bibliorama's reviews
172 reviews

It was a pretty quick read once I got into the story. I enjoyed the story overall, though some of Emma's thought process was a bit repetitive to read.
Some of the ending twists landed, some didn't.

I liked Chet's motivation and think it made sense, amd Viv's twist at the ending was interesting to say the least. Lottie's twist and the asylum backstory felt like they stopped short, like it didn't quite go there.

 
Which leads me to how there was a lot of build up in this book for some spooky, dark, and teisted things but it stops short. Which is good news for those thrillers readers who still want the twists and turns without the super heavy ending. For me, it's spooky season so I was willing amd ready for it to run completely with the darkness. 
One side note, I really enjoyed the setting and environment. It was well developed and I could easily visualize what everything was supposed to feel and look like.

Still want to finish, was working on school finals. 

Considering I had to put this down at a critical point in the book and months later still picked it back up to finish, shows that the story stuck in my mind. It took me a little bit to get into as I thought the beginning was slightly cliché, but the book really hit its stride around the middle. I'm not in a huge rush to pick up the sequel, but I'm interested to see where the story goes. 

I listened to this on audiobook, and it was a really well done production. The story was fast paced and hit the rich kids at boarding school doing the literal most trope quite well. The killer was kind of obvious to me, but for a younger reader who is just getting into mysteries they might be surprised. The dialogue and friend group interactions were a strong point. The main characters felt fleshed out and complex which made the read all the more enjoyable. I really liked the not-so happy ending. 

I enjoyed the three sisters' characters the best. The magic and world are interesting, and it feels fleshed out. The story doesn't info dump everything at the beginning, which could make some people feel overwhelmed with what's going on. You definitely have to give the book some time for you to get the lay of the land. The ending third really picked up plot wise, while the first two-thirds are more about the build up to a certain event. In early reviews of this book, I had heard that people found it to be slow, but I disagree. It didn't take me long to get into and the ending really flew by. I liked it enough to pick up a copy of the sequel. 

5 star series through and through. 

Reread

Enjoyment - 3.5
  I first read this book on audio and after rereading it on ebook, my first rating still stands mostly. This was a quick read, not as quick as the novella was, but considering I started a new job and still ended up finishing this in around 2 weeks that's pretty darn good for me. My enjoyment dipped because Celaena's character felt closer to the way she was at the beginning of the novella rather than how she was at the end, which doesn't entirely make sense. Plus, a lot of this first book just isn't as memorable.

Start - 3.75
  The plot feels the most cohesive at the beginning. This is also where the writing felt the strongest. However, overall the writing felt weaker on the whole from the novellas, but considering this was written first I'll take that as a good sign for the rest of the series.

Characters - 3
  The stereotypes that each character falls into is clear and they are consistent within those stereotypes, the characters just don't go much beyond them; hence the 3 stars. Like I said before, Celaena feels like she regressed a bit as a character, which makes sense since this was written before the novellas, but since this story is chronologically after them it feels like a detriment to her character. I still like her overall, and like my first read through thoughts I wish I had read these books as a teenager. The rest of the characters felt pretty weak and only their base level characteristics are what we get.

Atmosphere - 4
  I like the environment and little details sjm adds to bring out the setting. It's not an extreme medieval setting, but it gives a slight feel of that.

Plot - 3.5
  Let me state this here, despite what other reviews say, you do in fact get to read about the competition. Not all of the tests are dramatized out in full scenes, which is fine considering these tests are like games that knights would go through and not life and death tests like the Hunger Games. I counted like 3 tests besides the dual at the end that you get to read in full. However the plot is pretty clear in the fact that it is setting up much more important plot points for the future books, like Elena, wyrdmarks, and Celaena's backstory etc. My rating is only a 3.5 because it felt like a setup for other books, and it wasn't as concise as the novellas where, meaning there are some fluff scenes in here as well.

Ending - 3
  Not as strong as the beginning in my opinion. It gives what it promised to give though, nothing too plot twisty or surprising. But that's where I say, man I would've loved it as a teenager (sorry to my younger self for being robbed and thinking I had to read "serious" and "classic" books).

Style - 3
  I'm comparing it to the novellas, and again I think those were more clean and concise with what they wanted to say and I think this book would've benefitted from that kind of editting.

Overall - 3.5 

Recommendation - read this first, then the novellas, and then if you're feeling really spicy reread this first book before going into the second.
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Not as bad as some people make it out to be. There were some annoying tendencies in the writing where there would be contradictions in a sentence, example her feet were heavy and light at the same time. To me this just cancels out what the author was trying to convey making it meaningless. It happened enough time to be a bother. I also found the plotline to be predictable, but for a YA made in 2012 I don't think I can fault it that much. 

Surprisingly, I liked Celeana's character traits. I read some reviews calling her vain, and while I think in some parts sure that's probably accurate. However, other media characters in similar positions (as in assassins) also share the trait so it didn't bother me. It helps that there are scenes that showcase other parts of her personality to balance her out. 

Listened to the audiobook
Would classify as a 'Romance' Fantasy.