Reviews

In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power

tannik03's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A very very good book! I enjoy the plays on all the regional myths :)

panickedhonking's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Vibe was interesting but not quite a hit with us. Melancholy and Shakespearean. Narrator was pretty good.

edkohen's review against another edition

1.0

DNF
Definitely YA. Ugh, not much bite to the story. Just a lot of words to not develop the narrative. For example: A mother not seen or known in 100 years is IDed by a picture and its an instant ID. And, all her daughter has to be believed is say "I'm sure its her." And then, she just puts on a veil and pretends to be her mother...

regina_184's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

Where to even start with this book! When I first started reading it, I had a really hard time getting familiar with the world and the plot so it took me a good 75 pages to really understand what is going on. 

However, once things started moving I got hooked and finished this book in 2 days. I love it! I loved the slow and steady way that both siblings started changing their values and I loved how both view points make sense. Although I enjoyed the chapters from Rhea's perspective more, the author did a good job balancing out the plots between the two characters. 

The last 100 pages has a insane amount of plot twist, and some left me feeling physically sick, due to a charater's unforgivable actions. I know that's a weird sentence to write when describing how good this book was, but I truly enjoyed the plot twists and can't wait to read the next book! 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book so I will be keeping the five stars, however there was some aspects of the book that I didn't love. I didn't like how Rhea acted a little childish considering that she's hundreds of years old. I know some people think that Rhea's and Lexos's behavior was a little underwhelming on purpose to show how some people overestimated them, however I don't think that comes across well. It just strikes the reader as odd behavior since the characters should be more knowledgeable than they are. 

noranne's review against another edition

3.0

I found this book a little hard to get into. Eventually the story ended up picking up a little, but then it kind of went all over the place at the end. The idea of the characters and how they deal with their abusive father and their magical responsibilities was interesting, but they did not feel very real to me. I wasn't very sympathetic to them, running around acting like teenagers despite being ~100 years old. Obviously this is only the first book, so it couldn't end yet, but IMO the only satisfying ending would be

Spoiler

this whole damn family realizing they've already had more life than anyone else and accepting they should all just die

. Also there was a significant death that actually surprised me and started what I saw as a bit of a derailment of the book's momentum that was

Spoiler

then completely and casually undone in the epilogue? In fact that whole epilogue was a big no from me. A huge exposition dump to end the book does not make me excited for the next book, it makes me wonder why the f I spent so much time reading about other crap when actual important things could have been shown on the page.

All in all, the worldbuilding felt a bit thin to me. I don't really see how these families would stay in power, when they don't actually have any power. Their magic is not skills so much as it is caretaking, and if they stop doing it (ie die) then it just goes back to being done automatically. Lots of people are said to have authority who I don't think actually would have any real authority. There were some comically see-through plot points

Spoiler

the eternally overlooked second son was the real villain! dun dun dun! the random proposition by the weakest member of the group to destroy the most powerful member of the group was in fact immediately told to that person, shock!

I might pick up the sequel if I see it around (from the library, like this one), but I don't think I'll be waiting for it.

kleebo's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

bluedaisygirl's review against another edition

3.0

This is really a 3.5.
I ended up liking this book a lot more than I thought I would. I wasn't a big fan of Wilder Girls, but I liked the description of this one and wanted to give it a chance.
While it started out slow and didn't really keep my interest at first, it kept getting more and more interesting and at about 40% of the way in I was hooked.
The names of everyone in the beginning was unnecessary because they made it seem like keeping track of everyone's name and where they were from was more important than it was.
Sometimes I had questions about the magic and how it worked and why.
But I did like the sibling dynamics and the themes of family and sacrifice.

femme4fleurs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

yuck1209's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

• I get that Vasili is an abusive father and all, which complicates the feelings his respective children had for him. But it took much longer than I expected for them to reevaluate their misguided loyalty to him. I kept wanting to shake some sense into the twins, Lexos in particular. 
• The relationship between Rhea and Lexos is supposed to be particularly close. They’re twins, the book insists, so they have a unique bond and shared understanding. But it never quite comes together in a way that feels genuine or authentic. In fact, I felt taken aback at how little they seemed to know one another and the disregard they sometimes had for the other’s abilities. 
• Neither Rhea nor Lexos seemed good or competent at what they were supposed to do. Rhea wasn’t particularly clever or good at manipulating the men around her, which is like her whole thing with her consorts. Lexos is easily outmaneuvered by Tarro and his second. Neither of them considers
  <Nitsos the threat he ends up being despite there being no other person with access to the mechanical spies that appear throughout the story
  .
• The magic was somewhat explained but didn’t quite make sense to me, particularly as it related to the Stratagiozi federation and governance of a the varying kingdoms. I suppose it doesn’t help that, other than the Argyosi, we don’t really see many other Stratagiozi abilities. But the ones we DO see don’t seem important enough to stop anyone from murdering them and returning their power to the earth. Like they’re long-lived but not immortal. 
• I was baffled at how quickly the Sxoriza accept Rhea as on their side, especially Michali. They so readily accept her explanation and her “plan” to take over Stratathoma. 
• I felt bad for Nitsos and Chrysanthi. No one bothered to care about them in any meaningful way, and they were constantly underestimated or dismissed by their family as unimportant or ignorant of any goings-on. 
• The reveal that Nitsos was manipulating Rhea and influenced her decisions through the book felt like an odd choice. Was it intended as a way to invalidate her choices and sense of agency throughout the book?

atypicalfemale's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5