eggcatsreads's Reviews (480)

I agree with some of the critical reviews, and to be honest if this wasn't a debut it would have probably been closer to 3 stars since that's where it hung out for me the majority of the narrative until it picked up near the end. But I don't want to be too mean, because while this book have some of the pitfalls common in debut fantasies, she also is able to, if not fix them, make them slightly work as the book goes on. And some of the issue questions I had were answered by the end, so I'll give her that as well.

Also there's no annoying talking animal companion only there to be a yes man/extension to the main character so that's an automatic+1 star. (That was one thing I couldn't forgive The Bone Shard Daughter or Six Crimson Cranes. Those talking animal companions were the worst and got worse as the books progressed and made reading them a chore.)

While there's an explanation for why the Ghostlings need their hands removed as the book finished, I thought the lack of anyone questioning it (slaves that don't have hands? No one questioned this?) Odd. None of the Dusters questioning the island/nowhere else until a map is found by the main character? Also odd. Propaganda only works so far. I just thought the entire lack of interest in anything in the world until the book starts in earnest a bit odd, that's all.

I also thought the constant fluctuating response to Anoor (either appreciative or fatphobic, often by the same character only paragraphs apart) could have been edited a bit better.

I thought Anoor's character a bit odd. She's a blue-blood Duster masquerading as a red-blood Ember and yet she acts as if all the privilege she has isn't hanging by a thread. Her character would have made more sense if she at least applied herself SOMEWHERE before the book starts, because you'd think she'd be highly aware of how precarious her situation is. Just the fact that the book starts with her ordering rare silks and acting like a spoiled brat is odd - both because her "mother" hates her and why'd she allow that, and also it would've made more sense if Anoor tried to prove her worth despite her blood. She knows her mother wants her dead, why isn't she at least planning on doing the trial for like, knowledge or something.

And, her decision to join under Strength instead of a position she'd be better at? And yet, with only like a few months training, starting from scratch, she succeeds??? And she decided this SOLELY because Sylah was trapped and she could force her to???? Like a last minute decision??? Why wouldn't she had decided under knowledge or something, why was strength her go-to? What is this, a bad action movie with a montage that suddenly makes her great? My biggest gripe is that this entire thing is like 5 months and yet she somehow hope-montages her way to success each time, beating people who've been training their whole lives for this. Ridiculous. Anoor should have lost the first trial and nothing else makes sense.

Also, Spoiler, but some of the editing was rough and parts of the narrative were clearly out of order. The one I noticed most obviously (which is honestly hard to do, since the majority of this was through audiobook) was that the Trial of Tactics was OUTSIDE during the tidewind. That was the entire point. Someone even died when their helmet was knocked off. So, to be clear, Anoor was out in the tidewind for the trials. A big plot point.
And then, literally TWO CHAPTERS LATER, this dialogue happens.

Anoor put her hand on her hip. "If we exit at this door here, swing round to the left and head through the cloisters, we'll only be outside for ten paces."
"Have you ever been outside in the tidewind?"
"No. Have you?" <----YES YOU HAVE????
"Yes, we were... camping..." (And then Sylah gives Anoor some edited backstory.)

WHAT.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HAVE YOU EVER BEEN OUT IN THE TIDEWIND. THE ANSWER IS YES, LIKE A DAY OR SO AGO, AND SYLAH WAS WATCHING YOU DO IT. HELLO??!

Also, despite this being marketed as f/f, the majority of the romance scenes are m/f and the few f/f romance scenes are literally fade to black with almost no information, while the m/f either aren't or give us more information before fading to black. Also, Sylah and Jond have absolutely NO chemistry. None. You could not for an instant make me believe that there was a romance there. It was plain, boring, and honestly kind of perfunctory. She sees him again, and then suddenly they have sex. That's it. I get it, but still. Anoor and Sylah had slightly more chemistry, but honestly, only in comparison to her and Jond. I feel this book would have been more solid with the flimsy romances removed.

However, (I know I've been mean) I think this book was a good solid foundation for the world building to continue and for the narrative to expand. I feel like most of these issues were more to do with it being a debut, and needing to write more to get better at it, as with anything.
(But did the map have to be so ugly??

Too many povs and nothing really happened?

There was no need to constantly switch povs and half of them were for pointless chapters that mean nothing and all they do is over explain something that anyone even half paying attention could have learned. (Like yes, the tithing for the bone shard is bad we understand it, you don't need to give us an entire character arc and saying it 5 separate ways to understand it. If it was good the people wouldn't try to keep their kids from it. Obviously.) Also the constant switching of povs was confusing and made the story feel bulky and uncoordinated.

