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kristinamj's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
This book is quite good. Unfortunately, the audiobook narrator kept pronouncing words incorrectly to the point where it was extremely distracting. Will continue later in a different format.
katherineguild35's review against another edition
Way too much description for me.
glitterdemon's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
danandsaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
agentmozell's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
As of completing the book a 3.25 for me.
This was supposed to be my November 2023 book club book, but unfortunately a lot of things got in the way that prevented me from reading it. Namely that it wasn’t available on Libby as an audiobook for my library so I had to get a physical copy, but then it was my last semester in school, work was busy, and I do NaNoWriMo so time just got away from me. I put it on my shelf and in my TBR jar for it to be selected, but a few days ago my library got the audiobook and Libby let me know so I decided to borrow it and listen at work.
This book has a good premise, but the execution fell flat for me. Some reviews I saw said this book reads a lot like a summary and it does. Some also say this book shows and doesn’t tell, which I agree with as well. I feel like this book was an outline for a greater story.
First I wanna talk about our main character, the Name Bearer herself. I was a bit confused on how taking a toddler away from her family and taking away her name didn’t damage her psychologically. Also the fact that she wasn’t really allowed to interact with people and had to fit herself into these expectations and not explore who she was was really bizarre. Then through the whole book she just kinda felt…flat and pathetic.
I would’ve expected that in her time at the temple she would’ve grown into herself more and been able to trust the people she loved and felt like was her family. I get needing to keep a secret, but I feel like the other girls would’ve had her back and kept it. It just felt weird that they were her family and she never told them.
Then halfway through the unnecessarily long temple arc she just ditched the name she picked for herself and dons a new one like it’s an accessory. It just felt kinda random to have our main character be called something else.
Then it just randomly decided to start switching POVs 65% through the book? Like why?? If you’re gonna have multi POVs then don’t just randomly change them more than halfway through the book after we’ve gotten used to the MC talking.
Now the writing, since I didn’t read my physical copy I can’t talk about any spelling or grammatical errors, but I can comment on the wordiness. The repetitive wordiness.
“Another girl arrived later, joining them late for lunch” or something similar. Clearly it was already established she was late so why mention it?
“Unfettered it lurched forward, seemingly unaffected.” THAT WAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED.
There’s a few other times this happened but I can’t recall.
Then the whole “let’s explain the whole magic system while the enemy is right there bc we forgot about him” was kinda weird. I get a temporary explanation and then later on going into depth, but not explaining it all right there among corpses and one enemy solder like 🧍♂️.
The the cliffhanger at the end just felt like it was the author stopping in the middle of a book. The book is small enough to where she could’ve continued. Especially since I looked at the summary for book two and saw hardly any difference in the summaries.
I don’t know it felt clunky and really young and silly.
This was supposed to be my November 2023 book club book, but unfortunately a lot of things got in the way that prevented me from reading it. Namely that it wasn’t available on Libby as an audiobook for my library so I had to get a physical copy, but then it was my last semester in school, work was busy, and I do NaNoWriMo so time just got away from me. I put it on my shelf and in my TBR jar for it to be selected, but a few days ago my library got the audiobook and Libby let me know so I decided to borrow it and listen at work.
This book has a good premise, but the execution fell flat for me. Some reviews I saw said this book reads a lot like a summary and it does. Some also say this book shows and doesn’t tell, which I agree with as well. I feel like this book was an outline for a greater story.
First I wanna talk about our main character, the Name Bearer herself. I was a bit confused on how taking a toddler away from her family and taking away her name didn’t damage her psychologically. Also the fact that she wasn’t really allowed to interact with people and had to fit herself into these expectations and not explore who she was was really bizarre. Then through the whole book she just kinda felt…flat and pathetic.
I would’ve expected that in her time at the temple she would’ve grown into herself more and been able to trust the people she loved and felt like was her family. I get needing to keep a secret, but I feel like the other girls would’ve had her back and kept it. It just felt weird that they were her family and she never told them.
Then halfway through the unnecessarily long temple arc she just ditched the name she picked for herself and dons a new one like it’s an accessory. It just felt kinda random to have our main character be called something else.
Then it just randomly decided to start switching POVs 65% through the book? Like why?? If you’re gonna have multi POVs then don’t just randomly change them more than halfway through the book after we’ve gotten used to the MC talking.
Now the writing, since I didn’t read my physical copy I can’t talk about any spelling or grammatical errors, but I can comment on the wordiness. The repetitive wordiness.
“Another girl arrived later, joining them late for lunch” or something similar. Clearly it was already established she was late so why mention it?
“Unfettered it lurched forward, seemingly unaffected.” THAT WAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED.
There’s a few other times this happened but I can’t recall.
Then the whole “let’s explain the whole magic system while the enemy is right there bc we forgot about him” was kinda weird. I get a temporary explanation and then later on going into depth, but not explaining it all right there among corpses and one enemy solder like 🧍♂️.
The the cliffhanger at the end just felt like it was the author stopping in the middle of a book. The book is small enough to where she could’ve continued. Especially since I looked at the summary for book two and saw hardly any difference in the summaries.
I don’t know it felt clunky and really young and silly.
paradoxchild's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
scynth's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
thereserose's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5