Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: November 8th, 2022
Pages: 557
Publisher: Harper Collin’s Children’s: Balzer & Bray
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
I love this author, as many of us do. And I was so excited to see that she was writing something new, and mythology-based which I love. But I really struggled to connect with this book. I don’t think it’s bad, by any means, but I think that readership is going to be split down the middle on this one.
Although the magic and adventure have their moments of excitement, for the most part I found the story to be really slow, causing me to lose interest several times. Which is a sad statement to have to make because the scale of this fantasy is truly epic.
But perhaps that is part of its downfall, with so much time spent on world-building, and even still I failed to fully grasp much of it fully. It is quite long for a first installment, especially with a dragging plot. I feel that there were many places it could have been condensed to tighten up the pacing and keep readers engaged.
The characters weren’t much of a saving grace for me in this one either. Although their paths are nicely woven together, I felt no spark of connection to any of them. Even though they are well fleshed out, I just didn’t find myself rooting for them like I wanted to be.
After stewing on these thoughts for days, my biggest point of contention with this story is that it’s a difficult one to pin down exactly what its intentions are. It is marketed as young adult, which makes sense with the ages of the characters, but the rest of it felt very adult high-fantasy to me.
The density of the lore is a little overwhelming at times, especially for someone not competently familiar with it. This made it difficult to stay fully immersed in the world, and I imagine that many of its intended readers might feel the same.
The tone and style of the writing and its themes also didn’t feel very young adult fantasy to me, which I think will be something a lot of readers will love. But at the same time, I think a lot of readers will feel a disconnect between their expectations and the reality of the story.
For me, it was just ok, I found myself wanting to get into it and trying to care more than I actually did. Regardless of my less than glowing own personal experience with this story, I do think that the right audience will like it. If you like books with dense lore, complex mythology, slow-build plot, historical vibes, and more adult high-fantasy in nature, then this might be the perfect one for you.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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