Reviews

The main thing that I liked about Sarah Glenn Marsh’s Reign of the Fallen is that not only are the main characters diverse, but no one falls into a stereotype. I enjoyed reading a story where characters of all colors are described as normal human beings. The main character Odessa is a new character to me in that she is not confined to any stereotypes. She’s one of many characters whose stories that I read recently. One that transcends what it means to be a lead in a YA fantasy novel. Yes, she saves her county and the people that she loves. Yes, she falls in love, but the difference is that I have never read a story about a bisexual character prior to this. I’m glad that I had a chance to discover her and read her story.

I did not open this book knowing anything about the story. Nor did I come into it with an preconceived notions. The story definitely held my attention. At one point I developed a fictional crush on a character named Jax. He joins the ranks of the rest of the fictional paramours that I love. I do believe that he is the youngest. The writing was easy to follow for me. Every-time that Odessa felt pain, I did as well. Whatever she felt I empathized and felt.

The one thing that I liked about this story was the loss of Evander. That was something that I did not expect. Although I realized that things were a little too perfect at one point. I had a feeling that something was going to happen. Never did I fathom that he would die. Then again I was surprised that Master Cymbre died as well. The fact that story basically opened with the death of Master Nicanor should have been an indication of what was to come. I guess I missed it.

I rate this book four stars out of five. I will recommend it to every reader that I know.

emilyzantuck's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

scriptrix's review against another edition

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3.0

I got really excited during the first few chapters of this book. I REALLY thought I might have finally found something that can comp to Sabriel. The worldbuilding and the premise - dead who live among the living, shrouded, and necromancers who revive them periodically - were so cool and exciting, and Sabriel is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was eager to get into something that gave me the same feels.

But the plot bogged down after

Spoiler

Evander died

, and never quite recovered after that. Half the book was a slow exploration of Odessa's grief journey instead of an adventure, and when we finally got back to that part, the momentum had already been lost. No one's more disappointed than me. I really, really wanted this book to nail it. :(

froukjemelenhorst's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

If you like this book pls leave cuz I cannot hold anything back lol

Spoiler

The way that it only took me like 3 days to read this, but I still suffered every minute of it. Presenting: my list of grievances, ranging from personal icks to actual criticisms lmao.

1. All the names in this book are so dumb: Evander, Simeon, Cymbre, Hadrien, Meredy, Elibeth??

2. Why name your mc Odessa when you’re only calling her by her nickname ‘Sparrow’ (the reason for which was really dumb) throughout the entire book?

3. All the relationships, both platonic and romantic, were so incredibly forced and the characters had zero chemistry with each other. Girlypop meets a princess for her regular job and the next day the princess basically acts like her and Odessa are best friends? Odessa spends the majority of this book mourning her boyfriend Evander’s death, when their scenes together (when they had any) were mostly during their working hours and very boring and did not really show why they loved each other so much. It’s just said that they are, but it is never really shown that much. Then afterwards Odessa falls in love with her boyfriend’s sister(??), when they also have zero chemistry and spend most of their time together either bickering or talking about missing Evander. Odessa just suddenly wanted to kiss Meredy out of nowhere and then the next chapter claims that she cares about her so much when they barely had any scenes together where their bonding was shown.

4. There was a quote about Odessa’s ‘reasoning’ for ‘being in love’ with Meredy that just grossed me out tf: ‘Some part of me wishes there was time to kiss her firmly set mouth (?gurl?), to finish what we started and see if it’s something I’d want to do again. To see if she tastes like Evander, or if there’s something distinct about Meredy that’s making me crave her like this.’ gUrL? R u telling me that the only reason you want to kiss her is to see whether she reminds you of your deceased boyfriend? THERAPY

5. The story was all over the place, yet everything still managed to be extremely boring, since the author does not know how to make her characters interesting. This moment they're searching for the Shade that killed Evander, then we're searching for the person who is training Shades, then we're quickly getting rid of an addiction, back to searching for the Shade-trainer again, now we're going on a trip to a random city to kill Shades. WhAt dO YoU WANT?

6. The Dead are veiled, because as soon as even 1 mm of skin is exposed they turn into these monsters – Shades – that attack anything and anyone. Why, in good conscience, would ANYONE want to raise the dead when basically one gust of wind could determine the safety of everyone in the world?

7. Odessa developed an addiction to this potion after Evander’s death, which was slightly interesting, but the author introduces it and then wraps it up very quickly and afterwards it barely impacts Odessa anymore. She gets the addiction, Valoria (the princess) basically says ‘fuck that’, binds her to her bed for a week without access to the potion, and a week after Odessa is cured and can merrily continue her adventure. It barely affects her afterward at all, which is not really realistic.

