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This one was very frustrating and majority of that was the MC. I'm not a huge fan of the unreliable narrator thing. It's never been something I've enjoyed and I didn't realise this one would have that trope when I started it.
Also the MC suffered from PTSD & anxiety. Which is not a bad thing to read about usually. I can't speak on the representation personally, so I have no idea if it's good or not. However, it made for an extremely painful read. The inner monologue was so frustrating. The most minuscule things were fixated on and it completely distracted from the story. There were also so many times that I was internally thinking 'for fuck sake just...'. For example, this woman treats the MC like crap multiple times and the MC is still doing everything she can to become friends with this woman and I'm just sitting there thinking 'literally why?!' and there was one scene where it was pouring rain, she's only got a bike & she is carrying a big ass bag of dog food. This dude she knows offers her a lift and she says no, while clearly struggling, over and over again for absolutely no reason other than not liking people knowing where she lives... I would understand if it was some random, but she knows this guy. Or even better solution, don't buy the bag of dog food you can barely carry when you only have a bike and it's raining. Get a smaller bag... So it was just straight up frustrating reading paragraphs and paragraphs of this. I just couldn't deal with it and I ended up DNFing at 220 pages.
Also the MC suffered from PTSD & anxiety. Which is not a bad thing to read about usually. I can't speak on the representation personally, so I have no idea if it's good or not. However, it made for an extremely painful read. The inner monologue was so frustrating. The most minuscule things were fixated on and it completely distracted from the story. There were also so many times that I was internally thinking 'for fuck sake just...'. For example, this woman treats the MC like crap multiple times and the MC is still doing everything she can to become friends with this woman and I'm just sitting there thinking 'literally why?!' and there was one scene where it was pouring rain, she's only got a bike & she is carrying a big ass bag of dog food. This dude she knows offers her a lift and she says no, while clearly struggling, over and over again for absolutely no reason other than not liking people knowing where she lives... I would understand if it was some random, but she knows this guy. Or even better solution, don't buy the bag of dog food you can barely carry when you only have a bike and it's raining. Get a smaller bag... So it was just straight up frustrating reading paragraphs and paragraphs of this. I just couldn't deal with it and I ended up DNFing at 220 pages.
Writing felt very repetitive and I just wasn’t getting into it. Was listening on the audiobook and I was subconsciously pausing the book and just listened to nothing… So that tells me a lot.
I felt like I guessed half the plot in the 7%ish I did read.
I also wasn’t enjoying the MC. He was bland, 2D and kinda annoying.
Also why the hell did we need that age gap when they meet at that age? There wasn’t anything romantic so far but their friendship was uncomfortably intimate for a 10 & 16 year old. If you skipped that bit completely and just had them meet late in life then cool or made them both 16 or at least closer in age. Then there wouldn’t have been a issue…
I felt like I guessed half the plot in the 7%ish I did read.
I also wasn’t enjoying the MC. He was bland, 2D and kinda annoying.
Also why the hell did we need that age gap when they meet at that age? There wasn’t anything romantic so far but their friendship was uncomfortably intimate for a 10 & 16 year old. If you skipped that bit completely and just had them meet late in life then cool or made them both 16 or at least closer in age. Then there wouldn’t have been a issue…
DNFd at 68 pages.
I simply don’t think this authors writing is for me. I love multi POV usually but this was just a lot to try and follow.
There was also a lot of information thrown at your very quickly. I can guarantee I wouldn’t have remembered 99% of it. Why add it if it’s not really important and if it is important, well I’ve forgotten it anyway. I’d much prefer little bits throughout than big blocks of text.
Also, in the prologue it’s the 1400s. Why would the main character of that bit expect to hear the ‘buzz’ of a saw. I’m no historian but I’m pretty sure saws weren’t buzzing back then.
I simply don’t think this authors writing is for me. I love multi POV usually but this was just a lot to try and follow.
There was also a lot of information thrown at your very quickly. I can guarantee I wouldn’t have remembered 99% of it. Why add it if it’s not really important and if it is important, well I’ve forgotten it anyway. I’d much prefer little bits throughout than big blocks of text.
Also, in the prologue it’s the 1400s. Why would the main character of that bit expect to hear the ‘buzz’ of a saw. I’m no historian but I’m pretty sure saws weren’t buzzing back then.
