This was straight up torture.
And in case you wonder - I made it 236 /512 pages in (about 46%) before I had to call it quits. Also keep in mind that most reviewers said that it was the first half that was the most exciting, and the second that was unbelievably dull. And now I think, could it really have been even worse? I’m glad I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.
Because this was baaad, you guys.
Let me put it this way: High fantasy is, undoubtedly, my favorite genre. Ever.
And the thing is, I’m not even picky with it. As a bare minimum : Give me exciting court intrigue. Give me bold stabby heroines. Give me a gorgeous map. And I’ll be happy.
FURYBORN has all three of these components. No, seriously. It has everything I look for in a book. And yet ... *I look at my one star rating and then straight into the camera like I’m on The Office*
FURYBORN seemed to look at just my brief checklist, include them, dust it’s hands and say, There, that’s enough and expect me to love it. And I just .. NO. No, that’s not enough, not when I never expected a book to take my words that literally.
It takes more than giving your MC a fondness for knives and hatred of dresses to fit the cookie-cutter badass characterization that readers love so well. And full disclaimer: I am one of those readers, the ones that live for The Badass Female™️ trope (though I could do without the denouncing of femininity, thank you very much).
Eliana was a fine candidate for that position. An renowned assassin trained by her own equally-stabby momma, quick with a blade and with her own fair share of sass, too. And yet Eliana comes off as bland. Forced. Fake. Any combination of descriptors to say that Eliana Ferracora felt like little more than words on a page. Unreal. And thus I couldn’t care less what happens on her side of things.
And Rielle? Please. What 2013ish-2015ish novel did she crawl out of? Someone please time-travel her back to the ranks of fellow prophesied competing special snowflakes alongside such icons like Mare Barrow. No, but seriously. It’s 2018, and unless we’re bringing in MCs who haven’t had the chance to be repped in the ye old YA character tropes, chosen ones with a weird prophesy that was meant to be some sort of bizarre poem are now too overwrought to be enjoyable. Too trite, too cutesy. And far too cliché.
Also of note is the writing. Far too little dialogue, far too much action. And I normally love fight scenes and yet I could feel my eyes water with the strain of trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Honest to god, these action scenes were so clunky and messy and just plain bad. Badly written, that is. I couldn’t tell what was going on, who was lunging at who and driving their blade into what. A mess, basically. I’d suggest that Legrand find herself a copy of literally any one of VE Schwab’s novels, flip to an action scene, and take note. THAT is how to write action sequences, not whatever was going on in FURYBORN.
Yes, it’s no secret I’m pissed off. Been a while since a highly-anticipated novel of mine disappointed me this much. Dear god, this is Caraval all over again.
(Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARC.) <— even though I, like, hated it. But whatever. Y’all know what I mean.
*walks away still grumbling*
And in case you wonder - I made it 236 /512 pages in (about 46%) before I had to call it quits. Also keep in mind that most reviewers said that it was the first half that was the most exciting, and the second that was unbelievably dull. And now I think, could it really have been even worse? I’m glad I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.
Because this was baaad, you guys.
Let me put it this way: High fantasy is, undoubtedly, my favorite genre. Ever.
And the thing is, I’m not even picky with it. As a bare minimum : Give me exciting court intrigue. Give me bold stabby heroines. Give me a gorgeous map. And I’ll be happy.
FURYBORN has all three of these components. No, seriously. It has everything I look for in a book. And yet ... *I look at my one star rating and then straight into the camera like I’m on The Office*
FURYBORN seemed to look at just my brief checklist, include them, dust it’s hands and say, There, that’s enough and expect me to love it. And I just .. NO. No, that’s not enough, not when I never expected a book to take my words that literally.
It takes more than giving your MC a fondness for knives and hatred of dresses to fit the cookie-cutter badass characterization that readers love so well. And full disclaimer: I am one of those readers, the ones that live for The Badass Female™️ trope (though I could do without the denouncing of femininity, thank you very much).
Eliana was a fine candidate for that position. An renowned assassin trained by her own equally-stabby momma, quick with a blade and with her own fair share of sass, too. And yet Eliana comes off as bland. Forced. Fake. Any combination of descriptors to say that Eliana Ferracora felt like little more than words on a page. Unreal. And thus I couldn’t care less what happens on her side of things.
And Rielle? Please. What 2013ish-2015ish novel did she crawl out of? Someone please time-travel her back to the ranks of fellow prophesied competing special snowflakes alongside such icons like Mare Barrow. No, but seriously. It’s 2018, and unless we’re bringing in MCs who haven’t had the chance to be repped in the ye old YA character tropes, chosen ones with a weird prophesy that was meant to be some sort of bizarre poem are now too overwrought to be enjoyable. Too trite, too cutesy. And far too cliché.
Also of note is the writing. Far too little dialogue, far too much action. And I normally love fight scenes and yet I could feel my eyes water with the strain of trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Honest to god, these action scenes were so clunky and messy and just plain bad. Badly written, that is. I couldn’t tell what was going on, who was lunging at who and driving their blade into what. A mess, basically. I’d suggest that Legrand find herself a copy of literally any one of VE Schwab’s novels, flip to an action scene, and take note. THAT is how to write action sequences, not whatever was going on in FURYBORN.
Yes, it’s no secret I’m pissed off. Been a while since a highly-anticipated novel of mine disappointed me this much. Dear god, this is Caraval all over again.
(Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARC.) <— even though I, like, hated it. But whatever. Y’all know what I mean.
*walks away still grumbling*