At least 100 pages should have been cut to keep this from dragging on as much as it did.

Phalue and Ranami's chapters could have been cut and nothing would be lost, and it would have made the story slightly more linear. There was at least one seemingly major plot thread with Sand's pov that never goes anywhere and the only connection we have to it is in the opposite direction.

I want to give the second book a chance as this one was a LOT of background/attempt at world building and hopefully after this the next one won't drag as much and will actually have a plot.

For a book called The Bone Shard Daughter, Lin is hardly in the story and when she is she's not doing anything interesting or important, instead just doing the same thing she was the last time we had a chapter for her.

I love Celehar so desperately much, and I so wish he could see how much the people around HIM care for him as well. I want him nothing but happiness and I SO HOPE he finally sees that Pel-Thenhior is ALSO angling for more than just friendship with him (and his mom too!!! She yelled at him to not let you get away!!! Mom approves!!!)

They work so perfectly together, and while I know neither this nor the previous book really had any romance in it, I so wish there was if only so Celehar stops agonizing about whether Pel-Thenhior likes him and can see some of his own worthiness. I just love how dour and serious Celehar is and how sunshine Pel-Thenhior is and just how well they work together AND how much Pel-Thenhior LOVES how serious Celehar is (and he should, someone appreciate this man).

I could not get over Celehar having an ENTIRE internal monologue about pretending he has a lover with him who puts a lot of honey in their tea, and THEN HE GOES OUT TO TEA WITH PEL-THENHIOR AND HE DOES JUST THAT. I almost screamed, it was too perfect.

I also found the confusion of the names and titles less bad in this book, but that is probably just because it's easier for me to mentally skip over it and not lose the plot entirely. I liked this book almost more than the Goblin Emperor just because it was a fun murder mystery with a sad gay elf who does everything he can to help people and goes out of his way to do what's right, and yet CANNOT understand why people like him. He's great and I love him so much. (Not that I didn't enjoy the Goblin Emperor, but the name confusion got me a lot of the times when I was trying to read it and sometimes just skipping over it caused even MORE confusion.)

This book had me hanging on every word. It's written so beautifully, I had so much trouble putting it down once I started reading. I was in love with Silas since the moment he arrived and I'm so glad that she was finally able to see how shitty Isaiah treated her.

There are so many quotes that I loved, but THIS ONE. THIS ONE changed how I'll read any other romance novel. This is my baseline for romance. Silas has changed my standards, irrevocably, forever.

"In my time," he continues, voice low, "sanctity was measured by suffering. Those saints that abstained from the pleasures of life, fasted to starvation, mortified their flesh, drank the blood of the wounded - it was only they who saw the eyes of God, it was only through their agony that they were touched by true divinity, enraptured by their own faith."
"I...I'm not a saint, Silas." Her eyes meet his in a gaze that's wrapped up in the promise for everything she's always denied herself. The promise of temptation for the taste of that forbidden fruit, a single bite all it takes for irreversible expulsion, for an eternal fall from grace.
"I never said you were."
The warmth of his breath is so close to her own, heat mingling, pulses flush close. "Then what are you saying?"
"That I am," he answers. "I found God. And I'm looking into her eyes."

HOLY SHIT.
Silas has impossibly raised my standards beyond belief.
(In actually reading this, book - I really liked how everything was focused on Sadie's grief. The narrative never shamed her for being destroyed by it (and her shitty boyfriend and so-called friend are very obviously in the wrong for just expecting her to GET OVER HER MOTHER'S SUICIDE???), and it's actually the healing power that helps Silas win. I really enjoyed that - that grief, feeling it, embracing it - can be powerful and healing, it's only when you hide it away and try to avoid it that it can become dangerous and hurtful.

This book isn’t bad. I finished it in one day with a cat on my lap. It’s fun and easy to read. A normal 2-3 star read. It’s sweet and cute and doesn’t take long to read or too much effort. Very beach-read esque, and since that’s what I read it for it accomplished it perfectly.

But.

It’s cringe as all hell, and not even in a good way.

