Starr Friedman

Loved

Reviewed: 07-26-24

So good and fast-paced! The narrator does a reasonable job. Can’t wait for the next one.

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Meh

Reviewed: 11-02-23

This story drags and the “big reveal” was predictable and underwhelming. The prose was mostly nice but the overuse of “something like _____” as a descriptor was jarring. The narrator’s American accent was weird. I am generally a fan of the author’s books, so this was overall a disappointment.

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Meh

Reviewed: 12-08-22

Very predictable and overlong story. Gets preachy about halfway through. Would not recommend. The narrator was good.

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Slogfest made even worse by the narrators

Reviewed: 11-25-22

I read the first 2 books in this series and liked them well enough, and I decided to do the last one as an audiobook. This was a big mistake. The male narrator’s voices made all of the characters universally worse. Rhy and Alucard became particularly insufferable (extremely nasal and pompous), which is unfortunate because I liked these characters previously. The female narrator’s over-enunciation of every single syllable was also extremely grating and painful to listen to (StOHne’s ThrOHw…ugh). I was very relieved to finally finish the story and will be avoiding both of these narrators in the future.

As far as the book itself goes, my overall impression is that this was very lazy writing in need of a better editor. Schwab’s Invisible Life of Addie LaRue suffers from a similar issue (although in my opinion that book is even more frustrating, having black curls flashbacks just mentioning it). I felt beaten over the head with the same few literary devices and analogies (rephrasing descriptions 2-3x in a row for emphasis - sometimes less is more, telling us something was - italics - “WRONG,” saying something or someone was “a ______ thing”). The story was overlong and while there were innumerable pointless characters and events (all Nassy and Ned Tuttle chapters, Alucard’s siblings, half of the things that Osaron did that had no consequence on the other characters or the outcome of the novel), we did not get answers to essential questions such as - what was Lila’s origin story and how did she lose her eye? What was Kell doing between ages 0-5? I have always disliked Lila (I just think she is a really annoying character), but in this final installment I actually disliked all of the characters for their lack of development and caricature-like qualities. I think I would have been more entertained if Osaron had successfully taken over Red London. Anyway, I could hate on this book more, but overall it’s a hard pass on future Schwab for me.

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Slightly better than the last one but missable

Reviewed: 07-03-22

While I enjoyed the first book in this series, the second 2 have proved to be such a bore. This one slightly improves upon the last in that Diana and Matthew finally make it out of 1590 and there is actually some action in the last 100 pages. Overall, though, this book was way too long and would have benefited from some heavy editing. Diana and Matthew are the least interesting characters in the story and their relationship is possessive, unromantic, and straight up unhealthy. I had to roll my eyes every time Matthew silenced Diana “with a kiss,” which was often. I was hoping she would cheat on him with Gallowglass to shake things up. The narration is okay but the narrator’s baseline monotone only adds to Diana’s blandness. I would save your 24 hours.

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Disappointing

Reviewed: 06-10-22

This was a disappointment compared to the first book in the series. The length was absolutely not justified. The story would have benefited from some major editing, less characters (especially less historical figure name-dropping), less time that the characters spent doing extraneous things and going around in circles. There was too much 1590 and I would have liked to read more about what was going on in present time. Diana’s character was also much more irritating in this book. I felt like she was much more whiny and boring this time around and stopped rooting for her and Matthew due to all of the creepy/possessive/nonromantic vibes of their relationship. Also, the overwhelming emphasis on everyone’s scent was weird. I have moved on to the third book, and fortunately so far it seems better than this snoozefest.

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I couldn’t do it.

Reviewed: 05-17-22

I found the main character to be completely insufferable. The narration is eerily reminiscent of every know-it-all unfunny male teacher I have ever known. I guess that’s not a surprise given that this is the main character’s MO. The story drags and reads like an instruction manual with lame jokes. I just don’t have the mental capacity to follow along every stream-of-consciousness improbable “revelation” had by the main character. Maybe this book is better in print. Once the music/speak started about 7 hours in, I had to stop.

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1 person found this helpful

Decent

Reviewed: 01-28-22

This was an enjoyable enough quick read that doesn’t require too many brain cells. The 2 main characters are utterly unlikeable; Florence in particular was a full on sociopath. I wasn’t a huge fan of the plotting. The mid section seemed to last forever, and the events leading up to the climax seemed pretty implausible. The narrator was okay. Her male accents were just plain bad and the female voices blended together, without consistency as to whether or not she was employing a southern accent.

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Skip

Reviewed: 12-20-21

This was just okay. It is extremely repetitive and drawn out. The writing style is not very good (innumerable cheap And yets and But of courses, to give just one example), and the dialogue is frequently stiff and unrealistic. Neither main character is likable and their decisions are frequently idiotic. Half of the book is spent retelling the exact same events from the other character’s point of view, which was tiresome. I also dislike both of these narrators from other books (Whelan - Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Fortgang - Shadow and Bone series), so it was not a huge surprise that I disliked their narration of this one as well. Overall, this is a pass for me, although it does make me want to go visit Lake Tahoe.

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