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A review by krennthief
The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Super fun and cool concept, especially as someone who is of Filipino descent not having much familiarity with Filipino folklore. Also, I was extremely pleased with Alon explicitly stating they had never thought about their gender in the text. Queer Filipino rep is a huge plus for me!!!
As for the book itself, I think it was an unfortunate mess with regard to intertwining the extremely interesting horror elements with the sort of sanitized queer romance I've seen quite a bit of in YA fiction. And don't get me wrong--I'm ecstatic that there was queer romance at all! It's just, to me, the writing took a noticeable dip in quality when any moment of attraction between Alon and Chase was explored. It felt like a completely different book and took me out of the otherwise viscerally dreadful and spooky situation.
Also,the way the romance tied to the monster's behavior made it much less scary to me?? Like, suddenly it's no longer a situation where Alon, being a demigod of sorts, is the only bridge between the spirit world and the human world, is interesting anymore because the monster is now acting like a parent putting their child's potential romantic partner on a trial period. It cheapened the effect for me a lot and ultimately made me like the book less.
Despite these gripes, the characters were really vibrant and interesting. I loved how awful and irredeemable Hemslock was, and how Melissa brought a cool-girl sapphic energy to the cast. Chase was fun even when the romance felt particularly on the nose. I will say that his friends were irritating, and it felt a little weird when the audiobook narrator adopted a "Black accent" for one of them.
Anyway, definitely worth checking out, but narratively very imbalanced, especially when assessing its fantastic folklore horror elements against its cheesy YA romance trappings.
As for the book itself, I think it was an unfortunate mess with regard to intertwining the extremely interesting horror elements with the sort of sanitized queer romance I've seen quite a bit of in YA fiction. And don't get me wrong--I'm ecstatic that there was queer romance at all! It's just, to me, the writing took a noticeable dip in quality when any moment of attraction between Alon and Chase was explored. It felt like a completely different book and took me out of the otherwise viscerally dreadful and spooky situation.
Also,
Despite these gripes, the characters were really vibrant and interesting. I loved how awful and irredeemable Hemslock was, and how Melissa brought a cool-girl sapphic energy to the cast. Chase was fun even when the romance felt particularly on the nose. I will say that his friends were irritating, and it felt a little weird when the audiobook narrator adopted a "Black accent" for one of them.
Anyway, definitely worth checking out, but narratively very imbalanced, especially when assessing its fantastic folklore horror elements against its cheesy YA romance trappings.