Usually I would give a book to 20% before DNFing but I just couldn't. I was extremely confused the whole time I was reading. The writing is very flat with little to no emotion and I just couldn't get into it. I felt like I was reading a text book. There were also a lot of terminology used based in this world with very little explanation of meaning. This made the experience very choppy as I was constantly stopping to try and make sense of things that had no explanation. Not to mention the over usage of 'big words' that felt uanessacry. I'm no English major and neither are most people & I feel like a lot of people would struggle with this writing like I did. Between the made up terminology & the 'big words' I had no idea what was a real word that I just wasn't familiar with & what was made up.
I have read books before based around topics I am unfamiliar with. Take This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada for an example. I have no knowledge of the tech discussed and very little regarding DNA and the science stuff mentioned but it was explained in a way that could make sense to anyone and also didn't feel like info dumping. It can be done but from what I read so far of this book the execution just wasn't there.
Also am I the only one that has a pet hate for every name in a book being impossible to pronounce? I don't mind unique names but if EVERY single character has a name where I literally have no idea where to even start to pronounce it it starts getting annoying and hard to follow. This one had that for both character names & locations! Can we normalise pronunciation guides at the start of books please?!
I have read books before based around topics I am unfamiliar with. Take This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada for an example. I have no knowledge of the tech discussed and very little regarding DNA and the science stuff mentioned but it was explained in a way that could make sense to anyone and also didn't feel like info dumping. It can be done but from what I read so far of this book the execution just wasn't there.
Also am I the only one that has a pet hate for every name in a book being impossible to pronounce? I don't mind unique names but if EVERY single character has a name where I literally have no idea where to even start to pronounce it it starts getting annoying and hard to follow. This one had that for both character names & locations! Can we normalise pronunciation guides at the start of books please?!
You can also find this review on Dusk Angel Reads
Okay, so I have decided to DNF this book at 52%. It’s not that I’m hating the book, I’m just not enjoying myself. I’m having to force myself to pick up the book and read, but when I do try and read I start falling asleep, even though I wasn’t tired at all!
Also, the book is taking forever! I use the app BookOut which you use to track your reading as it goes. So when you start reading you press the ‘continue reading’ button and it times you, then when you’re finished you end the session and put in the page number or percentage you’re up to! I have been reading for 6 hours already and still have an estimated 5 and a half hours to go and that is soooo much longer than a usual book of this size would take me (About 4 to 5 hours more than it would usually take me actually).
As I’m not enjoying the book and because it’s taking so long I just feel like I’m getting nowhere! I may have considering finishing the book if it was a quicker read, but I’m not forcing myself through another 5 and a half hours of something I’m not enjoying.
Also, basically nothing has happened in the first 50% of the book!! The MC has basically just been going to classes, which, sure was interesting at the start but now it’s just getting monotonous! I also don’t know anything about the world. There has been hardly any explanation at all. All I know is that people have magic and they go to this school.
However, I did find out this morning that this book is set in the same world as one of her other series. As I have not read any of her books up until now, I haven’t read that other series. So maybe that is why there is no explanation of the outside world in this book. But it doesn’t say anything about this being based in the same world as her other series in the synopsis or anything! I only found out while watching Cat’s (Little Book Owls) Haul video this morning and she said it.
This book, even though it reads slow, is ridiculously fast! It flips through events and years extremely quickly. Which makes it really hard to follow! At the start of the book the MC was, I think 10 (but pretending to be 11, which makes it even more confusing when trying to keep track of how much time has passed between chapters). Now the MC is I think 15 (or maybe he is just saying he is 15, I have no idea). Even though he is 4 or 5 years older the character doesn’t feel like he has matured any besides from his powers growing. So it is hard to think of him as a 15-year-old when he still reads like a kid. As it was so fast of a change there has been no time for development of the character as he ages.
The chapters do have timestamps, but I honestly feel like timestamps are useless! Sure I read them but I have forgotten what the last one was, to be able to gauge how much time has passed anyway and as I’m reading an eARC, I can’t just easily flip back to the last chapter to check.
Also at the start of some chapters is the MCs school timetable, which I also think is kinda pointless. It’s a tonne of info that you forget two pages later anyway. And as him going to class is basically all that is happening anyway we find out what classes he is doing in that chapter, so what is the point?