Half the plot feels like a romantic spin on Colleen Hoover’s Verity and since that book was mid at best, not the best start. The love interest is literally only described as “big” or “large” like, that’s it. What else is there? Idk other than “conventionally attractive man who is so big next to the small dainty woman” and I’m bored. Give me something to latch onto. Literally all we get about how attractive he is is how large his chest is or how ripped his abs are. Boring. I'm bored. Where are the flaws? The thing making him human and not some perfect caricature of a man.

Plus this book is amazingly slow and half the plot isn’t even relevant to the blurb on this book, the literal reason I read it. The fact that she can see and talk to ghosts, or that her family owns a funeral home is barely relevant to her own internal monologue about how hard her life is or their own family drama. It gets old fast.

Plus, the plot.

You want me to believe that she has been trying and FAILING to write this book for a year, and meeting with her editor literally ONLY the day before the manuscript is due. And to combat her literal less-than-24-hour deadline, she not only goes out to buy books BUT SHE GOES OUT DRINKING???? HELLOO??? IS SHE NOT EVEN TRYING??? Literally, a deadline of a month would have made more sense than literally the next day. That was so stupid it took me out of the novel entirely.
And I get it. She’s been betrayed and doesn’t “believe in love anymore”. I don’t care. Finish the fucking book you had an entire year and you just fucked off the whole time. Where is the forgivable action here, she did this to her own goddamn self.

Spoiler

Plus, what. Making out with him behind a bar suddenly? Cringe. Making it that he TOTALLY noticed her before her shitty ex got her, but "aw beans, I had someone. Darn monogamy." Cringe. We didn't need that. They literally didn't need to meet before or anything - he should have only known her from her one book she did write.


And the fact that she’s only written one (ONE) book that just so happens the love interest has read and liked, and while it wasn’t that good some rando famous author took her on to ghostwrite for her? NOT TO MENTION IT WASN'T EVEN THE BOOK THAT DID IT - IT WAS SOME RANDO FANFIC SHE WAS WRITING AND THE ONLY REASON SHE WAS CHOSEN WAS BC SHE CAN SEE GHOSTS. THAT'S IT. It’s literally Verity without the rest of the cringe of Verity and yet, the book is still a slog half the time.

This book literally uses the word “unalive”. Am I on TikTok what the fuck is this.
“It’s not me being stuck unalive, it’s you.” What the fuck. It feels so off, it literally would have flowed better to fucking say the word dead.

Plus, not to even mention the unnecessary and yet fucking constant name-dropping of better or well-known books in this to, idk, make the protagonist seem more relatable? Quirky? For buying Howl’s Moving Castle or seeing Red, White, and Royal Blue in a bookstore? What is this. I can’t tell if it’s the world’s lamest ad, or if the author wrote too much fanfic and never got out of the habit.

Not to mention how fucking fanfic-y it reads. And not in the good way because I fucking love some fanfiction. But in a cringe “is this scene over yet???” kind of way. -

Spoiler

THERE’S LITERALLY A SCENE WHERE SHE CONFRONTS A FORMER BULLY AND HAS THIS WHOLE CRINGY SPEECH AND IT WAS VERY "AND THEN EVERYONE CLAPPED" LIKE ARE YOU SERIOUS.

This book was sweet and cute and an easy read. But IMHO, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was better.

—
Also there was a scene when the brother just randomly goes that kissing his boyfriend “tastes like a Taylor Swift song” and then just starts fucking singing one and namedrops it. I literally have her racist ass blocked on every social media platform and I can't even escape her in a book. Bad.

I feel really bad about the 2 stars. This book is beautifully written and interesting to get lost in how it flows, whether reading or listening to an audiobook. I love the overall concept, and the main characters were relatively easy to root for.

Unfortunately that's the only thing keeping it from being 1 star.

I did not know what the hell was going on 90% of the book, and never knew what was going on WHILE it was going on. I have a vague idea of the plot and the conflicts and the resolution, but that's it.

There's also too many characters for me to be able to keep track of, especially when the animals randomly become an actual character where we get a chapter or so from their perspective - it's confusing and I'd have preferred not to have it. I could vaguely keep track of all the characters but once the animals got named I got lost, people would be named doing things and I'd have absolutely 0 idea who tf they were.

The worldbuilding and explanation of concepts in this book are kind of weak as well. After having read it, I feel like I almost understand just as much of the magic system and shadowland and etc. that I did on the very first page where they just dump you into it.

Also. Is the bee thing ever explained or is it just there? Granted I had to mostly audiobook this book bc I couldn't get into it, and if I had to read and not understand a single word on the page, I'd have never finished this book.

