chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)

This Dark Descent is a Jewish-inspired high fantasy that’s pitched as The Shadows Between Us meets Six of Crows meets The Scorpio Races.
I can see the Scorpio Races comp, but the other two… not so much.

From the very first chapter, this books weaknesses were apparent—not enough development, not enough depth. 
The inciting incident of this book happens during the second scene. This is the moment where Mikira makes the decision that sets the plot in motion, the moment of no return. She wagers everything she has to save her father. But because this happens so early on, it packs no emotional punch. We’ve had maybe 5 pages to get to know Mikira, and this scene is the first time we’ve seen or even heard mention of her father. There hasn’t been any development to make the reader care about Mikira or her father, so I couldn’t connect with the emotion of that scene. I wasn’t convinced by Mikira’s supposed desperation to save him. The dramatics of the moment rang hollow to me. Not to mention the fact that the bargain that Mikira makes…doesn’t make sense. She makes a deal that she objectively knows that she cannot possibly win. If she wins, she gets her father back, but if she loses, she and all her siblings are as good as dead. If she wins, yes, she’s better off, but Mikira does not think she can win.

The weak start aside, for the next 30% of the book, I was enjoying myself. The reason why this was happening still didn’t make sense, but as long as I didn’t think about that aspect, I was able to get sucked into what was happening. I enjoyed getting to learn a little about the lore and getting to meet our cast of characters. I especially enjoyed Arielle’s narration in these earlier chapters and getting to know her. I was interested in the race, the building of the golem-horse, and the plot surrounding that.

But at about 30-35%, several new plotlines were added—politics, demonic possession, romantic subplots, war/antiwar, and more. None of it was fleshed out, and none of it meshed together. We jumped from plotline to plotline, nothing really progressing on page, never diving deep into any of them. There was suddenly so much going on, in so few pages, that the story only ever brushed across the surface of these events and aspects of the worldbuilding.
It’s about this point that the romances start to kick in. I really appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation—Mikira is bi and Ari is demisexual/demiromantic. I love seeing rep like that in fantasy, and I really appreciated the inclusion of a discussion about demisexuality/demiromanticism, but the actual conversation was very dry to read. It was like reading the dictionary definition word for word.
I also found it kind of ironic how Ari was like, “now that I’m really getting to know him and connect with him emotionally, I’m starting to be able to fall for him romantically!” because my #1 complaint with the romance in this book is that we never see them interact, and when they do there’s no real depth to it. It’s emotionless. Damien says some pretty words, but they’re just words and because there’s no accompanying depth to the actual interactions, actions, descriptions of feelings, etc, it rings hollow and the words just seem manipulative. There was not a single spark of chemistry between Ari and Damien—or between Mikira and either or her love interests—but it was especially painful to read because Damien and Ari were constantly like, verbally professing their love for each other and I was so completely unconvinced.

It also drove me absolutely mad how this one character is like, so blatantly possessed and either no one cared or no one could figure it out. She’s like “There’s this voice in my head and it’s maybe influencing my thoughts and also I’m starting to lose time.” But she doesn’t like, do anything about it. And neither does the person she tells. Like, THAT FEELS PRETTY FREAKING IMPORTANT TO ME!
Honestly, by the end of this book I could not stand a single one of these characters. They were annoying and their actions and thoughts constantly contradicted themselves and just… made no sense.

The last thing I want to touch on is the worldbuilding. The book takes place in the empirical kingdom of Enderlain (or something like that), but Ari is Kinnish, and the Kinnish people are based on Jewish people. Their religion and magic (Kinnism) are based on Jewish folklore and myths. The development and representation of these people was beautiful. It was so clearly an ode to the author’s love of her religion and culture. The discussions had on this topic were phenomenal and real and had true resonance in a way that… pretty much nothing else in the book had. If everything in the book was executed to that level, it could’ve been a 5 star read. Unfortunately, I think that the level of care, development, and detail that the Kinnish aspects of worldbuilding had made the surface level, bare bones development of all the other aspects of worldbuilding and character even more obvious.
If it still interests you, give it a try, but I don’t personally recommend this book, and I won’t be continuing with the series.

<i>A million thank you’s to Margaret K. McElderry and Simon Teen for sending me this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.</i>

Of the 289 books I read in 2022, Foul Lady Fortune was my favorite. This book had a lot to live up to—and I’m happy to say that it did! Rosalind is one of the best characters ever written, and this book has just cemented her as such in my personal rankings. But it’s not just her. Every single character in this book—Rosalind, Orion, Celia, Oliver, Phoebe, Silas, Alisa—is so well developed. They feel as if they could walk of the page. I have never met such an expansive cast that is so well done.
This book was a little slower than FLF, and it took a little bit longer for me to really get into, but even in the beginning, I was squealing and kicking my feet at least every other chapter.
Chloe Gong is a master of character, dialogue, twists and turns, and even prose. 
I will admit that it did fall a little short of Foul Lady Fortune, in my opinion—BUT it’s still one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. 
It spent a little less time on the romance, more time on delving into familial relationships. Which, in my opinion is neither a good or bad thing. I’m a sucker for romance, but I really appreciated the depth of all different kinds of character relationships that we got in this book. That said, there is still plenty of swoon. And shrieking because all the couples are just SO CUTE TOGETHER I LOVE THEM. There were a few scenes that had me physically incapable of functioning because of how obsessed I was with these characters.
I really loved seeing more of Phoebe. She was one of my favorite POVs to read in the first book, and since we get a more complete POV from her in this book, it’s even better. I don’t know how Chloe Gong makes me such a sucker for multi-POV when I normally can’t stand more than 2-3 per book. There are well over a half dozen different POV characters, but I never stumbled into the issues I normally face when an book is narrated by so many people. Each character’s voice was distinct, each of their POVs felt necessary, and they were all engaging and easy to get swept up in. I loved every single character in this book so much.
One of my favorite parts of the Foul Lady Fortune was Rosalind’s discussions of her demisexuality and the way love and attraction work for her. Of course, since she’s already in love with Orion in this book, it was less of a theme, but there were still some wonderful discussions and quotes that I cannot express how much it meant for me to read. Because I had an ARC copy, I’m not really supposed to share quotes (because they’re subject to change), but if I remember I’ll come back after release and leave my favorite quote below.
My one complaint about the book is a single storyline—which I can’t get into, because spoilers—but it’s a trope that I don’t love. I understand why Chloe made the decision to do that, I see where it ups the angst and adds to the plot, but I think it took away from my enjoyment of the story. I wanted more development between these characters, and instead it was like a repeat of existing development, if that makes sense? I see what she was going for, but I think it did a bit of a disservice to the story and characters, at least in my personal opinion. 
That said, I do think this was a fantastic conclusion to one of my favorite bookish universes. I can see myself rereading this duology (and TVD) many times in the future. Rosalind is one of my favorite characters of all time, I’m not sure I will ever read anything quite like Chloe Gong’s writing. I can’t wait to see what else she has to come.