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A review by picklesoup
Death Sworn by Leah Cypess
2.0
EDIT [Oct. 2, 2020]: I bumped my rating down to two stars because now thinking back to it I really didn't enjoy the book at all except for the ending and that really wasn't enough to receive a three-star rating.
Rating: 3/5
To be honest I would've rated this 2 stars but the ending is the only reason why I bumped up my rating to 3 stars.
The Plot: The story follows seventeen-year-old Ileni who is losing her magic but has to go out and teach a bunch of assassins how to control and use their magic. The plot actually felt really strong, the conflict and her goals were clear and I could clearly understand her goals, but her motivations seemed lost and I didn't really know why she was preceding her goals. It wasn't mentioned once why she was preceding with her goals, except that she was sentenced to it, which doesn't really say much on why she is doing it for herself in general. While the plot felt strong during some of the times, there were definitely times where it felt really weak and where I just wanted to DNF it. The beginning and the end were really strong but the middle was so weak and felt like it was all over the place. The middle is the reason why this entire story fell flat, while the tension was there, it wasn't the type of tension to have you on the edge of your seat and instead of the type where you want to chuck the book across the room. However, the ending pulled the entire story together having lots of open ends and is the only reason why I want more of this story.
The Characters: Having Ileni being our main character, she was a character that would think one thing and then do something completely different to her thought process. Honestly, I don't have that much of a connection with Ileni due to the fact that we really don't know much about her, except that she was a powerful sorceress even from such a young age, but then she began to lose her magic. That's all we really know about her, her history is very much a mystery and how she ended up in the assassins' cave and why she accepted the mission, is very much untold. This is really annoying due to the fact that I was really excited to learn more about her history and her in general, but it seems that we didn't really get that. A lot of reviews were saying how Ileni was a badass strong female character, while in the beginning, we saw this, we didn't really get to see this during the middle. Where does the line between confidence and stupidity come together? For me, Ileni didn't feel as though she was this badass character that I first hope to be, instead, we get this character that doesn't think things out correctly and goes headfirst into arguments with trained killers, while she has little to none of her own magic left. While she is very much confident, it gets blurred with stupidity, making her just feel like a hot mess.
The World: The worldbuilding is 100% the most interesting part of this entire novel. I loved learning about the world they all live in and how magic and the assassins' caves work it was truly fully thought out. While, there are some holes in the story, such as why in the world is the empire viewed as evil, for what reason why the assassins target the empire. We learned very little about what seemed to be our main villain, being the empire. Having the entire world being around the empire and that's who we learned the least about. All I could tell you what I learned about the empire is that they are up to no good. What exactly is that no good you might ask? I have no idea. While the worldbuilding was there it seemed to leave out the biggest picture of all and only focused on the smaller worlds, having that we don't really know what the big picture of the world looks like.
In the end, this book was truly a miss for me. The ending was the only reason why I am desiring more from this world. The ending was left on a huge cliffhanger, meaning of course I'm going to be intrigued about what happens in the next novel. The likelihood of me picking up and reading this novel again is very slim but not zero.
Rating: 3/5
To be honest I would've rated this 2 stars but the ending is the only reason why I bumped up my rating to 3 stars.
The Plot: The story follows seventeen-year-old Ileni who is losing her magic but has to go out and teach a bunch of assassins how to control and use their magic. The plot actually felt really strong, the conflict and her goals were clear and I could clearly understand her goals, but her motivations seemed lost and I didn't really know why she was preceding her goals. It wasn't mentioned once why she was preceding with her goals, except that she was sentenced to it, which doesn't really say much on why she is doing it for herself in general. While the plot felt strong during some of the times, there were definitely times where it felt really weak and where I just wanted to DNF it. The beginning and the end were really strong but the middle was so weak and felt like it was all over the place. The middle is the reason why this entire story fell flat, while the tension was there, it wasn't the type of tension to have you on the edge of your seat and instead of the type where you want to chuck the book across the room. However, the ending pulled the entire story together having lots of open ends and is the only reason why I want more of this story.
The Characters: Having Ileni being our main character, she was a character that would think one thing and then do something completely different to her thought process. Honestly, I don't have that much of a connection with Ileni due to the fact that we really don't know much about her, except that she was a powerful sorceress even from such a young age, but then she began to lose her magic. That's all we really know about her, her history is very much a mystery and how she ended up in the assassins' cave and why she accepted the mission, is very much untold. This is really annoying due to the fact that I was really excited to learn more about her history and her in general, but it seems that we didn't really get that. A lot of reviews were saying how Ileni was a badass strong female character, while in the beginning, we saw this, we didn't really get to see this during the middle. Where does the line between confidence and stupidity come together? For me, Ileni didn't feel as though she was this badass character that I first hope to be, instead, we get this character that doesn't think things out correctly and goes headfirst into arguments with trained killers, while she has little to none of her own magic left. While she is very much confident, it gets blurred with stupidity, making her just feel like a hot mess.
The World: The worldbuilding is 100% the most interesting part of this entire novel. I loved learning about the world they all live in and how magic and the assassins' caves work it was truly fully thought out. While, there are some holes in the story, such as why in the world is the empire viewed as evil, for what reason why the assassins target the empire. We learned very little about what seemed to be our main villain, being the empire. Having the entire world being around the empire and that's who we learned the least about. All I could tell you what I learned about the empire is that they are up to no good. What exactly is that no good you might ask? I have no idea. While the worldbuilding was there it seemed to leave out the biggest picture of all and only focused on the smaller worlds, having that we don't really know what the big picture of the world looks like.
In the end, this book was truly a miss for me. The ending was the only reason why I am desiring more from this world. The ending was left on a huge cliffhanger, meaning of course I'm going to be intrigued about what happens in the next novel. The likelihood of me picking up and reading this novel again is very slim but not zero.