The Novice

I've had my eye on this book for a while, and actually almost picked it up in the bookshops near me a couple times. I'm so glad now I waited for my library hold to come through as it turns out I did not enjoy this book.

Firstly, I DNF'd at 30% and therefore I didn't finish the book. But I couldn't get into it at all and even skim reading it felt like a chore. The plot follows Fletcher an orphan in a small remote village. He is generally downtrodden and looked down on by others in the village. He has been raised by the blacksmith, and it's clearly expected that we sense or interpret a father-son bond between these two characters. However, they barely speak and don't exchange any meaningful conversations that explore the depth of their relationship so it felt very flat and uninteresting.

And that is really the main gripe I have with this book, all of it falls flat and feels really boring. The concept of the demons is interesting in itself but it ended up being ridiculously boring. At one point the character must leave his village on the run, and the entire run and escape was covered in a short period (I think over 2 or 3 chapters). Everything is told instead of shown and just in general did not engage me with the story. I think this is the reason I didn't care about the main character or anyone he meets, he reads like Harry Potter to me as a character and I didn't like him at all.

All in all, I do not recommend this book and can't understand that high ratings and gushes this book gets. Later in this book or the series it may get more interesting and better written, who knows.