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A review by beth_joey
The Shadow War by Lindsay Smith
1.0
Given how interesting I find WWII history, I really expected to love this book. Especially because I didn't know a lot from the perspective of the civilians living in war torn Europe.
I thought the fantasy element woven through would be an interesting take on war history, but the opportunity there was cheapened by the lack of world-building.
The shadow world was used as nothing more than a weapon to be passed around. If you swapped it out with a rifle or a canon, I don't think the book would have changed much.
There were many opportunities to explore the shadow world and the 'behemoth' that kept being mentioned and when the time came to closing the connection between the two worlds, it just kind of happened with no explanation as to how.
Moving on...
Whilst I do enjoy multiple-POV stories for the different perspectives they offer, in The Shadow War I think it just made the book feel disjointed.
With the POV changing in every chapter, the opportunity to expand on significant moments or delve into how a flashback was relevant to the present was lost.
There were also a few moments where a different POV would reveal something in the story, only for another character's POV to go back and explain how it happened.
It just felt very repetitive at times.
Tuning into a character's internal monologue or reading past events that lead them to the point they're at in the story can be insightful and moving, when done right. I think it was overdone in this case, to the point where I wasn't sure if there was much story to tell once the internal monologues and flashbacks were removed.
My overall view of the story wasn't helped by the fact that the characters themselves weren't likeable. There were moments when they chose to kill or torture people that felt too brutal and as if their actions didn't make them better than the regime they were so adamantly fighting against.
The romances were cute but it felt awfully unrealistic for everyone to have a happily ever after.
It just felt like the author was hoping a mature topic would make the book mature. But the immature characters and the internalised and overly descriptive writing style, plus the happily ever afters, contradicted (and cheapened) the topic, making it all very confusing and disjointed.
I thought the fantasy element woven through would be an interesting take on war history, but the opportunity there was cheapened by the lack of world-building.
The shadow world was used as nothing more than a weapon to be passed around. If you swapped it out with a rifle or a canon, I don't think the book would have changed much.
There were many opportunities to explore the shadow world and the 'behemoth' that kept being mentioned and when the time came to closing the connection between the two worlds, it just kind of happened with no explanation as to how.
Moving on...
Whilst I do enjoy multiple-POV stories for the different perspectives they offer, in The Shadow War I think it just made the book feel disjointed.
With the POV changing in every chapter, the opportunity to expand on significant moments or delve into how a flashback was relevant to the present was lost.
There were also a few moments where a different POV would reveal something in the story, only for another character's POV to go back and explain how it happened.
It just felt very repetitive at times.
Tuning into a character's internal monologue or reading past events that lead them to the point they're at in the story can be insightful and moving, when done right. I think it was overdone in this case, to the point where I wasn't sure if there was much story to tell once the internal monologues and flashbacks were removed.
My overall view of the story wasn't helped by the fact that the characters themselves weren't likeable. There were moments when they chose to kill or torture people that felt too brutal and as if their actions didn't make them better than the regime they were so adamantly fighting against.
The romances were cute but it felt awfully unrealistic for everyone to have a happily ever after.
It just felt like the author was hoping a mature topic would make the book mature. But the immature characters and the internalised and overly descriptive writing style, plus the happily ever afters, contradicted (and cheapened) the topic, making it all very confusing and disjointed.