Dark Rise (Dark Rise, #1)

by C. S. Pacat

[lessthelonely]

2/5 stars, DID NOT FINISH.

This one hurt. And I'm looking at my beautiful hardcover copy as I'm writing this opening line.

Once upon a time, I tried reading this author's most known-about series, which I can confidently say is Captive Prince. I DNFed that book, all with the realization that it wasn't the best of choices to what I wanted to read at a time. From what I got, C.S. Pacat is one of the romance authors that leaves the romantic arc much to the background in writing, focusing on a scene-by-scene approach to the book. I'll try to explain this better.

Either way, I bought this book with the intention to give the author a new attempt. A solid attempt, and no one can say I didn't give it to her, but this book suffers from the same exact syndrome of having some of the most technically beautiful writing while also feeling incredibly clinical and, because of this, incredibly boring, sorry to say.

I've read a lot of long books. Hell, the last book I finished was Bloodmarked, which has this one beat on pagecount and wotd count, pretty sure, but the truth is this book is incredibly and utterly soulless in its writing: descriptions seem to last a long time but they always sacrifice substance over style. I remember a few descriptions of certain larger-than-life places that just felt incredibly generic - that is the problem with being too descriptive, at some point, descriptions simply blur together and there is not much one can do to stop noticing how everything is beautifully described using the same way.

Along with this: the fantasy elements in this book never feel like they're more than... basic. Light. Dark. Some people have powers. Others don't. I am aware of the plot twist this book pulls and I've heard people enjoyed it... but truth is, I didn't even feel like it felt... impactful. This knowing I got to over half of this book. I tried so incredibly hard to like this book and its characters, to appreciate the things I did enjoy... I didn't find many.

All and all, I believe this book lacked structure. There is always a point to what an author writes in a fantasy book, in my opinion, but C.S. Pacat seems hell-bent on getting us through a hefty word count before showing us the point of the book. I found no sense of progression in the plot outside of a change of scenery. And considering I also chose this book for the mentioned LGBTQ+ representation, I got... none.

I'm a big fan of slowburn, but the problem with the plot is maintained: this book could've been so much tighter and so much easier to read, but it felt like it's trying to get to a word count. To get through as many characters talking as possible and only 30% of them seem to ever get an actual meaningful presence or do weight pulling for the plot.

I don't know if I'll ever try and pick this book up again. I've come to the realization that this author's novels might just not be for me.