Okay, okay, okay, hear me out:

I get that 10% shouldn’t provide me with this much to say about something I’ve made the executive decision to abandon, but I feel this overwhelming need to explain why I don’t think this book is for me since I was kinda hyped to read this.

Firstly, because this book reminds me of that nun lacework magic novel Star Eater by Kerstin Hall in how the narrative is structured and depicted. It lies in how it almost seems to focus on the all of the potential story aspects that I don’t care for and am uninterested in. It’s as if the plot is not as compelling as it should be based on what the setting and the world contain and the narrative should be epic but it’s not and I’m butthurt about it.

Let it be known that I also DNF’d Star Eater fairly early on so this connection stands out to me in terms of how my reading experience went with this novel.

The way the worldbuilding is tackled is similar in the same way. It’s very “Worldbuilding? What worldbuilding?” There is instead a completely pre-established world that we’ve been thrown into and we aren’t going to get the chance to ask any questions about it. Because there is no more building of the world left to do alongside the plot and I didn’t find myself wondering about the world very much either. This is a strange concept to me because worldbuilding is something that helps immerse me into a story and if I’m not interested in the world, a lot of that immersion is lost because I don’t actively want to be immersed.

The focus appears to be how the characters interact within the context of a dark fantasy world, so as a reader you need to not get bogged down with specifics and instead make it a point to navigate the political climate and the grander scope of action, reaction and consequence.

But this was not the vibe for me when it came to the writing itself. It felt kind of blasé in tone, and seemed to be more of a mental labour than anticipated, which lo and behold, I was not of the right mindset to appreciate when I tried to read this. The atmosphere it cultivated was a rather menial one, but it didn’t feel inherently dark or foreboding despite the rather heavy subjects that are woven into the story such as prostitution and enslavement and confinement, etc. It all felt a bit too monotonous and humdrum. It didn’t grip me at all and I found I had very little fucks to give when it came to the mystery of who killed the Emperor and who should stand in his place for the throne. 

I think I wanted to be mesmerized and it just didn’t happen for me and I never felt like it was going to happen.

So like a cowardly captain, I’ve abandoned ship and I’m moving on.