Overall Reading Experience
This book… This fucking book. Tracey, you’ll be kinda famous in my house but I’m not sure I’m getting everything you were trying to do with book.
I thought by the time I sat down to write this review that I would’ve actually put my thoughts in order. I am still speechless when I think about what I read. What she did with this story, with these characters, with world, just amazes but also confuses me. This book did make me fall in love with the series and characters more but I don’t feel like I really understood their motivations and wills as much. This is definitely a book that I would reread but it would be to understand what I first read.
When I first started reading, I had forgotten mostly everything from the first book. I remembered some key events like major spoiler here, Bri being King Arthur’s scion. I had watched some youtube videos on plot recaps. I just didn’t have it in me to go back and reread. I was a tad bit too impatient. I felt like the recaps gave me enough information to fill in the blanks well enough. I do feel like me not remembering everything made it a bit harder to immerse in the story again. I didn’t feel super disconnected from the characters but it was hard to follow certain events.
Now as I write this, my mind is fuzzy on the details on the story. The pace was pretty fast after part one. I remember the dizzying array of emotions I felt. Frustration, anger, betrayal, defeat, giddiness, irritation, awe, shock, lust, love, heartache, yearning, confusion, etc. Just too many emotions. I almost want to say it’s a detriment because I can’t remember the plot. I just remember how I feel. None of these emotions are bad but it does make it hard to write this review.
What I do remember, the amazing quotes that Deonn to beautifully sprinkled into this book.
“ You are the point of our arrow… the tip of our spear. The bow of our ship. The flame of our long simmering heat. You are the living embodiment of our resistance. The revelation after years of hiding. The pain welded blade. Wound turned weapon.”
” The unsaid thing about funerals is that directly after the communal mourning for someone you love, after everyone is gone and the connected grief dispersed, comes a solitude beyond imagining. A great, gaping nothing where a whole person and life and future used to be. The other side of a funeral is abyss. ”
” We ran for many reasons. We ran to protect ourselves. We ran so we would not die, so that our daughters could live.”
“Since when has a man’s title prevented his brutality instead of further emboldening it?”
I’m a bit frustrated as I write this view because I just can’t remember shit from this book. That is too big of red flag for me personally. I love this book, I do but Miss Deonn may have lots some points for making it too packed.
There’s a couple reasons why I wouldn’t remember the plot of a book.
- Too much stuff happening(pacing + information)
I do feel like Deonn is a bit guilty of this. I kind of feel like she got bit by the Sarah J Maas bug. Too many details or events happening that go no where in the book but will somehow come back as plot point in another book. It’s too much information at times. I couldn’t keep track of it all. I understand wanting to set up things for the next book and this isn’t to say dropping breadcrumbs is bad, but if your plot is suffering then I think it’ time to get the red pen out.
The pacing after part one was out of this world nuts. I couldn’t quite follow where the story or the characters were going. One thing I don’t understand is the delayment of Bree learning more about her powers for what seems like plot purposes. For someone who had as many goals and as ambitious as she was, she just kind of refused to learn. It didn’t help that the others around her seemed to follow suit in that. I just feel like the story would’ve been a lot different and maybe a bit more put together if that was the goal to begin with.
Everything was all over the place on my first read through. It was a bit hard to understand motivations and stay in the world. I can only imagine how the characters feel with all of these events happening to them. I wish that they went on the run a little later than what they did. I feel like once they went out into the real world and the story left the college, it became too confusing.
2. Not enough happening plot wise
While I think too much happened, I also feel not enough plot heavy events happened. Nothing felt connected. I find it hard to string together events and link their importance to one another. For as action heavy as it was, it felt like nothing happened. The things that were nerve wracking were when they were in danger or some kind of secret was revealed. The focus was not on the original goal they set out to do, to find Nick, but instead it was a game of hide and seek. Lots of running. Just a lot of frustration and lamenting about ones circumstances. Maybe it was on purpose. This book is so fast paced that Bree does not even get to process much. Maybe that’s why she feels the way she does when reading this. She’s not the same girl anymore from the first book. She does have a lot to consider and figure out who she wants to be and how but I feel like she could’ve used more time in this book to do that. Yes, I’ve read Oathbound. But I feel like maybe half of that journey should’ve been done in this book. Why wait until the 3rd book to deal with her trauma?
3. Not enough breathing room, just too packed
While this is probably very similar to my first point, there’s just too much in this book. Too many lofty goals and ideals that they want to accomplish that I feel sometimes goes no where. Too many side plots that lead into nothing or will be used later. There was something about this book that did not make me feel as connected to the characters as I did in the first book. I feel like I was just being drug along in their story and not there witnessing as Bree does. I love a nice action packed story but I think this was just too fast paced. There was so much ground to cover that many things got lost in the execution.
4. Romance
The romance was okay, a part of it did make me feel a bit odd. Homie hopping when done right can be juicy and tantalizing but I could not tell what the real intentions behind this love triangle was supposed to be. I don’t see Nick and Sel as foils to each other or represent different needs that Bree desires. It’s just 2 guys that she’s attracted to that happen to be like oath bounded.
I understand why Bree likes Nick, however I feel like her relationship and attraction to Sel could’ve been fleshed out more in this novel especially if it’s supposed to highlight that kind of change in their relationship. This book had all the makings of a girl falls for bad boy novel but it lacked the chemistry and connection. I could see how Bree and Sel would be attracted to each other, I saw the makings of it in the first book. But whatever they had here is a pale comparison to what they had in the first book. It feels like a shell of itself. It’s not sexy in the way it’s supposed to be and it doesn’t have that zing in it like these kinds of romances have. There is no danger or stressor or friction. That’s her boyfriend’s best friend and apparently that’s not a big deal but she has more of a problem with him mesmerizing her. Which is a problem but like in considering her attraction to Sel, there’s no danger. It’s odd. I would not even call them enemies to lovers like Deonn would like us to think. I think this book missed a lot of opportunity to really make a juicy and complicated love triangle but it really fell short and I’m really sad about that. Even though I have criticisms of the romance, there were scenes as passages that did make me squeal or kick my feet wildly.
Ultimately. I enjoyed this book but I had many qualms. I still went on to read the next book after this and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the last book. I will probably still buy this series to put on my bookshelf because it’s nice to see black people in fantasy. The pacing and the romance really upsets me but maybe I just didn’t get it on the first read. I read this book really fast because I was really enjoying it at the time. It was a nice passionate distraction if you don’t think too hard about. But if you’re looking to really understand the story, you might have to read this one again after you get over your first read.
The Abode 