Reviews

The Shattered Lands by Brenna Nation

boyleloren's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ernisa's review

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worldbuilding felt quite underdeveloped and underexplained, did not feel like a real world. story wasnt particularly interesting either. might just not have been the right time but i just wasnt interested in it.

shelbyslifer's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

sophie_phie's review

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How fucking bad can the writing be??!!!

bi_panic123's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

cher_reads09's review

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

repha's review against another edition

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3.0

The Shattered lands has some promising world-building and finishes on a firework, but it leaves me a little dubitative.

I found the concept hard to believe. Waking up in a kingdom you NEVER heard about ?? Really ??? And she adapts so quickly to this situation… A a reader, I felt strangely disconnected with the story, because we don’t get told a lot about Sapphire’s past (how the home came to be and what happened before), and we get thrown into a place that even she knows nothing about. The character (and subsequently the reader) is lost for the entirety of the book.

The main character never truly convinced me. Why does she never ask questions and insist, now that she’s got power ? I was annoyed with her thought process, with the way she’s overly suspicious yet impulsive at the same time, being particularly complicated with some people while jumping into the arms of others for no logical reason, when she doesn’t know what’s going on and where to stand. I also found her self-centered. She never wondered if she could put her friends in danger by dragging them along. It’s actually impossible to know if Evera wanted to be Sapphire’s friend to begin with or if she felt forced because of her status.
And Ashes wasn’t easier to like. There was chemistry between the two of them, for sure, but without sentimental attachment and mutual understanding, it felt shallow.

Given how it ended, I’m pretty hyped for the sequel, which might be far tastier now that we’ve got some clues about the universe and its conflicts.

kath_sos's review

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  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

I was so excited about this book after reading the summary but now I don’t even know how to feel. It felt too slow and rushed at the same time, I didn’t see the YA category (which is my bad) but the only YA thing about the book is the simple language and childish behavior of the characters. And the ending DON’T GET ME STARTED WITH THE ENDING. 
It was a struggle to read all the way through just to be let down by the ending. 

08bookworm's review against another edition

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2.0

I’ve never been so disappointed with an ending…OKAY SO here me out, sapphire and ashes were great like I loved them…but what the fuck what that ending? no other book, no sequel? ma’am ending a book like that should be a crime. IM SO MAD BRUH. these two had wayyy more potential actually scratch that, THE ENTIRE BOOK had potential, im was so infested bro. ARG this book could’ve been something unforgettable

epp_999's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0