I love this series and will absolutely be checking out the podcast ASAP.

I think my honestly favorite part of this series is just how even the terrible editor character (I love Banecroft don't worry) is only so messed up BECAUSE he loves his wife and is torn up about that. That's so refreshing? It's like, the opposite of the "I hate my wife" trope, AND IT HAPPENS TWICE WITH STANLEY.

Obviously I have real thoughts, but that's the one that gets me the most - Banecroft lost himself (both before the first book and SUPER in this one) because he loves his wife so much and can't accept her death, and Stanley is like "I'm an irredeemable asshole but I'd never cheat on my wife and I need to literally risk my life and work with someone I hate to prove myself to her so she'll take me back". I just love that so much I don't even know how to put it into words.

I mean, everything else is fun and I love all the characters, and how all the plots intertwined and were resolved (and also continuing the world building).

I just had the misfortune to recently read another hyped urban fantasy written by a man that was so sexist it would have been more progressive without any women in it at all. And this series has singlehandedly given me back my hope for this genre and male authors, lol.

--
Unrelated to everything else, but the short story at the end, The Rain, had SUCH a similar feel to the podcast I Am In Eskew that I just loved so much? I honestly mean this in the best way possible, it made me want to relisten to the entire thing, it was so well written and atmospheric.

I originally found this book from this Youtube video from BobbyBroccoli (linked in image).



(This video focuses more on the history and Ninov, while the book continues past his scandal almost lightning-quick; however if you liked this book and wanted a pretty decent overview of it, but only wanted to waste just over an hour [and didn't want to read it] I HIGHLY suggest you check this out.)

The exploration of the "superheavy" elements is something I've never before even thought of, let alone the fraught history of it, or the competition between world powers. I thought this book did a good job of combining the science/explanation of it, the explanations of the equipment and processes of discovering these elements, and bringing the people actually DOING the science to life.

I do wish it focused a bit more than about half-a-chapter on the Ninov scandal, as if I wasn't aware of it/waiting for it to "happen" it was more of a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of deal, and I think I'd have been fairly confused about what exactly had happened.

It's honestly kind of impressive to read a book that would be LESS sexist if it had no women characters in it at all.

This book started off so well. So well! The first few pages had me laughing out loud and I thought it was going to be great throughout. Until the main character meets the first woman in the book, and it only gets worse from there.

Every woman in this book is ONLY described by how sexually attractive the main thinks she is, how horny that makes him, and whether or not he thinks he can coerce her into bed with him. That's it.

The two main plots aren't connected at ALL, AND they're boring. I understand that this is a series but they could have been relevant OR interesting, at least.

The main character is the least likable person ever, AND he's super into the whole Madonna/Whore complex as he is CONVINCED every single woman wants to have sex with him or is flirting with him or whatever. If she's not flirting with him it's because she's a lesbian (and described so horribly) so let's add some lesbophobia and homophobia to the mix that made this book unpleasant to read.

Not to mention the thinly veiled racism throughout, and NO not intentional because the main character is mixed race. Just unintentional racist descriptions, culminating in the older wizard man saying that the random teeth vagina plot from "Teeth" was "probably from Chinatown or something." Wow.

AND THEN THE BOOK RANDOMLY ENDS WITH THE PLOT FROM THAT MOVIE "TEETH" AND THEY COULDN'T RESIST ADDING SOME ANTI-ASIAN RACISM TO THE MIX RIGHT BEFORE THE BOOK ENDS. Great.

I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a book that had such a PHENOMENAL beginning and awesome concept. Unfortunately men writing women is a known thing and I should have stuck to Garth Nix for women characters that aren't only there to get the main character's dick hard. Legitimately do not understand the 5 star reviews from women. Please, have an ounce of a standard. And it's kind of concerning none of the 5 star reviews from men even noticed or mentioned the blatant misogyny in this book.

Every book of this series, and especially the last 2, feel like watching an extended episode of Criminal Minds, and I mean that in the best way possible. Each book focuses on a new unsub and crimes, and yet in the background there's character development and a lurking unsub that connects it to the first book.

The characters are engaging and it's fun to have them repeat, the Unsubs and the crimes are unique and captivating - especially with how they're captured at the end. Plus, there's a through-line plot in the background that keeps building more and more until eventually it'll (hopefully) hit a breaking point.

Once I start one of these books I can't put it down until it's finished as I HAVE to know what happens next.