Review of Reign of the Fallen.
The book started out very good. We get to know the world and the characters. I so loved learning about how this world worked what magic was in it. It was interesting. I enjoyed it tons. There were different kinds of magic, and the kind this main character has made her able to raise the dead. In a way. It was awesome.
Odessa was able to go into a different realm of sorts, to get back the spirits of the recent dead and return them to their bodies so that they could live longer. Except they aren't living in the normal way. They have all of their memories but they can never be seen by a living person. So they must always stay covered. And it was fascinating to learn about and I liked that a lot. Will not write that much about it, just that it was awesome, and I loved her magic. I liked that the dead did not have to stay dead. Though their life when they returned from the dead was not the same. Which was a little creepy, to be honest, haha. But it was all still pretty amazing. And I also just enjoyed reading about Odessa going into this other place where the dead spirits were. It was interesting.
The whole book is from the point of view of Odessa. Although she is mostly called the Sparrow, by pretty much everyone, because of her way with her magic. Wish that had been explained better, though. For the most part I liked this girl. I loved her in the beginning. But my love for her went away very soon, because of how she dealt with grief. I did not approve. Not one bit. And so I did stop loving her a little. Sigh. But I still enjoyed getting to know her. She was pretty fierce and mostly kind too. I did like her, for the most part.
This book tells the story of her and her friends. They are four together, with the powers to raise the dead. And they are great friends. I did like that a whole bunch. Though I will be honest and say that my favorite character in the whole book was Evander. He was so precious and I loved him to pieces. He and Odessa have been a couple for about three years, been best friends and partners for seven. They are everything to each other. And their romance for the first hundred pages was the very best thing. I loved it very much.
But then that changed. Sigh. And now I will already start sharing my spoilery thoughts, because I cannot help myself, and I have to share my thoughts about the romance. I must. Because it is killing me inside. Evander and Odessa had the most beautiful romance. They were so cute together. They wanted to get married. And always be together. But then at a hundred pages in he dies. Of course. Sigh. And I was so not okay with that. Odessa is grieving for him. At first I loved her grief so very much. It was so raw, real.
But then that changed too. Sigh. She started taking calming potions all day long, which messed with her head and all of her. I did not think very well of her because of this. I loved her grief for Evander. Except. She kisses his best friend. She spends every night wrapped in his arms, seeking comfort. They almost sleep together for real. It was beyond gross. You don't do that less than a week after the love of your life dies. That is not romance. That is not grief. Sure, others may be okay with this, but I am not. Not one bit.
And then she meets a girl. And sure, I'm okay with people being attracted to both boys and girls. Though I prefer boy and girl romance, I don't mind reading whatever as long as the story is good. I knew this would be girl and girl romance, and I thought I would be fine with it. Hahaha. I was not. As the girl she suddenly starts crushing on, just a couple of weeks after Evander died, is his little sister. Hahaha. Yeah. Even more gross. And she also just lost her girlfriend, at the same time. Double gross. Simply bothered me the most.
It was not for me. I disliked it beyond words. How can Odessa claim that she loved Evander, for so many years, and then betray him like that just days after he died? It makes zero sense to me. First with his best friend. Then with his sister. It disturbed me beyond words. And so there is no way I will be shipping these two girls. No way at all. But I will still be reading book two, because I loved this plot, and just. Yeah. I am beyond disappointed in this romance. I had hoped it would be epic and cute. I was wrong. So very wrong.
Okay, spoilers over. I know that many will love this romance. And that is okay too. But it was not for me. Not at all. The first hundred pages were perfection. Then it went downhill. And I am a little bitter about it, which upsets me. Because this book was good. The story was exciting and interesting and I enjoyed it a whole lot. I liked learning everything. I enjoyed reading about this world. But the romance ruined me. And that is why this book was a three star for me. I wanted to love it so badly, but it was impossible. Oh, well.
