What you need in order to survive Froi of the Exiles:
- Be sure to pack a strong willforce, for it will be shattered. Like glass.
- Endless patience. You'll need it in case someone dares interrupt your reading sessions. Refrain from using tape to shut them up.
- Paper Bags. Lots of them. You'll be out of breath often.
- Be prepared for lots of heart-wrenching moments, because there will be plenty of those too. Every chapter gives a new twist to the story, so when you finish it you won't even know which way is up. You only know there's a Froi, a Quintana, a Lucian, a Gargarin, an Arjuro, a Lirah, and a wife Lucian sent back.
Speaking of which, the wife Lucian sent back has to be one of the bravest characters in this series; and that's saying something because all the characters are pretty brave in their own way. But Phaedra... That girl is sure something. I could go on and on about Froi's character development, Quintana's, or even Lucian's, but Phaedra was the one who truly surprised me here.
A girl who does not belong to Lumatere, and is brought from a foreign kingdom to be the wife of the Mont leader, who from the beginning, blinded by his grief and the weight of his responsability on his shoulders, treats her like she was little more than an animal. He considers her useless, and repeatedly makes her feel bad about herself. But again, and again, she shows she's more than what meets the eye. She manages to form some kind of kinship between the Lumaterans of the Monts, and the Charynites, and also succeeds at some tasks Lucian wasn't able to. She refuses to crack at the whispered words of the Lumateran women, and actually stands up for herself. I couldn't possibly make this review without pointing out how awed I was by her strenght.
Then there's Quintana, the half-mad princess who's given more to her kingdom than anyone will ever know.
I thought Finnikin of the Rock was awesome, but this book was mind-blowing. I could not put it down. The world-building, the prose, the characters, the freaking plot. EVERY SINGLE THING.
It covered everything! It had everything you wish to see in a fantasy book. In no way plain. I know Osterians are boring, Sorelians trade slaves, Lumatere is all grass and sunshine, and Charyn is all rocks and caves. I know the prose is poetic, but isn't stiff and formal. The characters are broken, real people that I admire (in most cases), and the plot is well-thought out and, and...
GO READ THIS BOOK.