of the two but laia ate harder than she had any right to. i felt like the trials were so hyped up and then… they sucked. the first trial was kind of decent, although the ending felt contrived. the second trial we were barely even there for, and from there the trials began to flop. it felt like they were written as more of a means to an end, rather than being written well. like “ok i need x to happen so i’ll write the trial to have y so then x can happen”. this was especially bad in the last two trials, and i was bored and just wanted to go back to laia’s perspective LMAO. 

the love triangle love square love whatever the fuck was Bad. unnecessary, not needed, and a waste of time because you clearly knew how it was going to end as well. also i hated the two other love interests so 🤷 it was very obvious for me where it was going!

the book itself had my ass hooked. plus it explained enough of the story to leave me satisfied, yet has enough loose ends to continue the series. i had fun. i defo want to see what happens, especially with the nightbringer, helen and mazen or whatever his name is. i just hope the mcs don’t start the next book in the series reverting back to their annoying ways 🙏