Meghan Ciana Doidge

I am seriously mad at this book. There is a central mystery, one that at about 50% of my way through the book is making me want to shake several characters because they are being very sullen and NOT TALKING TO EACH OTHER, despite many opportunities. I skipped ahead to see when it is solved, only to discover it’s not even confirmed until the end, as a cliffhanger.

The character seems to loose her will and direction about midway through. Frankly, for all the complaining about needing sleep, if she had complained like this in the beginning the would be no story. Drive is gone, replaced by a, frankly, annoying acceptance and…. Willingness to drift.

And not talk to anyone. Or for anyone to try and talk to her. There’s no reason given for that, by the way. No, “if I talk about this you will die.” It’s just plot shenanigans to stretch it out. I have been reading this author for years and I really expected better..

It’s 3 star bc the first 1/3 is 5*.

Edit: finished. Nothing is solved. It's not just one cliffhanger, I can think of about 5.… (mer)

This, as well as book 0, have been soo close to 4 stars.
The author invested a lot of time into crafting believable complex and flawed characters and she succeeded. The interactions and dialogue between characters feel very real. A lot of attention went into polishing those interactions into something very enjoyable.
While the emotional landscape and character interactions were very well fleshed out, the bad guys were all absurdly stupid and cliched cardboard cutouts.
Which was a real shame because the author demonstrated that she is capable of writing morally grey characters with believable motivations.
The plot, in general, is rather meh in books 0-1. It's almost like the author spent so much time living in her characters' heads that she completely forgot to construct any kind of interesting plot.

The premise is well executed but the tightly intertwined magic system isn't well defined at all.
The magic never really came into play beyond being a plot device.
… (mer)