A review by wordwoonders
Children of Icarus, by Caighlan Smith
3.0
Full Colorful Review on my blog : Word Wonders
*I received an eARC of this book from the publishers through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Final rating : 3.5 stars
See that blurb, guys? It gives NOTHING away. It is intriguing sure, but I had no idea what to expect when diving into this. I just knew that it was Greek Mythology inspired and the huge lover in me just jumped at the occasion. Now, I wish there were some kind of warning, a big red marking all over the book for how graphic this book is. It has death, A LOT of it. Torture. Harassement. I’M SCARRED FOR LIFE. This is the most disturbing, morbid book I’ve ever read in my life and not expecting it made that impact even more striking. This book messed me up real bad, but not in a way that it breaks you and mends you. Nope. It breaks you and laughs at your crushed soul.
That writing though. I think if this were written any other way, it wouldn’t have had the effect it had, this is very crude, nothing is sugar coated, violent scenes (and believe me, there’s plenty of those) are not only written in but they’re very detailed, every wound, every drop of blood, which was sometimes too much to be honest. Other than that the writing is really fitting the story. The only complain I have is that there was an overuse of periods where comas would’ve been better, I know it was probably done for the dramatic effect but most of the time it just disturbed the reading flow.
Now to the good stuff *evil laugh* . I seriously was set on a 2 star rating or lower for the first half of the book , I was just too horrified to think clearly about how GOOD actually the story is. It is so clever and unlike anything I ever read. Nothing is fairytailed (I am making that a word for the purpose of this review), everything is SO REAL, I think that is the reason for me -and anyone- to be disgusted, this is everyone’s worst nightmare. It shows how people can go crazy, become inhumane when in harsh circumstances. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Maybe I got used to it. Maybe I crossed to the dark side. But this book completely won me over, the plot in itself is brilliant, gripping and the action had me sucked in from early on and the pace stays steady and fast through the whole thing which is really hard to maintain so I’d have to give credit to the author for that.
Something that kind of disappointed me though is that I expected the mythology to be more present, to feel and see it at every page turn but it wasn’t, sometimes I almost forgot about the whole thing, until there is some myth or story about the labyrinth’s not so human inhabitants and I got excited, I really loved those and learning more about all the tales and creatures.
The characters are all crazy. No joke ! Every one of them is deranged in a way or another, and all of them in different ways. Exception made of the Main Character. She annoyed me endless amounts of times. First of all the author doesn’t give her a name which really throws me off at first but I quickly get used to it, it is a very clever move to make anyone identify with her. But that’s it. Nothing is clever about her. First of all she’s mute throughout most of the book, she’s weak and has no personality. I realize that the author wanted to keep it real and not create an almighty know-it-all MC but this is too far on the other end of the spectrum. But by the end, things start to look up, when a certain someone forces her to confront the horror that her life became, to embrace it and to actually start working for her own survival. I can’t say I started liking her, but she was alright.
Elle seriously freaked me out, she was like a creeper straight out of a horror movie, the kind that befriends you and turns out totally mental and starts killing everyone that gets too close. And she lives in denial of everything.
The guys were the most frightening though. At least for Ryan I knew from the beginning that he was bad, and then he turned full psychopath but I at least expected it. But Collin, OH BOY! I thought he was the sane, the right-minded one out of the bunch, I had my suspicions about him but I didn’t expect THAT, what made it worse is how cool about his sadist behavior he was.
One character that I actually liked is The executioner. This one LOOKS and is named like a psychopath serial killer but is far from being one. She’s so kickass, very harsh and seems unlovable but it’s all in her actions, I am not going to go into detail because I don’t want to spoil for anyone who gathers the courage to read this book.
I was one of those people who immediately thought of the Maze Runner a couple chapters in, but as the book went on i forgot all about that book, because aside from being a bunch of teenagers inside a labyrinth with horrifying creatures, the two books have nothing in common. I would definitely see this being a series, and hope it will be considering how this book ended.
