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petuniarhubarb's Reviews (437)
4/5 stars, ARC copy :)
I have good and negative things to say about War Hour. I wanted to add beforehand, I absolutely recommend it! It isn’t perfect but it’s a solid book. If you like fantasy or want decent anxiety representation, War Hour is for you!
Okay, to the main points. But first… a quick-ish summary. Lysta lives in the Court of Valor, led by Lord Drytas. Drytas is forcing people to Trial to get a big ol’ army of people with magic abilities to kill everyone. He’s your classic power-hungry conqueror, except we get to hate him on a personal level. Anyway, Lysta has to Trial after getting caught with a knife while trying to help someone. “Someone” turns out to be from another court and promises to help free her fellow oppressed people. He takes her to the capital (which is wildly different from her court), and she has to convince the Lords and Lady to believe her story. There’s lots of political drama btw. I rarely like that, but I didn’t mind it this time.
Now the review. When I saw it marketed on Instagram as a magic system where people have to trial for their powers, it intrigued me. Frankly, the trials were a bit underwhelming. They were short and nowhere near as deadly as implied. I expected more, but what I got was still interesting. I can’t wait to see the other trials. The magic system alone is worth reading the book for.
The second thing that drew my attention in the marketing—and the most important—was the author said the MC had a panic attack. I don’t see a lot of female YA fantasy MCs with genuine anxiety. They’re always gung-ho, “Let’s go save the kingdom and kill people, and yay!” They do everything out of grit, spite, and honor. If they get scared, it’s just a little queasy and they power through it because Strong Female Characters™.
Lysta gets scared. She has a panic attack, and anxiety always overwhelms her at the worst imaginable times. I’ve struggled with anxiety my whole life, and it was satisfying to see the physical symptoms of anxiety represented so well.
That said, the book was exasperating too! Huge amounts of the plot were based on miscommunication.
GAAAAAH!
It’s why I ended up putting the book down for a month. I had to calm down because, wow. I’m not exaggerating when I say Lysta had to lock Torryn in a room with her to get the tiniest bit of communication. All he needed was five minutes to go over a few rules she needed to survive. But no. “Don’t trust anyone” is abysmal advice. Good God Torryn, get it together.
Thankfully, after that scene, miscommunication wasn’t as big a deal.
To be clear, the plot wasn’t solely miscommunication. If you hate the trope, I still recommend you read the book. It was frustrating, but not the sole drive of the story (thankfully). Everything else was interesting enough to keep me going after I cooled down.
I’ve seen tons of people (on Goodreads and Instagram) saying the plot twist in the last 10% surprised them. That confused me. I saw it coming immediately. The author foreshadowed it well and it seemed obvious. To the point, I doubted myself because maybe everyone else saw the same signs and they were red herrings! Nope. I feel a bit vindicated... That’s not to say the plot twist was bad, I just saw it coming, which is maybe half the fun of a plot twist. So you can wonder if the signs are real or imagined.
One more smallish thing? I felt like some of the continuity needed help.
The first chapters seemed unrelated to the rest of the book. *Friend* seems very important to Lysta in the beginning, but he’s nothing later. It wasn’t uncommon for me to realize there was an early element I forgot about because it wasn’t relevant to anything else. Be it world-building, or interactions between characters that should have been mentioned later. *cough* Lysta being choked out multiple times and not having any bruises *cough*
I know it’s a series. I know many of the elements might be important next book. It still frustrated me.
With those inconsistencies and more, paired with the miscommunication, I stopped reading it for a month. I needed space.
That said, I’m glad I picked it back up.
Despite the details that pulled me away from the plot, I enjoyed War Hour. Lysta was relatable. I loved she was as confused as I was the whole time. The world-building was unique. I want to learn more about the trial systems. Sar was an amazing friend. I sense some cool backstory from her…
4/5 stars, I highly recommend
I have good and negative things to say about War Hour. I wanted to add beforehand, I absolutely recommend it! It isn’t perfect but it’s a solid book. If you like fantasy or want decent anxiety representation, War Hour is for you!
Okay, to the main points. But first… a quick-ish summary. Lysta lives in the Court of Valor, led by Lord Drytas. Drytas is forcing people to Trial to get a big ol’ army of people with magic abilities to kill everyone. He’s your classic power-hungry conqueror, except we get to hate him on a personal level. Anyway, Lysta has to Trial after getting caught with a knife while trying to help someone. “Someone” turns out to be from another court and promises to help free her fellow oppressed people. He takes her to the capital (which is wildly different from her court), and she has to convince the Lords and Lady to believe her story. There’s lots of political drama btw. I rarely like that, but I didn’t mind it this time.
