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A review by ihateprozac
The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
2.0
I’ll be honest, this book feels rushed as hell. It’s just 340 pages of Camille running all over the country, conveniently escaping all of her obstacles, and then somehow managing to save the day. There’s no tension, no clear plot, and no strategy. It’s just a case of “we’ll overthrow Sophia!” without figuring out how they’re going to overthrow Sophia.
There are a lot of elements here that had potential but they weren’t executed properly. Everything is rushed, and I feel like Dhonielle Clayton spent too much time describing macarons and lanterns and not enough time formulating a plot.
The story relies so heavily on convenience. The author relies on two new devices to solve every situation: or . Had the book been paced, plotted, and perfected, these scenes could’ve been explosive and impactful. Instead they grew predictable, causing me to become a passive consumer rather than an active participant in the story.
This story also failed to deliver any real social commentary on beauty. The first book made some great points about unrealistic beauty standards, how some skin colours and physiological characteristics are seen as more or less desirable, and "you're not ugly, you're just poor". But it's like the author just....forgot to expand on them? I thought the Epilogue would come through and smash these Orleansian toxic beliefs into the ground, but it was all shoved into the too-hard-basket for some future character to run with.
The romance is also meh.
I had a major issue with some of the world-building and mythology in the first novel: I couldn’t tell what was deliberately omitted and what was straight up poorly crafted. Thankfully some of the issues I had in Book 1 were addressed here, and we get a lot more insight into the creation and mythology of the Belles.
So I guess there’s that. Oh, and I suppose I loved the writing style. It's a quick read and Dhonielle Clayton does do a damn good job at describing those macarons and lanterns.
But in all honesty, The Everlasting Rose is just a damn hot mess.
There are a lot of elements here that had potential but they weren’t executed properly. Everything is rushed, and I feel like Dhonielle Clayton spent too much time describing macarons and lanterns and not enough time formulating a plot.
The story relies so heavily on convenience. The author relies on two new devices to solve every situation:
Spoiler
the Iron LadiesSpoiler
Camille’s fandangled new powersThis story also failed to deliver any real social commentary on beauty. The first book made some great points about unrealistic beauty standards, how some skin colours and physiological characteristics are seen as more or less desirable, and "you're not ugly, you're just poor". But it's like the author just....forgot to expand on them? I thought the Epilogue would come through and smash these Orleansian toxic beliefs into the ground, but it was all shoved into the too-hard-basket for some future character to run with.
The romance is also meh.
I had a major issue with some of the world-building and mythology in the first novel: I couldn’t tell what was deliberately omitted and what was straight up poorly crafted. Thankfully some of the issues I had in Book 1 were addressed here, and we get a lot more insight into the creation and mythology of the Belles.
So I guess there’s that. Oh, and I suppose I loved the writing style. It's a quick read and Dhonielle Clayton does do a damn good job at describing those macarons and lanterns.
But in all honesty, The Everlasting Rose is just a damn hot mess.