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Amber & Dusk av Lyra Selene
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Amber & Dusk (utgåvan 2018)

av Lyra Selene (Författare)

Serier: Amber & Dusk (1)

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
303785,981 (3.19)10
Raised in the Dusklands where her power to create illusions was regarded as a curse, Sylvie has traveled to Coeur d'Or, where the Amber Empress, the cruel Severine, rules in hopes of finding her legacy--but the court is full of dark secrets and deadly intrigues, and Sylvie, now renamed Mirage, must learn to hone her magic, and find her way past the enmity of the empress to claim the place that is hers by right of birth.… (mer)
Medlem:kristinakenney
Titel:Amber & Dusk
Författare:Lyra Selene (Författare)
Info:Scholastic Press (2018), 371 pages
Samlingar:Ditt bibliotek
Betyg:
Taggar:Ingen/inga

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Amber & Dusk av Lyra Selene

Ingen/inga
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» Se även 10 omnämnanden

Visa 1-5 av 7 (nästa | visa alla)
I wanted to love this book, I really did. I enjoyed the world, the magic and illusions, and the inclusion of LGBT characters who were portrayed well rather than being excessively flamboyant or bitchy. But unfortunately I hated everything else.

I couldn't stand the main character, she is annoying, entitled, demanding, and an absolute idiot. Almost everything bad that happens in the book could have been avoided if she had just done what people were telling her to do rather than her deciding that she knows best and doing things her own nonsensical way.

The author is far too descriptive and wordy, which seems like a strange complaint to have about a book but every single little thing is described in painful detail, and on top of that most of her descriptions sound pretty but they don't actually make sense. She also repeats phrases and descriptions constantly! By the time I finished the book I lost track of how many times Sylvie "clenched my jaw so tight I feared it would crack", felt "icy fingers gripped my spine" or "an icy hand ran down my back". Another problem I had with the writing was that rather than show events happening in the book, the author chooses for a lot of it to be explained by having a character, well, explain it. There are too many times when a character tells Sylvie something, she responds with "I don't understand, explain it to me" and they oblige. So a lot of the book is told to us through another character telling Sylvie rather than the events unfolding in front of us.

There is a lot more that I didn't like, but if I wrote about it all then this review would be as wordy as the book. I may read the second book at some point just so I finish the story as the ending of this one is..... Pointless. But I wouldn't recommend this at all. ( )
  egge | Jul 16, 2022 |
I soooo badly wanted to give this four stars, and was right there until the last third, when the story veered into the cliché and expected "chosen one" trope.

Amber and Dusk is a fun read, a strange mishmash of French aristocratic culture, the malevolence of faeries, and the wonderful and wasteful opulence of a good courtly setting (seriously: a Blood Rain, on which the nutrition of the world depends on? Gates made out of gems and water? Gorgeous and eerie). Admittedly, some things were so strange and outlandish that I had trouble envisioning or grasping them and got a little lost in the world building, but that's not something I mind too much. I will cop to taking a long time to sort out the color of kembric in my mind's eye, and am still not exactly sure. I think it's just because gold is so precious here that to imagine a world where it's just another mineral is hard. The abundance of overly ornate and purple prose didn't necessarily help, either. A few times I had to check if the author was male or female, because the way Mirage described her body seemed very male-gaze-y to me.

I liked Sylvie's character, full of ambition and willingness to do literally whatever she had to in order to become what she desired. When she became Mirage, she didn't lose that fierce ambition at all; she just learned how to hone it. I actually wish Selene had really leaned into the darker aspects of Mirage's character- there were hints of Sylvie's cruelty and anger in the first part of the book, when she was traveling with Luca or thought she wasn't going to be accepted to court. A heroine who is incredibly ambitious, ruthless, and willing to do absolutely anything and ignore all other concerns in her quest for power is very rarely seen in YA, and by embracing that Selene would have really added to the uniqueness of the book. When she rejects Luca it's great, and her attempts to reject Sunder are as well, but then of course she has to surrender to his charms, which is where the book became overly predictable.

Actually, I want to talk about the boys for a bit. For one (and I acknowledge that this is completely subjective), I didn't think Sunder seemed attractive (which might have been, again, my confusion over the actual color of kembric, so I imagined his hair simultaneously pale gold and almost white). But mainly because he seems legitimately dangerous. He tells Mirage that he believes gifts are linked to the person they manifest in, and his is because he wants to cause pain, even to things he loves. That is not a normal way to feel! He's manipulative and casually cruel, and a few tender moments does not excuse that. And I HATE when people leave others out of the details of their important plans when those details concern that person - everything would be so much easier if Sunder had tried to actually warn Mirage instead of tricking her and forcing her to follow him everywhere.

