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A review by beforeviolets
Chrysalis and Requiem by Quinton Li
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Thank you SO much to the author for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really am so grateful to have been sent this ARC. This book sounded so up my alley: a dark academia with tragic sapphic romance! And certainly the vision for this book is still deeply appealing to me.
However, the story at hand was unfortunately so flooded with grammatical issues that it was impossible to discern, much less to appreciate the vision. I am much more lenient with indie and self-pub books in regards to elements that could be chalked up to editing mistakes (I’m well aware indie and self-pub books are not provided the same amount or quality of resources as tradpub books and refuse to judge them the same) but when the problems are at a level that inhibits the storytelling, I very much have to take issue. And in this case, most of the sentences had such extreme structural issues from both a technical and aesthetic standpoint that it severely affected the work. Not to mention the writing regularly contradicts itself. Whole paragraphs will be spent establishing a truth of the world just for that truth to be directly contradicted in the following sentence. I’ve seen a few reviews on here say “I was too dumb to understand the writing” or “I can’t figure out why the writing doesn’t sound good to me? Is it my fault?” and I’m here to say: No love, you weren’t. It isn’t. You’re not the problem here. The writing wasn’t too dense to comprehend, it was just incomprehensible.
I do absolutely love all of the themes and characters and magical elements that have been brought into these pages. If there is one success in this story, it is the bringing together of this unique collection of elements. Academic atmosphere, romantic queer obsession, murder, angels, ghosts, butterflies, etc., Quinton has captured an incredibly singular and fascinating realm of ideas.
But unfortunately, none of these elements worked together and instead all felt haphazardly dropped into this world. There was no command or control here in the crafting. Motivations were lacking, stakes were unearned, and themes and motifs floated in the atmosphere without any rhyme or reason. There was a clear attempt at referencing the dark academia genre, while missing its most pivotal thematic tether: commentary on academia. Without it, all those elements just drifted out to space in nonsensical orbit instead of offering grounded support to the story being told. It also very clearly tried to reference the high emotions and violent chaos of Shakespearean or even Greco-Roman tragedy, but again, without tying those elements down via earned and intentional moments or understanding how to utilize those elements as a narrative tool. Motifs and themes from well-known genres exist for a reason, and it’s important to make sure that if you’re using those motifs and themes, that you have an understanding of how they work together and what they accomplish. But sadly this was a book that certainly knew what it was in conversation with, but didn’t know how to have a conversation with it.
This is something that has also been brought up by some other reviewers, but this book seems to be set in a fantasy world that the author’s first book also takes place in. Which is fine, I love when authors do that! But there was little to no reason why this book should’ve been in the same world, and with the lack of world-building or explanation present in this story, the fantasy elements just felt like dead weight.
I do hate to have such a disappointing report from this book. The cover is absolutely stunning, the marketing has been INCREDIBLE, and the story really does seem like something worthy of a better execution. I do hope somewhere along their career, whether it be sooner or later, Li has the opportunity to rework this book. There’s something really promising here. But several rounds of scrutinous editing are definitely needed before this hidden gem can really shine.
DNF at page 125
I really am so grateful to have been sent this ARC. This book sounded so up my alley: a dark academia with tragic sapphic romance! And certainly the vision for this book is still deeply appealing to me.
However, the story at hand was unfortunately so flooded with grammatical issues that it was impossible to discern, much less to appreciate the vision. I am much more lenient with indie and self-pub books in regards to elements that could be chalked up to editing mistakes (I’m well aware indie and self-pub books are not provided the same amount or quality of resources as tradpub books and refuse to judge them the same) but when the problems are at a level that inhibits the storytelling, I very much have to take issue. And in this case, most of the sentences had such extreme structural issues from both a technical and aesthetic standpoint that it severely affected the work. Not to mention the writing regularly contradicts itself. Whole paragraphs will be spent establishing a truth of the world just for that truth to be directly contradicted in the following sentence. I’ve seen a few reviews on here say “I was too dumb to understand the writing” or “I can’t figure out why the writing doesn’t sound good to me? Is it my fault?” and I’m here to say: No love, you weren’t. It isn’t. You’re not the problem here. The writing wasn’t too dense to comprehend, it was just incomprehensible.
I do absolutely love all of the themes and characters and magical elements that have been brought into these pages. If there is one success in this story, it is the bringing together of this unique collection of elements. Academic atmosphere, romantic queer obsession, murder, angels, ghosts, butterflies, etc., Quinton has captured an incredibly singular and fascinating realm of ideas.
But unfortunately, none of these elements worked together and instead all felt haphazardly dropped into this world. There was no command or control here in the crafting. Motivations were lacking, stakes were unearned, and themes and motifs floated in the atmosphere without any rhyme or reason. There was a clear attempt at referencing the dark academia genre, while missing its most pivotal thematic tether: commentary on academia. Without it, all those elements just drifted out to space in nonsensical orbit instead of offering grounded support to the story being told. It also very clearly tried to reference the high emotions and violent chaos of Shakespearean or even Greco-Roman tragedy, but again, without tying those elements down via earned and intentional moments or understanding how to utilize those elements as a narrative tool. Motifs and themes from well-known genres exist for a reason, and it’s important to make sure that if you’re using those motifs and themes, that you have an understanding of how they work together and what they accomplish. But sadly this was a book that certainly knew what it was in conversation with, but didn’t know how to have a conversation with it.
This is something that has also been brought up by some other reviewers, but this book seems to be set in a fantasy world that the author’s first book also takes place in. Which is fine, I love when authors do that! But there was little to no reason why this book should’ve been in the same world, and with the lack of world-building or explanation present in this story, the fantasy elements just felt like dead weight.
I do hate to have such a disappointing report from this book. The cover is absolutely stunning, the marketing has been INCREDIBLE, and the story really does seem like something worthy of a better execution. I do hope somewhere along their career, whether it be sooner or later, Li has the opportunity to rework this book. There’s something really promising here. But several rounds of scrutinous editing are definitely needed before this hidden gem can really shine.
DNF at page 125