Where to start with this one? Well, I will tell you that this book has three distinct phases for me. Some I liked, some I didn't, but I think it's best to go through each one individually, since that's how I felt while reading it.
One thing to note: as you might have read in other reviews, most of these characters don't have names. So instead of calling the main character "main character" over and over, she will henceforth be referred to, for the purpose of this review, as Glen Coco.
Phase One: Boredom and Wrath/Hunger Games déjà vu.
So yeah, this wasn't my favorite phase, for obvious reasons. In fact, I almost DNFed, but people said it would get better so I kept going. (They were right, but that comes later). The book starts out with this girl knowing that Lo-Melkhiin is going to be coming to her village and grabbing a new wife to kill. Clearly, no one is jumping for joy, but Glen is bound and determined to save her sister, so she is willing to be thrown into
Obviously, she didn't want Prim to be killed, so she somehow gets Lo-Melkhiin to pick her, in ways that I didn't fully understand. And off she goes to
And eventually, they get to the palace and then... bored again. Not a whole lot happens except that she doesn't die the first day? I mean, I don't think that's even a spoiler because it says that in the synopsis, and also, talk about a short book if it was "Chapter 1: Travel to Palace" and then "Chapter 2: Dead Immediately". Now, there are quite a few similarities to The Wrath and the Dawn at this point, but I kind of expected there would be since it's based off of the same story. That could have enhanced my boredom, honestly. Maybe if I hadn't read a story with a similar beginning a few months ago, it would have been more exciting? No idea, but either way, excited I was not.
And then there was another scene that reminded me of a scene from The Hunger Games. If you've read THG, Caesar, in the interview, wants Katniss to talk about Prim. Lo-Melkhiin wants to hear about Glen's sister, in a similar fashion.
"'Tell me more about your sister', he said then. 'If you would die for her, then she must be worthy of tales.'"
So she tells Lo-Melkhiin some junk we already knew, and I seriously was going to DNF at that exact point. (Page 46, if you're keeping track.) But then the book took a bit of a turn from Wrath and from The Hunger Games, and I figured it was worth continuing.
Phase Two: Consider Me Intrigued(ish)
It's kind of a bummer, because I can't really even tell you about the good stuff, for fear of spoilers. But I will say what I can! Basically, Glen starts to learn all kinds of information as she continues to not die. She meets and talks to people around the palace, and she even ends up finding out some things about herself that she never really knew. Lo-Melkhiin's mother is introduced, and I feel like she adds a lot to the story, even though she wasn't deemed important enough for a name either. Mrs. Lo-Melkhiin? Sure. Anyway, I enjoyed the dynamics between Glen and Mrs. Lo-Melkhiin, which was an unexpected treat. I liked certain power struggles, and even the psychological aspects of trying to figure out what Lo-Melkhiin's deal was.
There's some kind of magic going on too, which I didn't completely understand (and never did, even after the end of the story), so I guess you'll have to take that for what it's worth. I didn't hate it, but I wish I hadn't been as confused by it. And this phase is still slow, though not as slow as the first 50-60 pages.
Phase Three: The Ending
Calm down, no spoilers! I don't even mean the actual end, just the last say, 10-15% of the book in general. The action started to pick up, so I got prety excited. Finally, the moment(s) we've been reading for, right? Well... no. Stuff happened, don't get me wrong! Lots of stuff, in fact, which is where my gripe lies. As glad as I was to have action, I felt like it was all squashed into a few pages, leaving me almost overwhelmed at the sheer amount of plot stuffed into the end. Especially when I was used to a very slow and meandering pace, this sudden burst of all the plot was jarring at best. This isn't a spoiler really, but some people (like me) like to know nothing involving an ending, and then some people do, so here's a quick word on that, if you are of the latter persuasion. And then when it was over, I wasn't really satisfied anyway. It was kind of too neat and tidy, considering the rest of the book.
Bottom Line: While the book overall wasn't a total bust, considering how underwhelmed I was by the start and the end, I don't quite feel like it was worth it for me. However, there are positive reviews out there too. Alyssa @ The Eater of Books really enjoyed this one, so it could be worth checking some of the positive reviews out too!