sarahxify's Reviews (703)

This was entertaining enough but the story really left a hell of a lot to be desired. I'm really surprised by the high rating and reviews it gets for what it is.

It's super tropey/formulaic - plain girl learns she has special powers and then can suddenly use them better than everyone else around her and she's going to save the world okay. It's extremely similar to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Throne of Glass, The Mortal Instruments, Mistborn etc etc, so if you liked those, you will no doubt enjoy this. The world building felt really lazy to me, it just read like she'd borrowed random bits from various countries and didn't put much effort into making an actual cohesive fantasy world. The word Grisha being so close to geisha really annoyed me, I just kept picturing everyone as geisha in training.

As I said though, it held my interest . The story flowed nicely and it was very easy to read.

I found Eleanor to be a very inconsistent and unbelievable character. She's supposed to be an incredibly socially awkward and naive person who doesn't understand slang words or phrases or how fast-food restaurants work. Yet, she somehow knows how to put make-up on, uses slang words and phrases herself, and adapts quite smoothly to her situation even if she thinks that it's weird. Nonetheless, I thought it was a nice story and I enjoyed it, although in my opinion it's not quite deserving of the praise it has received.