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A review by kittyg
A Sea of Broken Glass by Sonya M. Black
2.0
*I read this as a judge for the #SPFBO*
I'm fairly sure I'll be a minority in my review of this title, but it just didn't work well for me from the start. The book opens with a witch trial of our main character Ris, which I thought was snappy and exciting and promised a lot. Ris' POV is first person and her story sounded interesting to me from the start, but I quickly realised that there was a very overbearing good Vs evil plotline here.
Ris is our main lady and her POV is first person and immediate. I think the author intends for the reader to connect with Ris as the other characters are third person, but I found it super jarring to change the POV so much chapter by chapter. The other characters of Bran and Michel all felt flat to me, and Ris was unfortunately a 'girl with a destiny' stereotype for me. I never felt a real sense of connection with any of the characters and I particularly struggled with Ris as the main one.
The magic and darkness of this world are in eternal competition and we know that Ris is heavily connected to everything. Some how she is integral to banishing the darkness from the world (a literal character called Darkness) and helping it stay stable. She's on a journey for a lot of the book with the other characters to find the heart...
I'd say the story is a bit of a slow one after the first scene. Personally I found it hard to connect and maybe that's why the chapters fell a bit flat for me at times and I didn't really have the emotional investment in the characters' stories. I would have liked to have more development on the characters and also more world building and plot. Basically, it hinted at a lot but I didn't feel that it truly achieved as much as I wanted from what seemed to be a witch-hunt at first. Maybe my expectations were way off, but I don't think this one had the power to change my mind about how I felt, and sadly by the end I was just pleased I had finished it and had no urge to keep going.
Overall, it's not a bad book but it didn't work for my reading tastes or style. I think there were good moments, but I didn't love the whole vibe and I found it hard to enjoy it and want to come back to it. 2.25* which is 4.5/10 for #SPFBO.
I'm fairly sure I'll be a minority in my review of this title, but it just didn't work well for me from the start. The book opens with a witch trial of our main character Ris, which I thought was snappy and exciting and promised a lot. Ris' POV is first person and her story sounded interesting to me from the start, but I quickly realised that there was a very overbearing good Vs evil plotline here.
Ris is our main lady and her POV is first person and immediate. I think the author intends for the reader to connect with Ris as the other characters are third person, but I found it super jarring to change the POV so much chapter by chapter. The other characters of Bran and Michel all felt flat to me, and Ris was unfortunately a 'girl with a destiny' stereotype for me. I never felt a real sense of connection with any of the characters and I particularly struggled with Ris as the main one.
The magic and darkness of this world are in eternal competition and we know that Ris is heavily connected to everything. Some how she is integral to banishing the darkness from the world (a literal character called Darkness) and helping it stay stable. She's on a journey for a lot of the book with the other characters to find the heart...
I'd say the story is a bit of a slow one after the first scene. Personally I found it hard to connect and maybe that's why the chapters fell a bit flat for me at times and I didn't really have the emotional investment in the characters' stories. I would have liked to have more development on the characters and also more world building and plot. Basically, it hinted at a lot but I didn't feel that it truly achieved as much as I wanted from what seemed to be a witch-hunt at first. Maybe my expectations were way off, but I don't think this one had the power to change my mind about how I felt, and sadly by the end I was just pleased I had finished it and had no urge to keep going.
Overall, it's not a bad book but it didn't work for my reading tastes or style. I think there were good moments, but I didn't love the whole vibe and I found it hard to enjoy it and want to come back to it. 2.25* which is 4.5/10 for #SPFBO.