Overall, I found Garden of the Cursed to be a thrilling read! It was a wonderful blend of YA fantasy meets mystery (with a noir/detective vibe too).
One of my favorite things about the story was the card-based magic system--it's something I had never really encountered before in other stories I've read, so I liked the uniqueness of it all.
In terms of the setting, I really liked the swampy feel that Caraza brought to the table. It was also something different that I hadn't really read about before.
Going back to the mystery, I thought it was handled really well--the red herrings present through the story certainly kept me guessing. I liked that the mystery was also important to the plot as opposed to just being a side component.
My only critique would be that I wished some of the characters were fleshed out a bit more--many of them followed a certain trope (which can be a good thing), but then we never really developed deeper with them in regards to their motivations. That was mainly with the secondary characters though--I thought the main characters were well done!
One of my favorite things about the story was the card-based magic system--it's something I had never really encountered before in other stories I've read, so I liked the uniqueness of it all.
In terms of the setting, I really liked the swampy feel that Caraza brought to the table. It was also something different that I hadn't really read about before.
Going back to the mystery, I thought it was handled really well--the red herrings present through the story certainly kept me guessing. I liked that the mystery was also important to the plot as opposed to just being a side component.
My only critique would be that I wished some of the characters were fleshed out a bit more--many of them followed a certain trope (which can be a good thing), but then we never really developed deeper with them in regards to their motivations. That was mainly with the secondary characters though--I thought the main characters were well done!