A review by roseice
Defy by Sara B. Larson
2.0
Noo, the cliches are ringing in my ears, and all the high-pitched predictable plot points!
I think I may need to bench teen fiction for a little while, because it's way too tough to find something actually well written and way too easy to be deceived by awesome-sounding summaries.
I must say of this book: Alexa was a very irritating main. She is amazing! The best fighter ever, and she's a girl! Wow, woww. Um, I got really tired of every character enforcing her AMAZING SKILL and never being convinced of it myself. She's a trope. She may have skill with a blade, but she never does anything amazing with it. Nothing about her stands out, regardless of the author's pain-staking attempts to make it so. She's just a formulaic character, and her formula has been written way too many times.
I would've had a bit more endurance for her too, if she had humility. She's constantly thinking to herself: "ahh yes, I AM the best, but even *I* can't fight a sorcerer! Alas, no NORMAL human can, so it's okay I can't! But if ANYONE could, it's, without a doubt, me~"
Japanese has a way to illustrate such narcissism, and it's kind of fun: add the honorific -sama to "I." It's incredibly arrogant to refer to one's self as "watashi-sama," or "Lord I," (which doesn't even make sense in English) but maaan is that the impression I got of Alexa. If she spoke Japanese, she'd totally pull that.
Anyway, I'd just like to say that I'm fully convinced that Alexa thinks Damian has piercing blue eyes, piercing, piercing, piercing. I really don't think it's a necessary descriptor for his every appearance and every look. Please calm down.
I think I may need to bench teen fiction for a little while, because it's way too tough to find something actually well written and way too easy to be deceived by awesome-sounding summaries.
I must say of this book: Alexa was a very irritating main. She is amazing! The best fighter ever, and she's a girl! Wow, woww. Um, I got really tired of every character enforcing her AMAZING SKILL and never being convinced of it myself. She's a trope. She may have skill with a blade, but she never does anything amazing with it. Nothing about her stands out, regardless of the author's pain-staking attempts to make it so. She's just a formulaic character, and her formula has been written way too many times.
I would've had a bit more endurance for her too, if she had humility. She's constantly thinking to herself: "ahh yes, I AM the best, but even *I* can't fight a sorcerer! Alas, no NORMAL human can, so it's okay I can't! But if ANYONE could, it's, without a doubt, me~"
Japanese has a way to illustrate such narcissism, and it's kind of fun: add the honorific -sama to "I." It's incredibly arrogant to refer to one's self as "watashi-sama," or "Lord I," (which doesn't even make sense in English) but maaan is that the impression I got of Alexa. If she spoke Japanese, she'd totally pull that.
Anyway, I'd just like to say that I'm fully convinced that Alexa thinks Damian has piercing blue eyes, piercing, piercing, piercing. I really don't think it's a necessary descriptor for his every appearance and every look. Please calm down.