elena
“may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! oh, god! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
okay, after finishing this book some days ago, i felt like i needed to rant a little bit about it. everyone praises it left and right, so even without wanting to, i had some expectations going into it. and it did not go too well for me. i want to preface this by saying that i haven't read YA in a while, mostly being interested in it when i was around the age of 15. my opinion, as all of the opinions are, is very subjective, as this book is loved by many other people.
things i liked:
- the plot. the heist itself was fun to read about. this was the reason i picked the book up in the first place, so i did enjoy the heist, but it's sweet time to get there.
- was not an info dump. i don't know if this was intentional or not, but we learn about the world as we go, without a long lesson about how everything in this universe works. it was pretty accessible for someone who didn't read any other grisha books.
things i didn't like:
- ages. ok, i get it. 16 is a normal age for your YA character, but neither of them acted their age at all. it's hard for meto imagine that a bunch of teens would end up being top tier criminals. okay, one or two ended up getting there somehow, but a whole bunch of them? i didn't find this too believable. it's understandable how anyone younger than these characters wouldn't find anything wrong with that though. to YA-reading little me, it made perfect sense that someone just a few years older could act so mature and be capable of so much more things than a kid my age. it's just that now it's hard for me to comprehend this when i look at a character so young acting so uncharacteristically. yet, i still think there was a way to write those characters better, with less of this “badass show off” behaviour and more true how an actual teenager would act, while still being a strong character.
- romance. this felt so unnecessary, as if one of the requirements of getting this book published was to put everyone in a romantic relationship. i didn't feel any tension between these couples. it seemed like we were supposed to believe this tension existed based on some occasional thoughts they had of one another and flashbacks. i felt like like the author was just trying to convince me that something is going on between them, rather than just create a tension and meaningful action between them in real time.
- flashbacks. my favorite part, the actual plot, was hidden behind a lot of flashbacks to the point of it being annoying and excessive. yes, learning about people's background is cool and is supposed to get you to care more about the character, but this is supposed to happen in a “side story format” and here the plot felt like one.
- kaz brekker. he's insufferable, fight me. i didn't get attached to any of the characters, yes, but neither of them annoyed me or felt as flat as he did, they just were there, doing their thing. kaz.. well, he's just a 2D, “bad boy” stereotype with no actual personality beyond that. which is disappointing because i'm a sucker for an immoral asshole kind of character. he was the worst offender of “not acting his own age” complaint i had, as well as.. he didn't live up to his reputation. what i mean by that is every character in this book is trying to convince us how immoral he is, that he is a monster, yet we never really witness him doing those terrible things he's apparently known for. again, this felt like the author thought it'd be easier to just repeatedly call him an asshole and hope we'll just believe her, rather than, i don't know, write him actually do said shitty things maybe.
but, overall, i didn't hate this book, hence the 3 star rating. some things did annoy me, but it was entertaining to some extent when we got to the actual plot. this book left me with a strong opinion that it's definitely not a bad choice for someone who normally enjoys YA novels, but it might not be the best one for a person who is sceptical about the genre.
“Okay, I said. But remember, you can't fix
everything in the world for everybody.
“However,” said Ricky, “you can't do
anything at all unless you begin.”
“I just lived my life in such a small way... It was too small. I was so convinced there was only one way to live my life.”
‘You are the only one of us who belongs to this country.'
‘No, this country belongs to me. I will be its sole owner and everything here will be mine.'