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A review by jjpope_
A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin
2.0
I don’t know what went wrong from the first book to the second, but this just felt… all over the place. I actually enjoyed the first half of this, but upon hitting the second I realised I was really bored and not vibing with the writing style or plot line anymore.
The writing was all tell not show, especially in Ning’s chapters, and the sudden switch to dual POV with completely different styles (that also managed to make the character’s voices feel the exact same still) just didn’t service the story at all. I’d be more amenable to it if Kang’s chapters had been written in first person too, even though I far prefer third, but even then I still don’t know how much I would have liked it. With the first book, I actually felt like I was there with the characters, but here I just felt like I was reading about them wandering back and forth between Point A and Point B.
In the latter half, the plot just felt messy. I especially didn’t like the conclusion to the conflict; it felt entirely rushed, and the magic almost didn’t feel the way it did in the first book. It also felt like everything Ning needed to get to that point fell into her lap on a silver platter, instead of having her actually work for it? Especially in the ending.
I wish I liked this more than I did, but not even the promising first half can make up for whatever the hell the second was.
The writing was all tell not show, especially in Ning’s chapters, and the sudden switch to dual POV with completely different styles (that also managed to make the character’s voices feel the exact same still) just didn’t service the story at all. I’d be more amenable to it if Kang’s chapters had been written in first person too, even though I far prefer third, but even then I still don’t know how much I would have liked it. With the first book, I actually felt like I was there with the characters, but here I just felt like I was reading about them wandering back and forth between Point A and Point B.
In the latter half, the plot just felt messy. I especially didn’t like the conclusion to the conflict; it felt entirely rushed, and the magic almost didn’t feel the way it did in the first book. It also felt like everything Ning needed to get to that point fell into her lap on a silver platter, instead of having her actually work for it? Especially in the ending.
I wish I liked this more than I did, but not even the promising first half can make up for whatever the hell the second was.