A group of teen thieves attempt to steal to regain their leader's lost inheritance.
Well, that's one way to put this synopsis.
Another way is: very clever children figure out very clever riddles and tasks and are very clever and very special.
Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it.
I did.
I just wasn't completely bowled over in love with it.
I loved the magic system, the concept of Forging and the descriptions of Forged objects. I also loved that the book was Six of Crows set in an 1889 alternative history France that addressed the impacts colonialism and imperialism, and featured heavy themes of inequality, systematic racism, prejudice and privilege. The scope of history and the emerging concepts of globalism were very well done, and I loved that various revolutions and rebellions were incorporated into the story line.
What bored me were the characters. I liked each of them, but their voices were all very, very similar despite their vast differences in personalities and likes and dislikes and quirks. At times they act like suave thirty-year-olds trapped in teenage bodies.
Laila was a brilliant dancer and courtesan who moonlights as a baker and sometimes dangles over volcanoes trying to acquire artifacts. She is the best at both things.
Zofia is a brilliant engineer who loves cookies and fire and is possibly autistic.
Tristan is a brilliant gardener and his work is sought out all over Paris.
Enrique is a brilliant mathematician (or engineer, not super sure, can't remember) who brilliantly solves riddles.
Severin is a brilliant schemer and also a prodigy hotelier with the most ritziest and upscale hotel in Paris and he just wants to get his House back.
Did I mention that all of these people were brilliant?
Yes, their brilliance is illuminating. They are the best of the best of the best...at eighteenish.
It's...really annoying.
Plus, the sheer logistics of their accomplishments don't really make sense. I mean, how does Severin find the time to run a 12-star hotel (out of five stars) (did I mention he founded and made his hotel famous in like, two years??) plus travel around the globe acquiring very hard things to acquire. Volcanoes. I'm not even going to talk about the ridiculousness of Laila and her jobs.
These kids either have the best time management on the planet, or I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief.
Aside from that major detail, I felt like their interactions with each other were all super forced. I felt very little connection to them, and it felt like their reactions to things (like pain) were very disconnected. In the first couple minutes, Severin gets his hand brutally mauled and is just standing there calmly going, "okay let's figure out a way to take this out," and it's like, I get the calmness but at least let's have some symptoms of pain or a yell or something.
It didn't help because there were a lot of filter phrases for the characters, like, "Enrique watched as the skeletons ran towards him," which...diminished the scary factor and immediateness of the danger considerably. Unlike the fantastic showing of the Forging and the magic, when it came to what the characters were doing and feeling there was a whole heaping amount of telling going on.
Overall, to sum up. Five stars because THIS WORLD IS AMAZINGLY DETAILED AND REALIZED, I liked the plotline, the diversity rep is off the charts (French-Algerian, half-white/half-Black, Indian, Spanish-Filipino, Jewish, and oh, and there's some lgbt rep too!), minus 2 stars because the characters were a little too precocious for me.
I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
Well, that's one way to put this synopsis.
Another way is: very clever children figure out very clever riddles and tasks and are very clever and very special.
Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it.
I did.
I just wasn't completely bowled over in love with it.
I loved the magic system, the concept of Forging and the descriptions of Forged objects. I also loved that the book was Six of Crows set in an 1889 alternative history France that addressed the impacts colonialism and imperialism, and featured heavy themes of inequality, systematic racism, prejudice and privilege. The scope of history and the emerging concepts of globalism were very well done, and I loved that various revolutions and rebellions were incorporated into the story line.
What bored me were the characters. I liked each of them, but their voices were all very, very similar despite their vast differences in personalities and likes and dislikes and quirks. At times they act like suave thirty-year-olds trapped in teenage bodies.
Laila was a brilliant dancer and courtesan who moonlights as a baker and sometimes dangles over volcanoes trying to acquire artifacts. She is the best at both things.
Zofia is a brilliant engineer who loves cookies and fire and is possibly autistic.
Tristan is a brilliant gardener and his work is sought out all over Paris.
Enrique is a brilliant mathematician (or engineer, not super sure, can't remember) who brilliantly solves riddles.
Severin is a brilliant schemer and also a prodigy hotelier with the most ritziest and upscale hotel in Paris and he just wants to get his House back.
Did I mention that all of these people were brilliant?
Yes, their brilliance is illuminating. They are the best of the best of the best...at eighteenish.
It's...really annoying.
Plus, the sheer logistics of their accomplishments don't really make sense. I mean, how does Severin find the time to run a 12-star hotel (out of five stars) (did I mention he founded and made his hotel famous in like, two years??) plus travel around the globe acquiring very hard things to acquire. Volcanoes. I'm not even going to talk about the ridiculousness of Laila and her jobs.
These kids either have the best time management on the planet, or I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief.
Aside from that major detail, I felt like their interactions with each other were all super forced. I felt very little connection to them, and it felt like their reactions to things (like pain) were very disconnected. In the first couple minutes, Severin gets his hand brutally mauled and is just standing there calmly going, "okay let's figure out a way to take this out," and it's like, I get the calmness but at least let's have some symptoms of pain or a yell or something.
It didn't help because there were a lot of filter phrases for the characters, like, "Enrique watched as the skeletons ran towards him," which...diminished the scary factor and immediateness of the danger considerably. Unlike the fantastic showing of the Forging and the magic, when it came to what the characters were doing and feeling there was a whole heaping amount of telling going on.
Overall, to sum up. Five stars because THIS WORLD IS AMAZINGLY DETAILED AND REALIZED, I liked the plotline, the diversity rep is off the charts (French-Algerian, half-white/half-Black, Indian, Spanish-Filipino, Jewish, and oh, and there's some lgbt rep too!), minus 2 stars because the characters were a little too precocious for me.
I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.