Date of Completion: 06/10/2020
Although this book is not the biggest I have ever read, I can’t help but feel proud of myself for finishing this gigantic 830 paged beauty! Despite the high ratings and attention this book received, I was not completely sold by its premise before I started reading it. This was mainly because I am not a huge fan of “High fantasy” books – and yes, they are very different from the Urban or Young Adult (YA) fantasy books I enjoy reading.
So colour me surprised, when I found myself completely enthralled just a few pages into this book.
The first thing that grabbed my attention was Samantha Shannon’s vivid writing style. Her attention to detail and realistic descriptions make it really easy for her written words to be transformed into a strong visual in the readers mind. I especially loved that Samantha had done her research on the fashion and terms used in the 16th/ 17th century. This definitely paid off and helps to strengthen the world building in this book.
I also loved that Samantha did not rely on intense, convoluted metaphors or similes for her descriptions – and yes, I am throwing shade to Jay Kristoff’s writing in ‘Nevernight’. This is not to say that Samantha does not use any metaphors or similes in this book, but they do not overpower the story or require an additional decoding step to be understood.
With that being said, there was one description that caught my attention and made me writhe in pain:
A thunderhead of evil-smelling smoke
Really?! Evil-smelling smoke? The creativity burns my eyes!
Descriptions aside, Samantha does a great job of giving each character a distinctive and realistic personality which is no easy feat given the numerous characters in this book. I found that this made it very easy for me to remember and distinguish between the characters. It also helped that Samantha generally keeps the names or nicknames of each character constant throughout the book. This certainly makes things easier for someone like me who doesn’t pick up names quickly.
In addition to this, I think the main reason I easily connected with the characters in this book is because their flaws and secrets are presented right from the start. I cannot speak for everyone, but I certainly get bored when authors create characters that are perfectly nice, smart and attractive all at the same time. Thankfully, Samantha keeps things interesting by creating characters that are liars, arrogant, selfish and resentful – just more representative of real life. We then get to see each character undergo some form of development or growth as the book progresses.
Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.
Sadly, the strong focus on character development means that most of the book is very slow paced. Once I got used to the characters and the world that Samantha created, there wasn’t much to keep me engaged and I struggled to keep picking up this book. I know this seems like a lot to ask from a book that already has so much going on, but I wanted more! There simply wasn’t much going on that made me feel strong emotions. Nothing happened which made me feel devastated or incredibly anxious. Nothing profoundly shocked me or made me elated with joy. To make things worse, for most of the book the stakes felt so low, a baby could crawl over it.
Thankfully, things do pick up a little towards the end as a few twists are thrown in and the characters finally realise that they are faced with a ticking time bomb. However, I was still disappointed by the ending as things became rushed and relatively easy to resolve. I cannot help but wish that Samantha had made the ending more memorable or surprising so this book would remain on my mind for at least a couple days after I finished it.
So overall, 3.5 stars. A strong start, with great writing and characters but a weak middle and an ending that left me wanting more, and not in a good way.
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