A review by halefa
Remember Pompeii by Kika Emers

challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book was a surprise!

I would almost have scrolled by it because if the book cover, but the title intruiged me - as well as the description.

I'm mostly positively surprised by this book! It is a very unusual plot that was refreshing and exciting to read. There is not a lot of hand-holding and explaining of the fantasy part of the story - when I started reading I had so many questions I wanted to mention in this review, but a lot of them slowly got answered. On one hand, I liked that as it felt very natural and authentic.

On the other hand, the "normal" and "not fantasy" part of the story is very Young Adult with teen drama, misunderstandings and even the hint of a triangle lovestory (luckily not all too much). Sometimes I felt the vastness of the washinqi world clashed with the young adult theme. As if too complicated a concept was tried to be explained by a too simple language. Actually a quite good representation of the vibe of the book.

Some of the washinqi lore still feels a bit loopholey to me. Like how they look down on humans but many of their ways are very human-based (taking hand, lowering yourself, etc). Also, how are all the important figures in families with each other?

The language is pretty easy, some of the topics are tough, though. There is a lot of emotional tomult going on that got a bit frustrating in the end.
The least enjoyable part in my eyes was the main characters' relationship to her parents and the relationship among them - that felt too chaotic and like wanting too much. However, this was apparently only a first book in the series so maybe that will get explained better.

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Review copy provided through NetGalley.
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