2.5 stars

I received this book from Abrams&Chronicle in exchange for an honest review.

In the city of Eldra, everything is decided through prophecies told hundreds of years in the past. But as things become more corrupters, four teenagers are the last of the Rebellion to try and make things better. Cassa, Newt, Evander and Alys decide to infiltrate the Citadel and take down the council’s leading monster.

I really liked the premise of this book, and was excited to see where it went. It had great heist vibes, and for people who love heist stories with characters that have histories ravelled together, this could be a great read.

Unfortunately, I just wasn’t a big fan of how the story started and from there, I felt like I was struggling to keep up. I feel like there could have been a better way to tell the story of how the characters got in the prison cells in the first place, and in a way that the reader wouldn’t struggle to fit all the loose ties together.

I did enjoy the diversity in the characters - Alys is asexual, Newt is gay and Evander is bisexual and I don’t believe any of them were just white either - when I was reading them, I imagined them as wonderfully diverse group in both race, gender and sexuality.

I think the book was maybe a tad too long too. I found myself getting bored near the end, and I had one of the worst experiences happen that you want with a book which is putting it down, and not caring about picking it back up. Yikes.

I think this book has a lot of great qualities for other readers, it just didn’t work for me.