I also don’t like Ozorne. He is obsessive and kinda controlling. God forbid if one of the characters want to do something else with there life besides sit by his side or defeat his enemies?! He is also always trying to push Arram to learn war magic or whatever it is called as he wants Arram to help him kill the race that killed his father. Even though on multiple occasions Arram says he never wants to kill anyone, that’s just not the type of person he is. Varice is kinda bleh. She is the ‘perfect side character’. Intelligent, gorgeous, outgoing, caring, etc. But she has nothing that makes her stand out as a character! She is just the pretty smart friend who likes to cook.
In the synopsis, it hints at a romance between Varice and Arram & that Ozorne might be put on the throne, which is yet to happen in the first 50%! Not that I am keen on romances anyway, but I feel like if it doesn’t set the scene or happen in the first quarter of the book, it shouldn’t in on the synopsis! I have been going through page and page, waiting for something major to happen that will put Ozorne near the throne. But it’s not happening.. Which is making the book even more frustrating as you just want it to happen!! Especially because I feel like that would be some action in a so far pretty dull book.
Now I like a good chosen one book, but this one was just pushing it way to hard! It is pointed out multiple times that the MC is more powerful than others and will go on to do amazing things. It is also mentioned hundreds of times how young he is to be that powerful! Like, come on! At one point a teacher gets up him and forces him to prove that what magic he just did, he did alone and someone else wasn’t helping him because ‘how could someone so young be so capable’! Also, all the other tropes related to ‘the chosen one’ is there! Kinda quiet, doesn’t have many friends, not confident around girls, ‘underestimated’ and who knows what else! The chosen one trope can be done so well! Look at The Medoran Chronicles by Lynette Noni, The Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and heaps more! It can be done amazingly and you barely even realise it’s a chosen one story, it just feels natural. But this is just pushed overboard.
I may pick this book up again later. Possibly as an audiobook as it’s so long and hard to get through the start, listening to it might make life easier.
Okay, so I have decided to DNF this book at 52%. It’s not that I’m hating the book, I’m just not enjoying myself. I’m having to force myself to pick up the book and read, but when I do try and read I start falling asleep, even though I wasn’t tired at all!
Also, the book is taking forever! I use the app BookOut which you use to track your reading as it goes. So when you start reading you press the ‘continue reading’ button and it times you, then when you’re finished you end the session and put in the page number or percentage you’re up to! I have been reading for 6 hours already and still have an estimated 5 and a half hours to go and that is soooo much longer than a usual book of this size would take me (About 4 to 5 hours more than it would usually take me actually).
As I’m not enjoying the book and because it’s taking so long I just feel like I’m getting nowhere! I may have considering finishing the book if it was a quicker read, but I’m not forcing myself through another 5 and a half hours of something I’m not enjoying.
Also, basically nothing has happened in the first 50% of the book!! The MC has basically just been going to classes, which, sure was interesting at the start but now it’s just getting monotonous! I also don’t know anything about the world. There has been hardly any explanation at all. All I know is that people have magic and they go to this school.
However, I did find out this morning that this book is set in the same world as one of her other series. As I have not read any of her books up until now, I haven’t read that other series. So maybe that is why there is no explanation of the outside world in this book. But it doesn’t say anything about this being based in the same world as her other series in the synopsis or anything! I only found out while watching Cat’s (Little Book Owls) Haul video this morning and she said it.
This book, even though it reads slow, is ridiculously fast! It flips through events and years extremely quickly. Which makes it really hard to follow! At the start of the book the MC was, I think 10 (but pretending to be 11, which makes it even more confusing when trying to keep track of how much time has passed between chapters). Now the MC is I think 15 (or maybe he is just saying he is 15, I have no idea). Even though he is 4 or 5 years older the character doesn’t feel like he has matured any besides from his powers growing. So it is hard to think of him as a 15-year-old when he still reads like a kid. As it was so fast of a change there has been no time for development of the character as he ages.
The chapters do have timestamps, but I honestly feel like timestamps are useless! Sure I read them but I have forgotten what the last one was, to be able to gauge how much time has passed anyway and as I’m reading an eARC, I can’t just easily flip back to the last chapter to check.
