This review is spoiler-free. Content warnings for the book are listed at the end.

I’m honestly so confused by this book. While it was entertaining at times, and there were some charming side characters, I wasn’t overly invested in the protagonist or her journey. The world-building didn’t make any sense. I feel like the author tried to cram too much into her story; instead of being a well-balanced book, it ended up a jumbled mess.

My biggest issue is with the world. It seems like ours, yet different. There’s a Potomac and a New York and an England, and places with different names that are extremely similar to Norway, Finland, and Russia. I’m not sure if it’s set in our world or an alternate version of it or one completely new. I also don’t know when the story takes place. At first I thought it was during medieval times, but if it is indeed similar to our world, the fact that America exists means it must be at least the 1800s. But about halfway through Selah discovers a secret radio her godmother smuggled into her luggage, and the first radio wasn’t invented until the end of that century and developed in the early 1900s. (History gurus, if that’s wrong, please don’t attack me. I only did one (1) Google search.)

So the world-building made no sense to me. That doesn’t even include the fact that some of the names looked like gibberish. Two legit names of places in this book are “Shvartsval’d” and “Neukatzenelnbogen”, and honestly, those look like fandom Twitter keyboard smashes.

I’m also not sure that either of the pitches for this book are accurate. It’s supposedly Cinderella meets The Odyssey, but there are only two vague similarities between this and Cinderella. Those who’ve read The Odyssey (I have not) say this isn’t a good retelling of that, either. If you want to read this because of the pitch, try not to set your expectations too high. To be honest, Bright seemed to want to include multiple fairytales and old stories. There’s mention of Baba Yaga and Sir Gawain. Once again, I have no clue what is happening.

Enough of my confusion. Moving on to the characters, Selah, our protagonist, was fine, but not super interesting or memorable. I didn’t particularly care about her, though I did approve of some choices she made. None of the characters were especially interesting or memorable, now that I think about it, but I was more intrigued by some of the ship’s crew members and Norge royals than Selah.

And then there’s the romances. Yes, plural. There’s a love interest briefly mentioned in the first few chapters, the one that rejects her and prompts her international quest, as mentioned in the synopsis. Said quest was an unwelcome surprise from Selah’s stepmother, who essentially said to come back engaged to one of the pre-approved royal suitors or don’t come back at all. The first stop on her journey is England, where she falls in love with the prince’s guard instead of the prince. Then at the second stop, Norge, she falls in love with the actual prince. Good for her. But that’s two whirlwind insta-love romances in about a month, as each stop lasted two weeks, and both times she’s ready to get married to the guy. Admittedly, each relationship had moments I thought were cute, and I was genuinely rooting for Selah and the Norge prince. But I have a hard time believing she loved either of them, as two weeks is not enough time to get to know a stranger enough to want marriage. I might be a hopeless romantic, but no. Just no.

As I read the final third of the book, I was on the fence about whether I’d read the sequel. The last couple of chapters helped me decide that no, I wouldn’t waste time on something I wasn’t invested in already. Not only did Bright try to push too many fairytales into one story, she added another subplot in at the end that felt half-baked and out of place. It was obvious that the second book would continue that part of the plot, with this book’s story and the unanswered questions surrounding it most likely pushed to the back burner. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Selah or Potomac. I don’t know how this new plot point will help solve Selah’s problems. I don’t know anything, apparently.

Oh, and that last plot twist in the final pages? I called that at the very beginning. It was kind of obvious, in my opinion.

So yeah. I didn’t think I had so much to say about The Beholder, but I guess I did. I’m not sure who to recommend this to, since it’s such a mishmash of multiple things, but if you think you’ll like it, go for it. It was enjoyable at times but rather messy, and not my cup of tea overall.

Representation:
• A few Black side characters
• A few East Asian side characters
(All are minor. Wouldn’t recommend reading this for representation.)