Scan barcode
A review by scifi_rat
Dragonfall by L.R. Lam
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
overall rating: 2.5 stars
+plot: [.5] i'm not always a huge fantasy fan no matter how hard i try to like this genre but the plot for this one was surprisingly interesting and intriguing enough for me to engage in. the reveal at the end was planted really well early on and genuinely surprised me.
+prose: [.25] it was good but it wasn't great. something about the moodiness of it felt very ya in not a good way. the differences between povs didn't exist and the only way i could tell apart everen's and arcady's was because of the second person use in everen's part. speaking of, i was glad the second person use actually had a purpose and somewhat of a plot relevance so kudos for that.
+pace: [.25] if the book only had everen's and arcady's povs, the pacing would've been just right. however the addition of sorin's and cassia's povs added nothing interesting to the plot that couldn't have been done with the first two povs, and it pulled you out of the story and slowed down the pacing considerably. i had to skim those povs simply because they were uninteresting and added nothing.
+main characters: [.25] everen and arcady were interesting enough on the surface but maybe it's because of the melodramatics but i was not emotionally invested in them. although i did want to keep reading to find out what happened to them. the inevitable betrayal did not make me feel dread the way it would for characters i cared about. instead i was just looking forward to seeing how they would react with that same kind of glee you feel when you're watching reality tv and the contestants get what they had coming. it was more of unattached entertainment.
+side characters: [0] if i only felt detachedly entertained by the main characters, i felt next to nothing about the rest of the characters. nothing memorable or interesting was happening in this department and everyone just felt like props for the main plot. the only one that piqued my interest was mariel but she was used for the plot and discarded immediately.
+worldbuilding: [.25] decent and solid enough but left me with some questions, especially the way the society dealt with gender. we are constantly told that this society doesn't care about binary gender roles but that's not necessarily ever reflected in anything concrete. there's also a few parts when arcady says that people wouldn't know what to make of their gender fluidity, which just contradicts the setup of people not caring about gender. there are a lot of vague contradictions and the world, other than the magic system, feels more or less generic fantasy.
+tropes: [.25] i did enjoy the trope of close proximity but characters can't touch. it actually was able to create genuine chemistry between everen and arcady. however the enemies to lovers part was not done well at all and was at times unnecessary and even juvenile in a very ya way.
+ending: [.25] i do wish the book would've ended one chapter earlier than it did but i do understand why it didn't.
+entertainment value: [.25] i did enjoy reading most of it even if i wasn't necessarily invested emotionally. it just kind of felt like reading relationship gossip.
+continuing to sequel?: [.25] i personally will not be but the setup for the next book was well done and i can absolutely see why people would.
+plot: [.5] i'm not always a huge fantasy fan no matter how hard i try to like this genre but the plot for this one was surprisingly interesting and intriguing enough for me to engage in. the reveal at the end was planted really well early on and genuinely surprised me.
+prose: [.25] it was good but it wasn't great. something about the moodiness of it felt very ya in not a good way. the differences between povs didn't exist and the only way i could tell apart everen's and arcady's was because of the second person use in everen's part. speaking of, i was glad the second person use actually had a purpose and somewhat of a plot relevance so kudos for that.
+pace: [.25] if the book only had everen's and arcady's povs, the pacing would've been just right. however the addition of sorin's and cassia's povs added nothing interesting to the plot that couldn't have been done with the first two povs, and it pulled you out of the story and slowed down the pacing considerably. i had to skim those povs simply because they were uninteresting and added nothing.
+main characters: [.25] everen and arcady were interesting enough on the surface but maybe it's because of the melodramatics but i was not emotionally invested in them. although i did want to keep reading to find out what happened to them. the inevitable betrayal did not make me feel dread the way it would for characters i cared about. instead i was just looking forward to seeing how they would react with that same kind of glee you feel when you're watching reality tv and the contestants get what they had coming. it was more of unattached entertainment.
+side characters: [0] if i only felt detachedly entertained by the main characters, i felt next to nothing about the rest of the characters. nothing memorable or interesting was happening in this department and everyone just felt like props for the main plot. the only one that piqued my interest was mariel but she was used for the plot and discarded immediately.
+worldbuilding: [.25] decent and solid enough but left me with some questions, especially the way the society dealt with gender. we are constantly told that this society doesn't care about binary gender roles but that's not necessarily ever reflected in anything concrete. there's also a few parts when arcady says that people wouldn't know what to make of their gender fluidity, which just contradicts the setup of people not caring about gender. there are a lot of vague contradictions and the world, other than the magic system, feels more or less generic fantasy.
+tropes: [.25] i did enjoy the trope of close proximity but characters can't touch. it actually was able to create genuine chemistry between everen and arcady. however the enemies to lovers part was not done well at all and was at times unnecessary and even juvenile in a very ya way.
+ending: [.25] i do wish the book would've ended one chapter earlier than it did but i do understand why it didn't.
+entertainment value: [.25] i did enjoy reading most of it even if i wasn't necessarily invested emotionally. it just kind of felt like reading relationship gossip.
+continuing to sequel?: [.25] i personally will not be but the setup for the next book was well done and i can absolutely see why people would.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Alcohol