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A review by skylarkblue1
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Man I can't with this book. From a very dodgy rabbit hole with the cover being potentially ai generated, to the text feeling like it is.
The characters are abysmal, the main character Din (Watson) has as many emotions as a robot and speaks like one too, and Ana (Sherlock) is just an insufferable twat who's trying to be far too edgy and "comedic". Din just constantly infodumps and Ana explains nothing, even 30% in I was still so lost on many of the core concepts like what the fuck are augments exactly???
The plot seems interesting at first, but it's quite literally a copy paste of attack on titan (but at sea) so much so that the things are even called titans, and Sherlock Holmes but take all the worst parts of the latter at least. I've never watched AoT but even from what I know I can see this is way more than just an "inspiration".
I'll post some quotes when the book releases. It's so awful it's even gone past "it's so bad it's good" and looped back around to "it's just bad".
Except the interrogation bit in chapter 1. That somehow felt like I was reading an *entirely* different book for a bit because it actually wasn't that bad? But then Ana got introduced and ruined all that.
The mystery part isn't even all that good. It tries to do the "the solution is so complex!" But it's the most mind numbing simplest explanation presented like it's just so smart.
I normally don't DNF books, I really try my best to fully read them. But I can't finish this, I want to punt Ana into the sun in all honesty. I've never hated a character so much. She literally invited someone to an interrogation she knew was innocent just to ruin their day. Funny concept right? Except she's a right bitch while doing it. I got past the first major turning point when the plot was in full swing, but goddamn I just have no interest in any of it. I understand very little, so much overexplaning and yet so much left under explained.. it's kind of impressive tbh.
Man I can't with this book. From a very dodgy rabbit hole with the cover being potentially ai generated, to the text feeling like it is.
The characters are abysmal, the main character Din (Watson) has as many emotions as a robot and speaks like one too, and Ana (Sherlock) is just an insufferable twat who's trying to be far too edgy and "comedic". Din just constantly infodumps and Ana explains nothing, even 30% in I was still so lost on many of the core concepts like what the fuck are augments exactly???
The plot seems interesting at first, but it's quite literally a copy paste of attack on titan (but at sea) so much so that the things are even called titans, and Sherlock Holmes but take all the worst parts of the latter at least. I've never watched AoT but even from what I know I can see this is way more than just an "inspiration".
I'll post some quotes when the book releases. It's so awful it's even gone past "it's so bad it's good" and looped back around to "it's just bad".
Except the interrogation bit in chapter 1. That somehow felt like I was reading an *entirely* different book for a bit because it actually wasn't that bad? But then Ana got introduced and ruined all that.
The mystery part isn't even all that good. It tries to do the "the solution is so complex!" But it's the most mind numbing simplest explanation presented like it's just so smart.
I normally don't DNF books, I really try my best to fully read them. But I can't finish this, I want to punt Ana into the sun in all honesty. I've never hated a character so much. She literally invited someone to an interrogation she knew was innocent just to ruin their day. Funny concept right? Except she's a right bitch while doing it. I got past the first major turning point when the plot was in full swing, but goddamn I just have no interest in any of it. I understand very little, so much overexplaning and yet so much left under explained.. it's kind of impressive tbh.