Reviews

Waterfire Saga, Book Two Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga, Book Two) by Jennifer Donnelly

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jazzyjan94's review against another edition

4.0

This review also appears on my blog: https://confessionsofabookwormweb.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/book-review-rogue-wave-waterfire-saga-2/

Rogue Wave picks up where Deep Blue ended, Serafina has just escaped from the sea witches cave after the death riders caught up to them. She has no idea where the other five mermaids have gone and she has no idea if they are still alive. As she journeys back to her kingdom to see what is left with it after the deadly attack that took place in the first book, she first tries to find the talisman that belonged to her ancestor, Merrow, at an old shipwreck. Meanwhile, her best friend Neela travels back to Matali, where her parents have now become the rulers. However when she tells them her story they don't believer her and lock her in her room. She soon escapes and goes in search of the talisman that belonged to her ancestor. As they race against time to find the talismans, they also discover that the plot that was enacted against Miromara is far more sinister and wide spread than they thought.

I loved being immersed in this fantastic, underwater world again. Jennifer Donnelly does a great job at continuing building the world that she introduced in Deep Blue. She continues to provide a detailed description without it being an information dump on the reader. She also does a good job of building upon the magic system that she introduced in the previous book. I love how we got to journey to Neela's kingdom for a while and experience what the life and culture of that underwater kingdom is like.

I loved the characters and Donnelly does a good job of developing them even further in this second installment. Serafina discovers that she has more courage than she thought she could and is powered by her love for her friends and for the people of her kingdom. Neela discovers that the life of a pampered princess is no longer for her but that she needs to journey to find the talisman even if it means disappearing from the palace again. She also discovers that she is braver and smarter than she knew when she has to find a way to get the talisman. I loved all the different side characters that were introduced in this novel, like Coco and a few others. I also enjoyed to getting to know more about Neela's brother and cousin.

This book was filled with many twists and turns and it ended on a major cliffhanger that changes a lot about plot, but in a good way. I am giving this book 4/5 Stars because I loved the entire thing even though it took me a while to get into it again. I can't wait to read the rest of this series because I need to find out what happens next!

pinkhydroflask's review against another edition

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3.0

RATING: 5.5/10

really liked the concept of this series! i thought that the storyline was something unique and interesting, and that's what got me hooked on this.

i did take quite a long time on this book, mostly because i felt that the plot kept going around in circles. there were a lot of scenes that felt unnecessary and lowkey boring, and those scenes made the book very difficult to continue at times.

i would say that the character development was pretty damn shitty. there were SO MANY complex characters in the first book- sera, neela, ava, becca, astrid, ling, mahdi, lucia, yazeed. we didn't get ANY DEVELOPMENT from anyone except sera and maybe 20% for mahdi and neela COMBINED. this book was thick as hell and most the page time was spent on Sera and Sera ONLY.

The other characters have such unique flaws and characteristics that it was such a disappointment when the book arrowed in on just Sera. I understand that she's the protagonist of the book, but a little diversity in perspectives would have given this book the edge over other YA fantasy books.

the ending came with a plot twist i did not see coming, which was definitely something welcome. i did enjoy the whole process of reading the book, but do not have plans to finish the series anytime soon.