A review by displacedcactus
Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Roanhorse, until this book came along. If it had been a longer book, I probably would have just straight-up DNFed it, but because it was so short, I kept with it hoping that it would pleasantly surprise me. Instead, it ended up disgusting me. HUGE spoilers here:
when Celeste can't find evidence to clear her sister of murder, and in fact finds evidence that makes it obvious her sister lied to her about what happens, she decides to frame another girl for the murder, just based on the fact that the other girl said some snarky things about her sister. She also gets her demon lover to compel the other girl to confess. It's incredibly messed-up, and even the demon lover says so.


I can see what Roanhorse was trying to do, I think, by taking some tropes and turning them on their head, but unfortunately the end result is a character I don't particularly like making decisions that I strongly disagree with, and in such a short book that I'm not given any reason to feel compelled by her motivations.
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