3.5 stars, let the record show

this book took me a while to read and I have a lot to say and also nothing really to say at all.

Overall, I would say I enjoyed this book. I have my issues with it, but I do think the good outweighs the bad in this case.

In no particular order...

Plot: There is a strong, heavy plot here, which was enjoyable to an extent. The worldbuilding in this book is massive, which I'm not used to. At the beginning (first hundred pages) of this book, I found myself getting confused between characters, specifically Anton and August and their roles, as well as the plethora of other information that seems irrelevant but is also extremely important, such as information about the gods' pasts and certain people's backstories like Gabe's. It was a lot thrown at once and it just expected me to keep up, which brings me to my next complaint.

Payoff: There is a lot of setup throughout this book and only some of it is done just right. Here are three examples of different ways setup went wrong or right.

Spoiler

- How does everyone know each other?? This plot line intrigued me consistently throughout the book and had me thinking of ways that their knowing each other would be possible. I did suspect that they were the gods reincarnate, which is basically right, so when the time came near the end of the book where that information was basically revealed, I found myself pretty pleased. I didn't think the question was brought up too much and felt the information that led me to my conclusion and the real conclusion was given at the right time, not too early or too late. Good set up and payoff.

- Bastian's ability to channel spiritum: this one pissed me off because how did he do all that shit and not realize he had the ability to do all that junk? I don't know if he was just lying that he didn't think it was him, but there was no way he didn't know. Whitten make a point to emphasize these details regarding Bastian's general presence (the sun on his palm, the glitter in the air around him, his effect on mortem) and then makes Bastian not realize he is the chosen one? he's not that stupid. This pay off just seemed stupid and out of character because as soon as he started glittering and junk, I was like "ok this guy controls life" just for them to confront him about it and him go "nuh uh!" whatever. too obvious of a pay off and was out of character so

- they are the gods sort of: this pay off didn't piss me off, but it did underwhelm me in the sense that the plot point was good, just not fleshed out enough for me to be super invested. WHICH IS CRAZY because we spend some good amount of time talking about gods and junk, so how do we get to the point where its revealed "hey you guys are gonna morph into the gods if time allows" and I don't know what Lore thinks about this, what Bastian thinks about this, if they want to become gods or if thats what they were trying to stop the entire time (it wasn't but what if they didn't want to become gods, you know what I mean??) Somehow I reach this climax of the book and am not stimulated at all because this entire book, we've been focusing on a different plot point entirely and now you want just dump on us this major thing and we have no idea how to feel about it. maybe it's just me, but I sure hope it isn't.

romance: this book is categorized as partially a romance fantasy, and there was hardly any romance in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, it was there, but everything else took front and center and was so heavy on my brain that when I got to the short romance parts I don't think I even cared. Granted, this book wasn't supposed to be romance heavy, so I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.

other general stuff, characters and junk: the characters were good, I hope to see them fleshed out even more in the next book, particularly Bastian and what's his face, Gabe. The necromancy stuff... that was scary as fuck. I would read this at night and tell myself "ok don't visualize it too hard cuz this writing is like fucked up" so creepy. that's all I had to say about this.

Overall (again), I enjoyed this. I do think I will read the next book which is out already, but I will probably take a break. I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued to see how this all plays out.

Also, Bastian was pretty funny, I liked him. Team Bastian fr.