Scan barcode
A review by repha
The Shattered Lands by Brenna Nation
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.
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.