A review by addieisreading
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

I was expecting more, I guess


 “In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don't like me, and I can pretend that I don't care. But for tonight, let me pretend you're mine.” 

The first one was nice and gave me a mix of feelings. I felt like reading both a folklore and a fairy tale at the same time. Dark and hopeful, magical and dangerous, lovely and fatal. The thing is: this book still has that vibe but is a bit.. off?? I don't know how to put it in words, but it feels like the magic turned a bit vague and without boundaries in here—which should be fine but at the same time gives me the impression that the author didn't know where to go with the story so she made the magic system vague so she could have a lot of loopholes to take whatever decision she wants to.

SpoilerFor example, how the stones affect people is explained but it don't happen (Eva don't get obsessive over the stones except the Lucky one), why Lala acted like she didn't know of the arch plan of Jacks and then revealed she knew all the time but this revelation has no effects whatsover. Is never explained how the arch opening has the hability of doing all those things (saving apollo, opening the helmet, timetravel), is just "it does it" and nothing more. Is quite frustrating, at least to me...


The characters had no development between a book and the other and even the plot repeated itself. Jacks was locked somewhere affected by a certain curse or poison in the first book? Well, it happens again but with another character. Eva gets lost in the woods and get in danger? Happens again in this book. Someone was a good person revealed as the one who betrays everybody? Guess what? Happens again in this book! There was so much opportunities for the author to use her creativity (which she's got a lot) to make the characters and plot more intriguing and less frustrating to follow but she didn't. 

Still, I think the book might work for some people. It did work for a me (a bit) and the ending was on point to make me want to read the next one (which will release by october, I guess?). I must say the writing style also matches her fascination for fantastical magic words and is so delightful to read but it didn't make up to the frustration I felt reading this book. 
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