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A review by bitterblu
Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton
2.0
I loved the characters in this, the all Black cast, the morally grey protagonist. There's a lot to love here I just think the author could have done more with it. I'm not having the best time with YA storytelling at the moment so take my rating with that in mind, but I just felt like this had the potential for good political intrigue and what we got instead was very vague and oversimplified and unrealistic. I didn't like the hand-holding and being reminded every few pages of key details from the previous chapter.
The protagonist was really memorable though, she was as promised from the synopsis truly morally problematic and that conflict was the best part of this story and did keep me reading till the end. I think anyone in the target audience range might get on really well with this one, it just didnt translate very well to a mature reader.
Some of the side characters were a bit empty and needed more exploration for their decisions to have the intended impact. As a result most of the plot twists lacked the shock factor even if i didnt see them coming. I do also wish that Hayes' mother had a single line of dialogue.. just.. one word. She has nothing, we know her name and that is all. And i would have thought her influence on her son, or lack of, would have been a talking point when his father's influence is so important to the story. We also never find out why or how the King got to be what he is, aside from the discussion of one incident which isnt ever fully explained. As a result he is just 'bad' so he does 'bad things' and that didnt work well for me.
The protagonist was really memorable though, she was as promised from the synopsis truly morally problematic and that conflict was the best part of this story and did keep me reading till the end. I think anyone in the target audience range might get on really well with this one, it just didnt translate very well to a mature reader.
Some of the side characters were a bit empty and needed more exploration for their decisions to have the intended impact. As a result most of the plot twists lacked the shock factor even if i didnt see them coming. I do also wish that Hayes' mother had a single line of dialogue.. just.. one word. She has nothing, we know her name and that is all. And i would have thought her influence on her son, or lack of, would have been a talking point when his father's influence is so important to the story. We also never find out why or how the King got to be what he is, aside from the discussion of one incident which isnt ever fully explained. As a result he is just 'bad' so he does 'bad things' and that didnt work well for me.