Reviewed by sa090 on
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I was one day hoping to start this trilogy after Six of Crows but because I heard that starting here is better, I went with it instead. I enjoy stories with the same premise this one had, having a world where there are special people who can manipulate the elements in one way or another like the world of Avatar and a little bit of what I’ve seen in Vanitas no Carte makes me giddy. I really wished that the author spent more time explaining the different types, their abilities and glimpses of the application instead of skimming them over to focus on some very specific types that seem useless and completely boring in comparison at first glance. I wished that more things were explained as well, I mean I do see the map in the beginning but I still only know the basics of this world after finishing the first book which is a bit disappointing.
It works for this book in a sense given that it was enough to follow through the entirety of the adventure without issues but it feels like it could’ve been better in that area, I’m also incredibly greedy about details that I simply need more. The book has a slow burn to it, it wasn’t until I passed the 60%-ish mark that I felt like there a bigger plotline here, it’s a simple one mind you but from there onwards the pace of the book completely shifts to be quick and exciting in a sense that it was a breeze to get through. The writing of the book is pretty smooth, I have this reluctance when starting with a new author since I might not enjoy their writing style but I didn’t have that issue here at all. The many unfamiliar words, regardless of it being Russian or made up, were a struggle at first but once I was a quarter through the book it ceased to be as such.
It took me about 4 days to get to the 25% mark of this book but only half a day to get to 75% of it, and to me the main reason for this was the main character. Alina is one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever read the POV of, she’s childish, she does stupid things and she has this very recurring questioning of her self-worth about the most trivial of things that it gets tiring really quickly. I understand the need to have a character start from the bottom to have them develop into better ones, but why like this? Don’t get me started on her “romance”, other than having my most hated trope ever, it does nothing but make her pathetic. The other two pseudo main characters were okay I guess, I honestly don’t care all that much about either of them.
The real treat here were the side characters, I learned the names of Botkin, Genya and Baghra way before I learned the name of Alina because of my difference in interest. I enjoyed the instances with them, it felt like this very amusing school where being with the three of them presented an either funny or interesting instance to see. If there is anything that I really enjoyed in the time where Alina was taken to start training, it was their instances. Made me wish that we spent a little more time with them before things got real too.
I did like the angles of power Leigh Bardugo brought into the book as well. Different ideologies are always a treat to see and I think I got some of that here too, I especially liked the part where we saw Alina start developing for real. Probably because it reminded me of one of my favourite quotes by Alison Goodman.
Final rating: 3/5
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 3 March, 2018: Finished reading
- 3 March, 2018: Reviewed