Also at the start of some chapters is the MCs school timetable, which I also think is kinda pointless. It’s a tonne of info that you forget two pages later anyway. And as him going to class is basically all that is happening anyway we find out what classes he is doing in that chapter, so what is the point?
I also don’t like Ozorne. He is obsessive and kinda controlling. God forbid if one of the characters want to do something else with there life besides sit by his side or defeat his enemies?! He is also always trying to push Arram to learn war magic or whatever it is called as he wants Arram to help him kill the race that killed his father. Even though on multiple occasions Arram says he never wants to kill anyone, that’s just not the type of person he is. Varice is kinda bleh. She is the ‘perfect side character’. Intelligent, gorgeous, outgoing, caring, etc. But she has nothing that makes her stand out as a character! She is just the pretty smart friend who likes to cook.
In the synopsis, it hints at a romance between Varice and Arram & that Ozorne might be put on the throne, which is yet to happen in the first 50%! Not that I am keen on romances anyway, but I feel like if it doesn’t set the scene or happen in the first quarter of the book, it shouldn’t in on the synopsis! I have been going through page and page, waiting for something major to happen that will put Ozorne near the throne. But it’s not happening.. Which is making the book even more frustrating as you just want it to happen!! Especially because I feel like that would be some action in a so far pretty dull book.
Now I like a good chosen one book, but this one was just pushing it way to hard! It is pointed out multiple times that the MC is more powerful than others and will go on to do amazing things. It is also mentioned hundreds of times how young he is to be that powerful! Like, come on! At one point a teacher gets up him and forces him to prove that what magic he just did, he did alone and someone else wasn’t helping him because ‘how could someone so young be so capable’! Also, all the other tropes related to ‘the chosen one’ is there! Kinda quiet, doesn’t have many friends, not confident around girls, ‘underestimated’ and who knows what else! The chosen one trope can be done so well! Look at The Medoran Chronicles by Lynette Noni, The Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and heaps more! It can be done amazingly and you barely even realise it’s a chosen one story, it just feels natural. But this is just pushed overboard.
I may pick this book up again later. Possibly as an audiobook as it’s so long and hard to get through the start, listening to it might make life easier.
You can also find this review on Dusk Angel Reads
I am DNFing at 17%.
I have 3 main issues with this book. Well 3 & a overall, I am bored….
Firstly, the sentences do not flow. They feel very choppy which makes it hard to follow and difficult to read as there is just no flow to it. I am confused as to what is going on because it is so jumpy. It feels like I am just missing something.
Next, there has been basically no world building (besides names of towns really), explanation of the magic or really plot since the first few paragraphs. Nothing is really happening to interest me in continuing and I keep finding myself putting it down and getting distracted by other things because it’s just not gripping me in any way.
Lastly, the characters feel very 2 Dimensional. I feel like I don’t know the main 2 characters at all and it’s been 17%. Things are happening and they are talking but I feel no personality to them at all. Which is another reason that the book isn’t gripping me. I couldn’t care less what happens to the characters because nothing has made me like them as they just feel like cardboard cut outs of people.
Overall, this book sounded really interesting but it’s just not gripping me enough to make me continue. At this point I would be forcing myself and I just do not do that to myself. Reading is for enjoyment, so unless I am enjoying it, I don’t keep reading.
I am DNFing at 17%.
I have 3 main issues with this book. Well 3 & a overall, I am bored….
Firstly, the sentences do not flow. They feel very choppy which makes it hard to follow and difficult to read as there is just no flow to it. I am confused as to what is going on because it is so jumpy. It feels like I am just missing something.
Next, there has been basically no world building (besides names of towns really), explanation of the magic or really plot since the first few paragraphs. Nothing is really happening to interest me in continuing and I keep finding myself putting it down and getting distracted by other things because it’s just not gripping me in any way.
Lastly, the characters feel very 2 Dimensional. I feel like I don’t know the main 2 characters at all and it’s been 17%. Things are happening and they are talking but I feel no personality to them at all. Which is another reason that the book isn’t gripping me. I couldn’t care less what happens to the characters because nothing has made me like them as they just feel like cardboard cut outs of people.
Overall, this book sounded really interesting but it’s just not gripping me enough to make me continue. At this point I would be forcing myself and I just do not do that to myself. Reading is for enjoyment, so unless I am enjoying it, I don’t keep reading.