In a world where magic is sung, a powerful mage named Cadence has been forced to torture her country's disgraced nobility at her ruthless queen's bidding.
But when she is reunited with her childhood friend, a noblewoman with ties to the underground rebellion, she must finally make a choice: Take a stand to free their country from oppression, or follow in the queen’s footsteps and become a monster herself."
Review:
Oh I’m so disappointed! This book had so much promise. A fantasy retelling of Phantom of the Opera, but with lesbians????? I was so hyped for this.
Now that I’ve finished it however, I can’t help but look inward. Is it me? Are stand-alone YA novels just not doing it for me anymore? But then I think of books like An Affair of Poisons and Wilder Girls, YA stand-alones that were done well in my eyes; successes. So I think this book just lacked a few things.
First, this story lacked a key element that is critical for the success of any story, and thats showing not telling. Many points throughout the story, we are told things rather than having those things shown to us. For example, the entire rebellion. Neither of our main characters even know, let alone are a part of the rebellion against Queen Elene. We only know about it through other characters telling us about it.
For me, it was lazy. We have absolutely no knowledge about this rebellion, but it is the saving grace of the entire plot??? It made it that much harder for us to support it. Sure, the Queen is evil and tyrannical and needs to be dethroned, but we know absolutely nothing about the people involved to usurp her, so we’re not invested in their cause either!
Second, a common theme in this whole story is the lack of explanation. Both personally and in relation to one another, Cadence & Remi have no real character. The author does very little to expand on who these two are as people, beyond them being “good.” Neither character really rises above the surface level protagonist traits.
Additionally, there is some issues I have with the age range for our main characters, as well as the age the readers should be. For most of this book, I though that Cadence and Remi should’ve been aged down; maybe to 14 or 15. Just taking into account the tone of this book as well as the behavior of the characters, it felt very much like it was supposed to be for a younger audience.
However, towards the end of the novel, we see Cadence read a sex scene from her favorite romance novel. For me, even if this book was labeled more as an older YA book, it still felt very inappropriate.
I also think these two would’ve had a more compelling relationship if they were both learning to explore their sexuality together, rather than have it established prior, and again with readers being told rather than shown.
Third, this plot was atrocious in tempo. The exposition of the story took half the book! The author is then racing to get the rising action off its feet and into the climax in the other half! It was rushed and not well thought out. The ending too lacked real detail, with readers, again, just being told the finale rather than shown.
Overall, despite its unique premise, it lacked any real substance and complexity. I was very disappointed in how this turned out and I’m sorry to say it is not something I will ever recommend.
As always, let me know your own thoughts and feels down below!
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