Now the review. When I saw it marketed on Instagram as a magic system where people have to trial for their powers, it intrigued me. Frankly, the trials were a bit underwhelming. They were short and nowhere near as deadly as implied. I expected more, but what I got was still interesting. I can’t wait to see the other trials. The magic system alone is worth reading the book for.
The second thing that drew my attention in the marketing—and the most important—was the author said the MC had a panic attack. I don’t see a lot of female YA fantasy MCs with genuine anxiety. They’re always gung-ho, “Let’s go save the kingdom and kill people, and yay!” They do everything out of grit, spite, and honor. If they get scared, it’s just a little queasy and they power through it because Strong Female Characters™.
Lysta gets scared. She has a panic attack, and anxiety always overwhelms her at the worst imaginable times. I’ve struggled with anxiety my whole life, and it was satisfying to see the physical symptoms of anxiety represented so well.
That said, the book was exasperating too! Huge amounts of the plot were based on miscommunication.
GAAAAAH!
It’s why I ended up putting the book down for a month. I had to calm down because, wow. I’m not exaggerating when I say Lysta had to lock Torryn in a room with her to get the tiniest bit of communication. All he needed was five minutes to go over a few rules she needed to survive. But no. “Don’t trust anyone” is abysmal advice. Good God Torryn, get it together.
Thankfully, after that scene, miscommunication wasn’t as big a deal.
To be clear, the plot wasn’t solely miscommunication. If you hate the trope, I still recommend you read the book. It was frustrating, but not the sole drive of the story (thankfully). Everything else was interesting enough to keep me going after I cooled down.
I’ve seen tons of people (on Goodreads and Instagram) saying the plot twist in the last 10% surprised them. That confused me. I saw it coming immediately. The author foreshadowed it well and it seemed obvious. To the point, I doubted myself because maybe everyone else saw the same signs and they were red herrings! Nope. I feel a bit vindicated... That’s not to say the plot twist was bad, I just saw it coming, which is maybe half the fun of a plot twist. So you can wonder if the signs are real or imagined.
One more smallish thing? I felt like some of the continuity needed help.
The first chapters seemed unrelated to the rest of the book. *Friend* seems very important to Lysta in the beginning, but he’s nothing later. It wasn’t uncommon for me to realize there was an early element I forgot about because it wasn’t relevant to anything else. Be it world-building, or interactions between characters that should have been mentioned later. *cough* Lysta being choked out multiple times and not having any bruises *cough*
I know it’s a series. I know many of the elements might be important next book. It still frustrated me.
With those inconsistencies and more, paired with the miscommunication, I stopped reading it for a month. I needed space.
That said, I’m glad I picked it back up.
Despite the details that pulled me away from the plot, I enjoyed War Hour. Lysta was relatable. I loved she was as confused as I was the whole time. The world-building was unique. I want to learn more about the trial systems. Sar was an amazing friend. I sense some cool backstory from her…
4/5 stars, I highly recommend
I’ll be honest, I’m a little disappointed in Murderbot right now.
The issue with coded neurodivergent characters is that if the author doesn’t understand the character, as the series goes on, the character will lose itself and change in a way that doesn’t make sense for them.
I’m not directly saying that’s happened with Murderbot. But the first book’s impression of a socially anxious, possibly depressed AI feels like a totally different character than the next two book’s angry, slightly mean AI.
I can see why he became like that? But it doesn’t feel like the logical next step in character development to me.
I will ABSOLUTELY keep reading and still love the series. I still 100% recommend it and will continue to do so! I’m just a little disappointed how it seems like Murderbot changed so drastically from the one I fell in love with in the first book.
The issue with coded neurodivergent characters is that if the author doesn’t understand the character, as the series goes on, the character will lose itself and change in a way that doesn’t make sense for them.
I’m not directly saying that’s happened with Murderbot. But the first book’s impression of a socially anxious, possibly depressed AI feels like a totally different character than the next two book’s angry, slightly mean AI.
I can see why he became like that? But it doesn’t feel like the logical next step in character development to me.
I will ABSOLUTELY keep reading and still love the series. I still 100% recommend it and will continue to do so! I’m just a little disappointed how it seems like Murderbot changed so drastically from the one I fell in love with in the first book.