A review by carrotsarenot
Cut Deck by Julia Rosemary Turk

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

3.75

I’d like to start by thanking Lost Island Press for sending me an eARC of Cut Deck in exchange for an honest review. 

Although I had mixed feelings about Lone Player (Book 1), there was enough potential and intrigue for me to immediately start looking forward to this sequel. And while I do think this was a solid continuation of a genuinely interesting story, I ran into a lot of the same issues I had with the first book. 

I’ll start off, though, with what I liked. 

Julia Rosemary Turk is masterful at writing compelling characters and character dynamics. The relationships between them feel so real - and that’s honestly what keeps me reading. Her descriptions and imagery is another thing I generally enjoy, though I do think it can be a bit heavy handed and drawn out at times. And, finally, I can tell that a lot of love and care and thought went into this book (and therefore this entire series) which makes me appreciate it despite the things I don’t really like. 

The first problem I have is more of a personal issue, but it bothered me nonetheless. The prologue. Anyone who knows me knows I tend to hate a prologue. I will say that I found it more interesting and well written than Lone Player’s, but it simply doesn’t feel necessary for me and seems to slow everything down before we’ve even started. 

Which leads me to the pacing. 

This was the biggest gripe I had with Lone Player and it unfortunately persisted here. I found myself skimming through pages and not even missing much (if any) pertinent information. Like I said, the dialogue is almost always interesting and well paced, but most of the internal monologues and exposition is a slog to get through. Not necessarily because it was bad or poorly written, but it was repetitive and wordy to the point where it wasn’t serving the story. 

Overall, if you like dystopian novels, I think you’ll like this book. I just wish it had been cut down and punched up a bit for an easier, more engaging read. 

3.75/5