I did like it, though. And although I haven't shared too much about the plot, know that it was pretty great. And I think so many of you will enjoy it too. I just feel sad that I couldn't love all of it. But also happy that I gave this book a chance. Glad that I read it. Huge thank you to PRH International for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. And thank you to a lovely friend for trading the ARC of this book to me. So precious. Reign of the Fallen was not perfect, but it was incredibly good even so. I enjoyed it a lot. You must read it.
Buy Reign of the Fallen: Amazon - B&N - The Book Depository - Indiebound - Kobo
Norwegian places to buy Reign of the Fallen: Tanum - Akademia - Adlibris
Reign of the Fallen is published by Razorbill. ISBN: 9780448494401
Norwegian places to buy Reign of the Fallen: Tanum - Akademia - Adlibris
Reign of the Fallen is published by Razorbill. ISBN: 9780448494401
Review of Song of the Dead.
I will do my very best not to be too harsh in my review. Will never speak badly about the author, because I don't know her and she seems like an amazing person. I also do not mind that others will love this book. Everyone has different taste. But for me, this was a two star. Not a very positive one. Tried so very hard to like this.
I failed. But will begin by sharing what I did like about this book, before I start sharing all the things I did not. Which I may not be able to stop writing about. Oops. All my the words are stopping. Because I honestly cannot think of anything that I did like about this book. In the first book I enjoyed the writing a lot, and I loved the world, I loved the dead. Nothing was the same in this second book. The writing bothered me from start to finish. It felt different. The world was completely different too, somewhat. And the dead wasn't even there. Sigh. And I honestly do not know what I liked about this sequel. Still. It is a two star. Because I could have hated it more than I did. I could have hated every page of it. I almost did, but it wasn't fully that bad. I still managed to finish it.
I still enjoyed reading about this world. I still wanted to know more about the people living there and of all the places they lived in. I wanted to know more about all the magic in this world and all the creatures too. I did not get nearly enough of any of it, though. There are dragons. Except they are the size of dogs. And they bark like dogs. And behaves like cats. And are not one percent scary, sadly. And yeah. The dragons disappointed me. And that makes me sad too, haha. I thought that would be something I would love. Aw.
I have so much to share about this book. And most of it is not good. There will be some spoilers. Mostly about how I felt about certain things. Like the romance I did not ship for even a second. I also did not like that every single character had to fall in love with each other. Every one of the side characters. What. It was weird. Most of them are gay. I did like that, but it also got to be too much, with how every person in the book was in a relationship with someone. It just seemed so very weird to me. It did not make sense.
What I missed most about this second book was the dead. Getting to see how Odessa's magic worked. We do not get that in this book. And I missed it, because I liked it a lot in book one. Hmph. And there is barely any violence at all in this one. It was so disappointing. The characters are always going on and on about how they wish to kill certain people. Yet no one ever does that. No hurting. No nothing. Only death by others. And even that was boring. There was a plot, but it was beyond slow and so very boring. Sigh.
There were things about this book that I could have loved. But I did not. I really truly did not. I wanted to enjoy this one so very badly, but it truly was impossible. Everything just felt wrong to me. And it was sort of torture to finish reading it. But I did it. And I'm so glad to be finished with them both, haha. I wish I could say they were amazing. But they were not. Sigh. I know others will love everything that I hated about this book. And that is so okay. Different opinions are always good. But yes. I did not like this book at all. Sigh.
I have this whole list over things that annoyed me about how this book was written. And though it feels a little rude of me to write it all down, I also cannot not do it. I need to let all my thoughts and feelings about this book out, so that I may forget about it as soon as possible. In both books all the characters are pretty much always growling when they speak. It drove me insane. Odessa is always going on about feeling the breath of others spilling over their lips and whatever. And watching sweat. Was truly gross to read about.
I also tried my hardest to get used to the names in these books, but I never managed. Though they were all cute, almost every single one was just a small variation of a more used named, switched into a name I have never heard before. Was a little weird. And every character that was important was young. The best captain, nineteen. The young queen's guard, nineteen. He being a guard made no sense whatsoever. He was a healer. Not a soldier. They were all too young and it simply seemed weird. Old people existed too.
