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A review by imoganthebogan
The Meeting of the Waters by Caiseal Mór
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I am absolutely obsessed with fantasy that incorporates Celtic/Irish influences, it’s my favourite thing. I love stories that incorporate druids, priestesses, Arthurian legends so this book was right up my alley. I hadn’t heard anything about it and had pretty high expectations going in. Unfortunately, I’ve just read some amazing fantasy this year and this fell short.
Firstly the things I liked. I thought the story was interesting enough to keep me going, it was easy to read and perfect when I didn’t have a lot of brain power at the end of a work day and some of the concepts it explored were compelling. I loved the idea of the watchers as these mischievous spirits pulling the strings behind the scenes and the conceptualisation of the story’s title was really clear by the end of the book.
However there were just a lot of things I didn’t like. Firstly, I think the setting was not established enough. Yes, I know we were in a place reminiscent of Ireland but I felt a real sense of place was lacking in the book and so it never felt grounded. I was left wanting more from the dialogue as I found it info dumpy and stilted.
The characters of this novel never felt fully fleshed out which made it hard to root for them. There was my pet peeve of all the characters looking the same (almost every girl/woman had red hair and green eyes). I also found the characters motivations flippant and lacking in logic. So many times characters would make terrible ill thought out decisions without any explanation as to why. This really took me out of the story as I was constantly judging the characters and was confused at why things were happening.
Overall, I liked some of the storytelling in this book and appreciated the injection of Irish mythology but I wouldn’t recommend this book and will not be continuing with the rest of the series.
Firstly the things I liked. I thought the story was interesting enough to keep me going, it was easy to read and perfect when I didn’t have a lot of brain power at the end of a work day and some of the concepts it explored were compelling. I loved the idea of the watchers as these mischievous spirits pulling the strings behind the scenes and the conceptualisation of the story’s title was really clear by the end of the book.
However there were just a lot of things I didn’t like. Firstly, I think the setting was not established enough. Yes, I know we were in a place reminiscent of Ireland but I felt a real sense of place was lacking in the book and so it never felt grounded. I was left wanting more from the dialogue as I found it info dumpy and stilted.
The characters of this novel never felt fully fleshed out which made it hard to root for them. There was my pet peeve of all the characters looking the same (almost every girl/woman had red hair and green eyes). I also found the characters motivations flippant and lacking in logic. So many times characters would make terrible ill thought out decisions without any explanation as to why. This really took me out of the story as I was constantly judging the characters and was confused at why things were happening.
Overall, I liked some of the storytelling in this book and appreciated the injection of Irish mythology but I wouldn’t recommend this book and will not be continuing with the rest of the series.