*I received an eARC of this book from the publishers through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Final rating : 3.5 stars
See that blurb, guys? It gives NOTHING away. It is intriguing sure, but I had no idea what to expect when diving into this. I just knew that it was Greek Mythology inspired and the huge lover in me just jumped at the occasion. Now, I wish there were some kind of warning, a big red marking all over the book for how graphic this book is. It has death, A LOT of it. Torture. Harassement. I’M SCARRED FOR LIFE. This is the most disturbing, morbid book I’ve ever read in my life and not expecting it made that impact even more striking. This book messed me up real bad, but not in a way that it breaks you and mends you. Nope. It breaks you and laughs at your crushed soul.
That writing though. I think if this were written any other way, it wouldn’t have had the effect it had, this is very crude, nothing is sugar coated, violent scenes (and believe me, there’s plenty of those) are not only written in but they’re very detailed, every wound, every drop of blood, which was sometimes too much to be honest. Other than that the writing is really fitting the story. The only complain I have is that there was an overuse of periods where comas would’ve been better, I know it was probably done for the dramatic effect but most of the time it just disturbed the reading flow.
Now to the good stuff *evil laugh* . I seriously was set on a 2 star rating or lower for the first half of the book , I was just too horrified to think clearly about how GOOD actually the story is. It is so clever and unlike anything I ever read. Nothing is fairytailed (I am making that a word for the purpose of this review), everything is SO REAL, I think that is the reason for me -and anyone- to be disgusted, this is everyone’s worst nightmare. It shows how people can go crazy, become inhumane when in harsh circumstances. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Maybe I got used to it. Maybe I crossed to the dark side. But this book completely won me over, the plot in itself is brilliant, gripping and the action had me sucked in from early on and the pace stays steady and fast through the whole thing which is really hard to maintain so I’d have to give credit to the author for that.
Something that kind of disappointed me though is that I expected the mythology to be more present, to feel and see it at every page turn but it wasn’t, sometimes I almost forgot about the whole thing, until there is some myth or story about the labyrinth’s not so human inhabitants and I got excited, I really loved those and learning more about all the tales and creatures.
The characters are all crazy. No joke ! Every one of them is deranged in a way or another, and all of them in different ways. Exception made of the Main Character. She annoyed me endless amounts of times. First of all the author doesn’t give her a name which really throws me off at first but I quickly get used to it, it is a very clever move to make anyone identify with her. But that’s it. Nothing is clever about her. First of all she’s mute throughout most of the book, she’s weak and has no personality. I realize that the author wanted to keep it real and not create an almighty know-it-all MC but this is too far on the other end of the spectrum. But by the end, things start to look up, when a certain someone forces her to confront the horror that her life became, to embrace it and to actually start working for her own survival. I can’t say I started liking her, but she was alright.
Elle seriously freaked me out, she was like a creeper straight out of a horror movie, the kind that befriends you and turns out totally mental and starts killing everyone that gets too close. And she lives in denial of everything.
The guys were the most frightening though. At least for Ryan I knew from the beginning that he was bad, and then he turned full psychopath but I at least expected it. But Collin, OH BOY! I thought he was the sane, the right-minded one out of the bunch, I had my suspicions about him but I didn’t expect THAT, what made it worse is how cool about his sadist behavior he was.
One character that I actually liked is The executioner. This one LOOKS and is named like a psychopath serial killer but is far from being one. She’s so kickass, very harsh and seems unlovable but it’s all in her actions, I am not going to go into detail because I don’t want to spoil for anyone who gathers the courage to read this book.
I was one of those people who immediately thought of the Maze Runner a couple chapters in, but as the book went on i forgot all about that book, because aside from being a bunch of teenagers inside a labyrinth with horrifying creatures, the two books have nothing in common. I would definitely see this being a series, and hope it will be considering how this book ended.