Started: 13/11/16
Finished: 25/11/16
Spoilers:
I was so hyped to read this and wanted so badly to get into this series since I'd seen so many rave reviews for it. Plus is has a map. I think I automatically assume a fantasy book will be epic because it has a map . . . that kind of wasn't the case with this book. I can't say it was bad because it wasn't a bad book, but I can't say it was great either, it wasn't really anything for me. The whole thing left me extremely underwhelmed after preparing myself for something spectacular. Despite the constant action going on throughout, it just didn't excite me.
Setting The setting, at least, was really cool. I loved the idea of the seasons being kingdoms, though perhaps it could all have been developed a bit more. To be honest, this was probably the only part I particularly liked. The map helped a lot in visualising the world. Besides the four Seasons Kingdoms, there's also four Rhythm Kingdoms. Not totally sure if they were meant to represent anything or if they were just random, but still, I liked it.
It could have been greatly expanded upon. It had so much potential but achieved so little.
Characters
I didn't like the characters, nor did I dislike them, they were all pretty Meh to me. It wasn't from a lack of trying, though, I wanted to like them, but they felt so underdeveloped that I simply didn't know them enough to care. I didn't find them likeable, relatable, endearing, but again, I didn't hate them.
Meira was the heroine of the story, of course, and her contradictory inner-monologue did nothing except get on my nerves. She seemed so indecisive throughout the entire book, changing her mind from one paragraph to the next.
The love-triangle felt so pointlessly forced I was almost cringing whilst reading it. I didn't find either of the romances sweet or sexy or mysterious or anything, it just felt totally awkward. Mather and Theron didn't work for me. I can tolerate a love-triangle if there's at least one character I like and can root for but I honestly didn't care which guy Meira got with, if any at all.
This is something that I find happens in YA Fantasy. the plot is the plot until its the romance. Sometimes romance isn't necessary. If a plotline needs a romance to prop it up then, in harsh reality, it's probably a piss poor plotline.
The minor characters were basically non-existent, descriptions were rarely given, and if anything bad happened to one, it didn't affect me; I just didn't care.
The villain, Angra . . I know he was the bad guy, (It said so enough in the book) but I never got any real sense of evil from him, no feeling of dread when he finally entered the story. He just felt like another character that was simply there, serving no real purpose other than to be the bad guy sitting on a throne.
Come on, flesh him out; What are his motives? What drove him to do this to Winter in the first place? What are his weaknesses, his quirks? What makes him different and more evil than any other bad guy sitting on a throne that came before him in the world of fantasy?
(a clear theme running through this review: underdevelopment)
Plot
The plot was interesting, not the most original storyline ever, but interesting nonetheless. There's nothing here that really sets it aside from any other basic YA Fantasy plot, though. I pretty much guessed all the plot twists in the first quarter of the book, making all the reveals in the last quarter underwhelming and disappointing, receiving a colossal eye-roll on my part.
Y'know when something is so heavily hinted at and obvious that you start thinking, 'Hey, maybe the plot will sneak up and sucker punch me so hard it completely destroys all illusion of what I thought this book was and what's going to happen?' Yeah . . that never happened. Everything I predicted would happen, happened. The whole thing was just dull to me and in the end, I was only reading it to finish it. I hate giving up on books.
Writing Style I didn't like Raasch's writing style, I've got to be honest. I wish it wasn't written in first person. I really didn't want to know every single little thing that ran through Meira's head, every conflicting thought, every pointless comment and observation. The metaphors and similes were lame. Personally, I love metaphors and similes that paint a picture in my mind, exaggerated and beautiful and descriptive but the ones used in this book just didn't read that way.
Dream sequences . . yeah, not a fan, and this seems to have one every few chapters. I see italics and I die a little inside.
Final Impression I tried so hard to like this book, I really did. I didn't give up on it. Who knows, maybe one day I'll take a look at the second one, but I have so many other books on my TBR pile that it doesn't seem likely.
YA fantasy is a tough genre to make an impression in. It's saturated with so many similar books right now, they all start to bleed into each other. I feel like it could do with a good edit, because there was so much that seemed unnecessary to the storyline.
This gets two stars from me because it was okay, but it was only okay.
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