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A review by iam
Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat
4.5
4.5 stars
Not gonna lie, when I first heard about this book, nothing about it appealed to me.
But boy, I've never been more pleased to be proven wrong.
Pretty much nothing about age old classical YA fantasy with good vs evil/dark vs light plot, chosen one and reincarnation, set in 1800s London, strikes my fancy. If anything, it turned me away from something. I only picked this up because I liked Pacat's other books, and nothing else on appealed to me on my audiobook subscription service at the time.
And it did take me a while to get into it.
But when I did... damn it was good!
If you liked [b:Captive Prince|9305362|Captive Prince (Captive Prince, #1)|C.S. Pacat|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356028113l/9305362._SY75_.jpg|14188292] and are unsure about giving this a chance, I recommend at least trying it. It's different in many ways, yes - genre and age group for one, but also multiple POVs, and it's much grander scale and progresses faster, not to mention not romantic fantasy in the same way.
But Pacat clearly likes certain themes, and those prevail even across the differences in books.
Especially the twisted machinations (be it of destiny or characters) are very strong. It takes a while to feel them in Dark Rise, but when they rear their head its glorious.
Speaking of rearing their heads, I appreciated the prevalence of horses. And unicorns.
I loved the plottwists and what was done with the characters. Several seemed like very basic white bread versions of popular and common tropes, that were however always executed in an interesting way, and ended up defying any and all of my expectations in the most delightful ways.
Not gonna lie, when I first heard about this book, nothing about it appealed to me.
But boy, I've never been more pleased to be proven wrong.
Pretty much nothing about age old classical YA fantasy with good vs evil/dark vs light plot, chosen one and reincarnation, set in 1800s London, strikes my fancy. If anything, it turned me away from something. I only picked this up because I liked Pacat's other books, and nothing else on appealed to me on my audiobook subscription service at the time.
And it did take me a while to get into it.
But when I did... damn it was good!
If you liked [b:Captive Prince|9305362|Captive Prince (Captive Prince, #1)|C.S. Pacat|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356028113l/9305362._SY75_.jpg|14188292] and are unsure about giving this a chance, I recommend at least trying it. It's different in many ways, yes - genre and age group for one, but also multiple POVs, and it's much grander scale and progresses faster, not to mention not romantic fantasy in the same way.
But Pacat clearly likes certain themes, and those prevail even across the differences in books.
Especially the twisted machinations (be it of destiny or characters) are very strong. It takes a while to feel them in Dark Rise, but when they rear their head its glorious.
Speaking of rearing their heads, I appreciated the prevalence of horses. And unicorns.
I loved the plottwists and what was done with the characters. Several seemed like very basic white bread versions of popular and common tropes, that were however always executed in an interesting way, and ended up defying any and all of my expectations in the most delightful ways.
The ending has a delightful twist, which, while maybe not entirely unexpected, is presented in a very fresh way, which the underlying feeling of doom leaving me feeling shaken and exhilarated when I finished reading.
I loved how it made me reevaluate everything that happened before, and made me see so many of the events (and characters) in a completely new light.
I did reread this book, but unfortunately not closely enough to my first read to remember the final twist in detail, so I could not look out for the small hints and setups for it in the way I now want to.
Absolutley looking forward to the sequel!
I loved how it made me reevaluate everything that happened before, and made me see so many of the events (and characters) in a completely new light.
I did reread this book, but unfortunately not closely enough to my first read to remember the final twist in detail, so I could not look out for the small hints and setups for it in the way I now want to.
Absolutley looking forward to the sequel!