Review: Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller

I felt so sure I would enjoy this book. And the fact that I did not is breaking my heart a little. That cover is gorgeous. And this story sounded interesting and exciting. Sadly, it was none of those. At least not for me. And so I have to give this one two stars. It was almost three, but I did not like it that much, I'm sorry to say. Sigh.

There is so much I feel like sharing about this book. And I do not think much of it will be positive. Will simply share all my thoughts about this book. And I have many of those. I really liked the first book by this author, even read it twice. But her second book was also a two star for me. I wish this had been better, but it was not.

Will begin by saying that I did not like the writing. At all. I tried to grow used to it, to start enjoying it, but it never happened. Oh. It bothered me from start to finish. I was not able to connect to the characters. Did also not manage to visualize most of this world either. Which was disappointing. It also annoyed me greatly that there was no empty line between when the character falls asleep or days go by, or things like that. It made sure that I lost focus on the story many times, because it happened so often, and so abrupt. Sigh. The writing wasn't terrible, truly. It was just not for me. Not at all. I really wish I had been able to love this book. I really wanted to. As I do adore this author. And Warrior of the Wild looked so very gorgeous. But ended up being not for me at all.

This book tells the story of Rasmira. She is the youngest of six siblings, all girls, born to the village leader. He has been raising her to be a warrior, like the men, to be able to take over as the leader after him. She is the best at training, the best with an ax. She is close with her sisters, but not with her mother. She also has no friends. Except for this one boy that started being nice to her six weeks ago. She truly hopes for more between them, and it seems like he wants this too. Until be betrays her just a short time later. Sigh.

At the biggest thing that happens to young people in this world, when they take a test to finally become a real warrior. This boy makes sure that Rasmira fails her test. And because of this, she is banished. And faced with the task of killing a god that lives in the forest, which is a death sentence. This whole beginning was pretty messy. Yet interesting too. I did like getting to know Rasmira. She was interesting, most of the time. But she did not question this boy at all, and that hurt my heart a little bit. How easy she was fooled.

I would not consider this to be too big of a spoiler, as it happens early in the book, and it is what gets this book started. Something that bothered me a lot, however, is that Rasmira let what happened with the boy bother her too much. And for too long. Worse things could have happened to her with this boy. She felt a bit over dramatic. But I also somewhat understood her too. Anyway. She is banished. Spends a few days on her own. Until she ends up meeting a boy almost dead in the forest. He lives there with another one.

We get to know these two boys a lot. They have been banished for a year now, with tasks of their own. I did grow to care so much for Soren. And I did ship them a whole lot. But did not feel any sparks. Probably because of how badly she treated him at times. It wasn't too horrible, but it bothered me. Oh, well. I have shared enough of this book now. Something that I did like, however, was all the different creatures in this book. I wish they had been more detailed, and more scary, but I liked reading about them. I wanted more.

This book is about Rasmira surviving out in the wild. With two other boys. About her learning to do things, learning a whole bunch of things. While also trying to figure out how to kill a god. And helping these boys with their missions too. While I did not love this book, I did find parts of it to be interesting. I liked reading about the creatures. Was curious about the world. But sadly did not love the characters. At all. Liked them sometimes. But they felt silly most of the time, and felt like the girl was too much. Do wish I had loved her.

Another thing that truly bothered me about this book was that I was never sure what time period it was supposed to be set in. The past? The future? It was impossible to tell. It did not feel like a book from the past at all. It seemed like they all lived as in the past, but none of them behaved like it. As this book was simply not written in a way that made it seemed like it was set in the past. Not with how the main girl was talking and thinking. That bothered me through the whole book, to be honest. I wish it had been clearer.

Huge thank you to the publisher, Feiwel & Friends, for the approval to read this one early as an eARC via Netgalley. I am glad I had the chance to read this one, despite not liking it much. I'm still unsure if I will be buying the hardcover or not. I do want the print ARC for my collection, however. Hmm. Sadly do not think I will ever read this book again. But I'm also glad that I gave it a try, that I managed to finish it. Although this book was not for me, I'm positive that many others will love it. Curious to see what you all think of it.

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