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A review by hannfarmer21
Darkness Reigns by Jill Williamson
5.0
Well.
I would have very much liked to give this 4 stars. But, being that a great majority of the plot revolves around concubines and many wives, I'm afraid I had to lower the rating a star.
The Likes:
-The world building. Like what. It's so complicated that I had to refer to the lists at the beginning of the book so many times. Yes, there's a bunch of immorality, but all the customs of the realms and the gods and the many positions in the castle- often I was left staring at the book like O.O
-The names. Okay, wow. SO. MANY. NAMES. Some personal favourites were Novan, Trevn, Zeroah, and Mielle ^.^
-The complexity. Wellll I kind of already touched on this point, but it deserves a category of its own. But seriously, the world building was so complex. The writing style was okay, but THE WORLD was great. I commend Jill.
-The characters distinct POV's. I quite like how different each of the characters were (Trevn <3), and I'm always grateful when an author has multiple POV's, AND THEY'RE ALL DISTINCTIVE.
No cursing, yay! I am not a fan of cuss words. Reading or writing them. They are immoral and wrong and make me feel unclean when I read them. So I congratulate Jill for not using a single one.
The Dislikes: (sad to say this list is longer than the likes list...)
-I was mildly uncomfortable every time a concubine or harem was mentioned. Now, just know that it takes A LOT to make me uncomfortable. And, being that having multiple wives and adultery is wrong, I was justifiably semi-uncomfortable. I hope, should you choose to read this book, you realize that concubines and harems and laying with women and all that stuff is mentioned on basically every other, if not every, page.
-The worship of many gods (now, i realize this is essential to the plot and i was warned beforehand, but i am still allowed to dislike it) Yeah. The title of this dislike basically sums it up. But, I was told, this book is supposed to resemble Old Testament times, when worshipping many gods and goddesses was more commonly accepted as a mainstream thing.
-The main struggle of the first half of the book for Wilek was how to balance his concubine who did not get along with his betrothed. It was actually kind of annoying how the plotline revolved around that. Like dude. He loved his concubine and he had a betrothed. AND his dad told him to start a harem. *rolls eyes*
-During chapters from Charlon's POV, the sentences are basically all fragments. I am not a fan of fragments, and it grated on my nerves. I am glad I only read two or three chapters from her point of view. *shudders*
-I feel like nothing was portrayed as wrong, as a Christian book should? I dunno if maybe it's because none of them know God (Arman) yet, or what, but nothing is really frowned upon. I'm eager to see how well Jill does with that in the next addition to this series.
The Warnings:
-DOZENS of mentions of sex, and one use of the word. Also an indication that it happened between two characters.
-Many mentions of breasts
-One of the pov's is a woman who seems to have been either a prostitute or taken advantage of.
-There is magic. The women in the realm of Magon are magic-users. The woman i mentioned above is a magic-user, and devoted herself to the goddess of magic. (The women who use magic, mantics, bond with a dark spirit, which one can only see when they drink a sort of poison.) There is a scene where the woman uses "magic" from the goddess
-There are a couple of kisses, but none of them go into detail.
-Human sacrifices and worship of gods.
So yeah. I enjoyed the book and it kept my interest somewhat. I do believe I will read the next (1.2), but only partly because I own the second book XD
I would have very much liked to give this 4 stars. But, being that a great majority of the plot revolves around concubines and many wives, I'm afraid I had to lower the rating a star.
The Likes:
-The world building. Like what. It's so complicated that I had to refer to the lists at the beginning of the book so many times. Yes, there's a bunch of immorality, but all the customs of the realms and the gods and the many positions in the castle- often I was left staring at the book like O.O
-The names. Okay, wow. SO. MANY. NAMES. Some personal favourites were Novan, Trevn, Zeroah, and Mielle ^.^
-The complexity. Wellll I kind of already touched on this point, but it deserves a category of its own. But seriously, the world building was so complex. The writing style was okay, but THE WORLD was great. I commend Jill.
-The characters distinct POV's. I quite like how different each of the characters were (Trevn <3), and I'm always grateful when an author has multiple POV's, AND THEY'RE ALL DISTINCTIVE.
No cursing, yay! I am not a fan of cuss words. Reading or writing them. They are immoral and wrong and make me feel unclean when I read them. So I congratulate Jill for not using a single one.
The Dislikes: (sad to say this list is longer than the likes list...)
-I was mildly uncomfortable every time a concubine or harem was mentioned. Now, just know that it takes A LOT to make me uncomfortable. And, being that having multiple wives and adultery is wrong, I was justifiably semi-uncomfortable. I hope, should you choose to read this book, you realize that concubines and harems and laying with women and all that stuff is mentioned on basically every other, if not every, page.
-The worship of many gods (now, i realize this is essential to the plot and i was warned beforehand, but i am still allowed to dislike it) Yeah. The title of this dislike basically sums it up. But, I was told, this book is supposed to resemble Old Testament times, when worshipping many gods and goddesses was more commonly accepted as a mainstream thing.
-The main struggle of the first half of the book for Wilek was how to balance his concubine who did not get along with his betrothed. It was actually kind of annoying how the plotline revolved around that. Like dude. He loved his concubine and he had a betrothed. AND his dad told him to start a harem. *rolls eyes*
-During chapters from Charlon's POV, the sentences are basically all fragments. I am not a fan of fragments, and it grated on my nerves. I am glad I only read two or three chapters from her point of view. *shudders*
-I feel like nothing was portrayed as wrong, as a Christian book should? I dunno if maybe it's because none of them know God (Arman) yet, or what, but nothing is really frowned upon. I'm eager to see how well Jill does with that in the next addition to this series.
The Warnings:
-DOZENS of mentions of sex, and one use of the word. Also an indication that it happened between two characters.
-Many mentions of breasts
-One of the pov's is a woman who seems to have been either a prostitute or taken advantage of.
-There is magic. The women in the realm of Magon are magic-users. The woman i mentioned above is a magic-user, and devoted herself to the goddess of magic. (The women who use magic, mantics, bond with a dark spirit, which one can only see when they drink a sort of poison.) There is a scene where the woman uses "magic" from the goddess
-There are a couple of kisses, but none of them go into detail.
-Human sacrifices and worship of gods.
So yeah. I enjoyed the book and it kept my interest somewhat. I do believe I will read the next (1.2), but only partly because I own the second book XD