I have a hard time understanding how I feel about this. I have some pros and cons.
Cons:
On one hand, the writing wasn't anything exceptional and at some points took me out of the story with how staccato and repetitive in structure it was. Many lines begin with "I say" or "I tell him, " leaving no room for imagination or imagery. There was also the fact, that even though it is fantasy, it was wildly unbelievable. The fact that one girl, with one decision, unbalanced the entire nation and caused war is kinda insane. In a lot of ways, it was also rather predictable. I knew that the romance was going to happen, I knew that her sister was going to be used as leverage, shocker, I knew that the bad guy was indeed bad from the beginning. There was just nothing that I didn't see coming. One of the biggest twists of the book, and Vivian's main mission, was so solvable that when she concluded that the dragons had dialects...I was like...well....of course they do. And I was also shocked that the 'brightest linguist of her age' didn't think of that. I also wouldn't call the romance slow burn either, as it was described to be. Since the two characters were professing their love to each other (and giving up their choice of career?) within a few weeks of knowing one another. A key element of slow burn is the yearning and there was no yearning here. I also would in no way ever call this enemies-to-lovers. I feel like publishers like to throw that term around as much as they can because they know it brings an audience. Truly a lie here though, they were never enemies, and barely lovers before he DIED. There were also a lot of factors about the "school" and world that just didn't make sense. This "school" was supposedly supposed to be more like a dangerous prison but every time they would make a comment of how they need to be more serious and this is important and no one should be having fun etc. they would do something to completely contradict it. I also don't think that any of the side characters, besides Atlas, were very memorable. Because of that, the deaths that did occur did not shake me one bit.
Pros:
All of that to say, there are some excellent qualities in this book. I think the main character is fascinating. She is incredibly selfish, and quick to make truly terrible decisions, and had done a lot to hurt other people in favor of her family and herself. And while I didn't like her, being in her brain was very interesting and while she was making these awful decisions I was curious to see how the fires would play out. I think that some fantastic discussions and themes are going on here. There are some Babel-like elements when it comes to language, which was cool and I honestly enjoyed here more than I did there. But there was also the topic of being a good person and changing and some great quotes about privilege and freedom for all and not just some.
I NEVER highlight quotes but I found myself wanting to here:
-"Peace isn’t peace if it’s only given to some."
-"'I have no interest in political debates' -- 'Only because you are privileged enough not to be concerned by them.'"
I do think that this is worth a read for some people. I am not sure if I will continue with the series though. This might be better suited to readers who are actually in the YA demographic. I love reading YA but I don't think this one was genre/age-bending.
2.75/3.
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