8. The book was so very predictable, to the point it was actually painful to see all the characters being that dumb, especially Odessa. The second Hadrien showed up I immediately knew he was the bad guy, because it was just that obvious. He is the first, living, heir in line for the throne, the country is being ruled by the same king who’s been dead for 200 years, and monsters suddenly start attacking royalty and the ghost-royalty mysteriously disappear. The scene that truly aggravated me was after the king disappeared and Hadrien asked Odessa to be his second-in-command and ordered her -the (allegedly) BEST necromancer- to go to this random city while the king is missing. All the while the queen wants Odessa to stay and look for her husband. Hadrien gets very pushy during this conversation. Then AFTER the conversation Meredy comes to see Odessa to tell her that Hadrien was lying about his whereabouts at the moment the king went missing. And Odessa still thinks Hadrien is fine because ‘he would never do something like this’. And once they are on their way to the city they get a message that the queen is missing AND SHE STILL DOES NOT PUT IT TOGETHER

9. A moment of messy writing/world-building: Odessa has been around royals for more than a decade and has a place of residence in the palace. When Hadrien asks her to be his ‘Serpent’ (his second-in-command) her response is ‘Your… what?’ Why does she not know what that is? All of her colleagues know what it is. How come the best necromancer around does not know what this is? This could have been fixed so easily. It could have been explained to the reader via e.g. Odessa explaining it through internal monologue or Hadrien explaining it by interrupting her like: [Odessa] ‘Your-‘ [Hadrien] ‘Yes, as my second in command you’d be/have …’ Having to explain what the ‘Serpent’ is by having Odessa ask what it is makes Odessa look really dumb and does not fit her character’s status and just makes for shitty worldbuilding/writing.

10. Your eye color determines your magic ability.

11. The necromancers in this book basically have 2 jobs: raising the dead and killing/protecting people from the Shades. Please tell me why literally almost every single one of the necromancers in this book are very easily killed by Shades? Chapter 1 (or 2?) ends with a master necromancer dying because of a Shade. Odessa’s boyfriend dies from a Shade sneaking up on him. Odessa is recruited to a city where the 8 resident necromancers are ALL killed by like 3 of these monsters.

12. Apparently grizzly bears can pick locks now?

13. Once Hadrien is revealed he does 2 dumb things:
a. He tries to appeal to his people by explaining his reasoning and turning the captured ghost-royalty into Shades to further his point. He then decides to RELEASE the Shades which then go around killing his people. It is said that apparently Hadrien does not care for his people, but ya know, wouldn’t it be a good idea to, idk, have the people you’re going to rule on YOUR SIDE?
b. He manages to capture Odessa and plans to kill her. She literally has nowhere to go. He then orders her dead boyfriend’s mother (who is a lady of status and has NEVER killed ANYONE) to get rid of her… yeah… that’ll work out.

14. There was this really dumb scene which made me cry with laughter where Meredy and Odessa are ‘bonding’ by trauma dumping through archery practice. Meredy: *pew* I hate that my brother’s dead! Odessa: *pew* I hate that my boyfriend’s mom hates me! Meredy *pew* I am not what my mother wanted me to be. Dude whyyyy

I would like to end this review by sharing some quotes that made me either cringe or were just plain dumb 😊

‘ “Help me look for Master Cymbre!” […] “I would, if I could keep my eyes off you.” ‘ - p. 68

‘I may not be able to save anyone, living or Dead. But beating stuffed dummies with a wooden practice sword? No man or beast in Karthia can stop me from making the straw fly.’ - p. 268

‘My lips burn at the betrayal of sharing breaths with her.’ – p. 275

Spoiler

‘Of course Hadrien’s in there, the arrogant boy who thinks himself a king. But king is more than just a title, and while he can call himself whatever he pleases, he’ll never rule the hearts or minds of Karthia.’ – p. 342

Content Warnings

sc104906's review against another edition

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2.0

Odessa, Sparrow, and her partner Evander are necromancers. They work together to bring the dead back to life. In this world, the king has an unending reign, because he is continuously brought back from the dead. Necromancers need to be extremely careful, because the dead can turn into shades, if they are looked upon or are alive for too long. To combat the shade transformation (envision zombie virus) necromancers need to kill and revive the dead. Things turn deadly, when shades begin appearing more frequently and killing more people. Something in this world has changed and Odessa must figure it out.

This world was well developed and well written. I had difficulty connecting to the characters. I didn't find myself interested in what happened to them, or hopeful for their success/safety. I had trouble connecting to the romantic interests. Though, I appreciated the inclusion of many types of sexuality.

miloulou's review against another edition

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2.0

DNF at 20%. It's actually a really interesting concept and the writing isn't bad. I just don't like reading about cheating - not sure if that even happens in this novel as nowhere else does anyone mention it. But the fact that for... well the whole opening chapters of the book the MC is engaged and apparently really wants to marry Evander, but then wants to kiss someone else --> "I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of kissing her, except that my heart chose Evander long before I even realized it" throws me off. I know she's supposed to be bisexual, but I think there could have been a much better way of introducing it. Like she thinks other woman are attractive. Or she breaks up with Evander first, and then falls for another women. Not, she really wants to kiss one of her only friends, someone who isn't who fiancé, while she plans on marrying said fiancé. Anyways, there are a lot of other books on my TBR list that I could get to instead of continuing with a book that seems like it's going in a direction I don't want it to.

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