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A review by daniella84
Bid My Soul Farewell by Beth Revis
3.0
*spoilers*
Maybe 2.5
Like the first book, this one felt like not much happened until right at the end. Grey had more to do in this book but it was kind of boring? And I didn't get the sense that he had really learnt anything because he was still doing everything for Nedra not the people? I think their dynamic was a bit better in this book - I liked how he was still sticking to his "necromancy is not cool" vibe, he was polite etc but it just seemed like a lot of back and forth over the same stuff which got old pretty quick.
Just generally I got a bit lost with the point of this book. It explored issues like colonialism, morality, power, apathy and grief, which are all really interesting, but there wasn't really any subtlety to it. A lot of this book was just Nedra/Grey going over to themselves how things are and how it makes them feel, and some good points/lessons came out of it but it was all told and not shown. Everything just kind of meandered along, points/ideas would be brought up and then forgotten for a bit and then they'd come back later, Nedra especially seemed always to be chopping and changing.
The ending with Wellebourne was cool, how eventually she did have to give up everything to defeat him, how he was really playing the long game, but this happened like 15 pages from the end! It was by far the most action in the whole book and it was solved pretty simply? Especially because it took two books to get to this point, I wished there were more parts like this! The parts about trying to revitalise the north, how the capital is so much more well off, appropriating religion for profit etc. were all realistic but it just wasn't what I was hoping to read about when I picked up a book about a necromancer and a plague :(
Nedra's journey was neat to follow, seeing her become an anti-hero and lose herself to Wellebourne's dark power, but I feel it would have worked better as a standalone.
Maybe 2.5
Like the first book, this one felt like not much happened until right at the end. Grey had more to do in this book but it was kind of boring? And I didn't get the sense that he had really learnt anything because he was still doing everything for Nedra not the people? I think their dynamic was a bit better in this book - I liked how he was still sticking to his "necromancy is not cool" vibe, he was polite etc but it just seemed like a lot of back and forth over the same stuff which got old pretty quick.
Just generally I got a bit lost with the point of this book. It explored issues like colonialism, morality, power, apathy and grief, which are all really interesting, but there wasn't really any subtlety to it. A lot of this book was just Nedra/Grey going over to themselves how things are and how it makes them feel, and some good points/lessons came out of it but it was all told and not shown. Everything just kind of meandered along, points/ideas would be brought up and then forgotten for a bit and then they'd come back later, Nedra especially seemed always to be chopping and changing.
The ending with Wellebourne was cool, how eventually she did have to give up everything to defeat him, how he was really playing the long game, but this happened like 15 pages from the end! It was by far the most action in the whole book and it was solved pretty simply? Especially because it took two books to get to this point, I wished there were more parts like this! The parts about trying to revitalise the north, how the capital is so much more well off, appropriating religion for profit etc. were all realistic but it just wasn't what I was hoping to read about when I picked up a book about a necromancer and a plague :(
Nedra's journey was neat to follow, seeing her become an anti-hero and lose herself to Wellebourne's dark power, but I feel it would have worked better as a standalone.