I liked Luca originally, when he was with the convoy, as he seemed kind-hearted and caring. I understood completely why Sylvie rejected him, and while I knew he was going to turn up again, I wished he wouldn't. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mirage didn't like the drastic changes he had undergone, and was no longer interested.


The little hints that something isn't right in court are deliciously creepy, and Mirage willfully ignoring them is perfectly reasonable in terms of her character and development. I could have done with a little more explanation of a few of those things, but the rush of the climax didn't allow for it. What is the purpose of the Gauntlet? Merely entertainment for the Empress? How, exactly, do the legacies she chooses as "weapons" get used in battle? Are the powers she absorbs hers forever, or do they fade away?

I could see from a mile away that Mirage was going to join the rebellion, and that Sevrine's legacy was stealing other's legacies (though I did entertain the thought that she had none), which I was actually dreading. I enjoyed reading about the court intrigue (a weakness of mine) and Mirage's seemingly endless struggle for acceptance and power, and wanted to continue along that path. But, generally, I was entertained. ( )
  Elna_McIntosh | Sep 29, 2021 |
Another pleasant surprise in the dystopian/magic genre. Gutsy, sometimes hot-headed to the point of being annoying female protagonist, intriguing court political/social structure and plenty of action. I was very happy to discover the sequel just came out so I won't have to wait to find out what comes next. ( )
  sennebec | Jan 6, 2020 |
This book has such a pretty cover. The OwlCrate edition is a beautiful purple and orange gradient and the cover aesthetics are everything I love. It has perfect purple end pages. It’s so, so pretty.

I wish I liked the book as much as I like the cover.

The first word that comes to mind in describing Amber & Dusk is “clunky”. There are the bare bones here for a decent story. It reminded me of a cross of Mirage and Red Queen. There’s an interesting magic system and characters that could be interesting if there was a little more care taken. There are also a lot of cliches. I don’t mind cliches, generally speaking, if they’re compensated with wonderful characters, beautiful writing, or original twists. I don’t think Amber & Dusk accomplished this. There was a lot of telling in the writing – in the setting, in the world building, and in the characters. The reader is often told to accept the details rather than discovering them. As a reader, I felt much less invested in the story because of this.

One of my biggest complaints is Sylvie/Mirage. She enters the story as a refugee on a caravan, and she single-handedly saves the caravan – huzzah! Her character continues on with the same snobbish self-importance. The reader is never given the opportunity to love Sylvie, because we are told stories about her past and told what she is feeling but we don’t discover her story and we aren’t affected by her emotions. The “telling” aspect really affected every aspect of this book, spoiling one bit after the next.

Sylvie wasn’t my only concern about a character (note: all characters have two names, as if there weren’t a bunch to keep track of already). Lullaby had character potential, but she was pushed a bit into the shadows. There is one particular good scene with Reaper, but I never felt like I had enough time about him to be as wretched about the plot as Lyra Selene was hoping. That’s how I felt about most the characters. I’ve met them, but I don’t really feel anything toward them. No attachment.

There was also a love triangle… I think? I believe there was an attempted love triangle here between Sylvie, Sunder, and Luca… but… I’m not… sure? I think it was supposed to be a love triangle, but it was clumsy. Again, not enough emotion for anything to feel potent.

I know I’m being redundant. The fact is, the way Amber & Dusk was written – flat and dramatic – so deeply affected the way the book came out. Brusque and unattached. I didn’t care for Sylvie’s cockiness or the ease with which Sunder, Luca, and the other snuck around the supposedly dangerous court. The book was predictable and the ending unexciting. At one point, Bane “snarled” and “wept” within two sentences. “Luca’s eyes narrowed to skits of fire” is another prime example of the literary flourishes she tried to include. I just don’t think it was successful.

All in all, I was absolutely disappointed in Amber & Dusk. I thought there were some interesting elements, but I didn’t enjoy Lyra Selene’s writing style and there wasn’t enough originality in the story to hold my attention. At the end of the day, I’m grateful it was a quick read. It was not for me. ( )
  Morteana | Jul 25, 2019 |
Amazing. Incredible. Impossible to put down.

Best book I’ve read so far in 2019 ( )
  Michelle_Boyea | Jun 7, 2019 |
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Raised in the Dusklands where her power to create illusions was regarded as a curse, Sylvie has traveled to Coeur d'Or, where the Amber Empress, the cruel Severine, rules in hopes of finding her legacy--but the court is full of dark secrets and deadly intrigues, and Sylvie, now renamed Mirage, must learn to hone her magic, and find her way past the enmity of the empress to claim the place that is hers by right of birth.

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