It was also weird how they all had nicknames for each other. I don't mind nicknames, but having everyone have one was weird. They were all always crying. For weirdest reasons. Always tears on their faces. Ugh. What bothered me a lot, though, was how Odessa met the queen again, her friend, and saw she had two girls close to her, and she kept calling them replacement friends. What even. As those two girls had been with her longer than Odessa had even known her. It was rude and childish and I truly hated her behavior.
But what bothered me more than anything in this book, was how Odessa had suddenly changed so. She never really thought about Evander. Her love of years that just died. She didn't grieve at all like she had in book one. She was suddenly just over it and laughing all the time and being more normal than ever. Was odd. She also buys a crystal that says she can talk to Evander again. She tries once. Hears his voice for a moment, then Meredy shows up, and instead she sleeps with her, and forgets all about Evander. Again.
That whole romance was a mess. And I will never get over it. She was with Evander for years. They were meant to be together. They were going to get married. They were in love. Then he died. It was mentioned that they had slept together often, but it was never on page. Never more than the quickest kiss. Yet with her romance with his sister, there are so many details about their nude scenes together. It bothered me beyond words. I could not stand them together. No spark, not for me. It was a mess. I didn't like it one bit.
It was not that the romance was girl and girl. I did not mind that at all. But I minded these two characters being together. They had no reason to be. None at all. Yet they are suddenly so much in love with each other and cannot live without the other and yuck. It was gross, to be honest. I guess many will love it. But I never saw their connection. Not for one second. And that hurts my heart. I wanted to love this romance. But I did not. It was too much in focus as well. And too much drama too, all of it beyond silly. Did not like.
I have shared too much about this book. Yet not nearly all of my thoughts. And yet I shared way too much as well. But I simply could not stop writing. This book bothered me beyond words. More than what I have shared. I tried so hard to like things about it. But I couldn't. There wasn't even the dead that I liked in book one. There was not any danger. Oh, except how they all are always one second away from death, yet are always healed right away, and none of them dies. Only all of the unimportant characters. How convenient.
I am forever thankful to PRH International for letting me take part in this blog tour, and for sending me a free ARC of Song of the Dead to read and review. I wish I could say I loved this one. But I really truly did not. However, I very much love the cover. It is so cute. Although this book was so not for me, not even a little bit, I do think you should all give it a try. To test this series for yourself, to see if it is for you. Because I do know many have loved these books. But I did not. I am sad about it, but yeah. They were not for me.
Buy Song of the Dead: Amazon - B&N - The Book Depository - Indiebound - Kobo
Norwegian places to buy Song of the Dead: Tanum - Akademia - Adlibris
Song of the Dead is published by Razorbill. ISBN: 9781984836397
Sarah Glenn Marsh writes young adult novels and children’s picture books. An avid fantasy reader from the day her dad handed her a copy of The Hobbit and promised it would change her life, she’s been making up words and worlds ever since.
When she’s not writing, Sarah enjoys watercolor painting, ghost hunting, and pursuits of the nerd variety, from video games to tabletop adventures. She’s never met an animal or a doughnut she didn’t like.
Sarah lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and their tiny zoo of four rescued sighthounds, two birds, and many fish. She is the author of Fear the Drowning Deep, the Reign of the Fallen series, and several picture books.
Blog Tour Schedule.
1/22/2019 - Nada @ Early Bookish Birds
1/24/2019 - Aditi @ A Thousand Words A Million Books
1/24/2019 - Melissa @ YA Books Central
1/28/2019 - Noha @ The Bookish Word
1/29/2019 - Georgi @ Niffler Reads
1/29/2019 - Lauren @ laureads
1/31/2019 - Rimsha @ Rimsha's Corner
Ah well, unfortunately, fantasy novels aren't in the cards for me.
ReplyDeleteWell to all those who say this book was bad just know your wrong it so great and i was so in-tune to Odessa there are only two different books that could do that to me that I've read in my lifetime
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with having different opinions :)
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