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A review by literaryprincess
In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland
1.0
I read Beyond The Black Door to get an inkling of Strickland's writing style before diving into this, because I was really, really looking forward to it. And I didn't think I could possibly hate it more than I hated Beyond the Black Door.
I was wrong.
I wanted to love this so much. A pan protagonist in a poly relationship and general unapologetic queerness all around, along with a dark and fantastical magic system seemed exactly the kind of self-indulgent fantasy I would usually eat up. But my hopes came crashing down so fast.
This book contains all of my absolute least favorite kinds of characters:
- The stunningly beautiful and overpowered protagonist who faces zero consequences for their actions and gets everything they want far too easily.
- The love interest(s, in this book's case) who have the world's most unhealthy dynamic of having complete control over the protagonist's life and essentially exist to be a "not all men" kind of gotcha moment when the MC falls for them despite the power imbalance.
-One of said love interests being 400+ years old and somehow never finding love until a random teenager comes along, then suddenly his entire life's motivation depends on her being with him. Ew.
- A villain who exists entirely on the sidelines of the story only to show up and immediately be taken down.
This book also has so many
Rovan is insanely annoying, and she spends a good 1/2 of this book drunk and/or hungover. Her romances both kick off because she's acting out of trauma (drunkenly kissing the princess after being captured by the king, then later and we're meant to still root for both of these relationships although they're some of the most egregious examples of unearned instalove I've ever read about. She doesn't even bother to call Ivrilos by name until more than halfway through the book.
Japha had so much potential - a trans character of color who is also asexual. Too bad they only exist for comic relief, to be Rovan's unconditional support system for practically no reason, and to continuously be the victim of aphobic actions and comments.
The magic system and worldbuilding were all over the place. The concept of bloodmages in general was so poorly executed that it felt more like Strickland just picked and chose from various gothic aesthetics and combined them into a fun description for her main character. A bloodbender who
This book was just all over the place and was disappointing at every turn. I almost DNF'd 5 or 6 times and I wish I had instead of pushing through waiting for it to get better, because it never did.
I was wrong.
I wanted to love this so much. A pan protagonist in a poly relationship and general unapologetic queerness all around, along with a dark and fantastical magic system seemed exactly the kind of self-indulgent fantasy I would usually eat up. But my hopes came crashing down so fast.
This book contains all of my absolute least favorite kinds of characters:
- The stunningly beautiful and overpowered protagonist who faces zero consequences for their actions and gets everything they want far too easily.
- The love interest(s, in this book's case) who have the world's most unhealthy dynamic of having complete control over the protagonist's life and essentially exist to be a "not all men" kind of gotcha moment when the MC falls for them despite the power imbalance.
-One of said love interests being 400+ years old and somehow never finding love until a random teenager comes along, then suddenly his entire life's motivation depends on her being with him. Ew.
- A villain who exists entirely on the sidelines of the story only to show up and immediately be taken down.
This book also has so many
Spoiler
meaningless deaths for the sake of "gotcha" moments but actually, no, everyone's kinda sorta alive and death means nothing because they get to be happy together in the end and nothing matters haha I had you scared for a second didn't I?Rovan is insanely annoying, and she spends a good 1/2 of this book drunk and/or hungover. Her romances both kick off because she's acting out of trauma (drunkenly kissing the princess after being captured by the king, then later
Spoiler
kissing Ivrilos after learning that her mother diedJapha had so much potential - a trans character of color who is also asexual. Too bad they only exist for comic relief, to be Rovan's unconditional support system for practically no reason, and to continuously be the victim of aphobic actions and comments.
Spoiler
Not to mention the fact that they die in the end. Also, tell me why it was necessary to have the asexual sex-repulsed character witness Rovan having sex with both of her partners. I really just want to know the logic behind that, other than "haha, let's make fun of this ace who thinks sex is gross".The magic system and worldbuilding were all over the place. The concept of bloodmages in general was so poorly executed that it felt more like Strickland just picked and chose from various gothic aesthetics and combined them into a fun description for her main character. A bloodbender who
Spoiler
eventually becomes undead so she can be with both her ghost boyfriend and her living princess girlfriend and eats people's hearts for sustenance, cool!This book was just all over the place and was disappointing at every turn. I almost DNF'd 5 or 6 times and I wish I had instead of pushing through waiting for it to get better, because it never did.