Author: Ryan La SalaPublisher: sourcebooks fire
Year: Jan 2020
Pages: 393
ISBN: 978149268266
Genre: YA Fantasy
Reading Time: Dec - 5 Jan
Binding: ARC - Advanced Readers Copy
Goodreads
Stars:
★★★☆☆
Blurb:
All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half dead in the river. He can't remember anything since the accident that robbed him of his memories a few weeks ago. And the world feels different . . . reality itself seems different.
So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what's going on, he doesn't know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere - the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery - Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident, and only he can stop the city from unraveling.
So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what's going on, he doesn't know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere - the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery - Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident, and only he can stop the city from unraveling.
Review:
I received an arc copy of this book from the Fairyloot stall at YALC, no I've not come around to reading and finishing it until it is actually published. Damn work and damn my reading slump since I've started working, I WILL kick that slump this year!
This book had good idea to build on, perhaps my reading slump has reduced my creative juices but I struggled with this one a little bit. There is a little bit of mystery and action in the first few chapters which will pull in the attention of most readers. I found that descriptions of some creatures and setting in this book and in these first chapters didn't really allow me to visualise them completely and so I struggled to really start reading this. I hit chapter 6 and was able to pick up the pace a bit wuicker as the action really started.
Our characters are good, I wish they had a bit more depth. Let me be clear they're not shallow, an effort is made to specifically point out that they are not. Despite this I don't see a lot of arcs for characters or any real building of the basic understanding of them. Kane's limited memory could be a reason for this but for me that should be why this book should be filled so much more with learning so much about them. I love that Kane is gay, bringing in a bit of LGTBQ+ representation and there is enough for there to be some romance but also not enough to put off those that wouldn't relate to that kind of romance. Our villain could have been amazing but I really didn't get the full wham!
The pacing of the book I found was quite good, even if it was a bit mashed together where we get to see the other worlds, I both wanted to get back to the main plot yet explore the reveries themselves. Discombobulated a bit as Kane would feel it.
I think the explanations of the world and what had happened to Kane were a bit hit and miss. I know things were explained but they either weren't very interesting or didn't make sense as I finished this book twenty minute ago and don't remember them!
All in all I liked the idea of this book, but in it's arc format there is a bit more work on the execution that need to be done and some real plot points from the beginning that need to be tied up at the end. The real world consequences were not properly addressed. I imagine this book would be better adapted to the screen and I see it a bit like that scene in Dr Strange where he faces Dormammu, totally trippy and with the plot all over the place but the fun colours make it all ok.
This book had good idea to build on, perhaps my reading slump has reduced my creative juices but I struggled with this one a little bit. There is a little bit of mystery and action in the first few chapters which will pull in the attention of most readers. I found that descriptions of some creatures and setting in this book and in these first chapters didn't really allow me to visualise them completely and so I struggled to really start reading this. I hit chapter 6 and was able to pick up the pace a bit wuicker as the action really started.
Our characters are good, I wish they had a bit more depth. Let me be clear they're not shallow, an effort is made to specifically point out that they are not. Despite this I don't see a lot of arcs for characters or any real building of the basic understanding of them. Kane's limited memory could be a reason for this but for me that should be why this book should be filled so much more with learning so much about them. I love that Kane is gay, bringing in a bit of LGTBQ+ representation and there is enough for there to be some romance but also not enough to put off those that wouldn't relate to that kind of romance. Our villain could have been amazing but I really didn't get the full wham!
The pacing of the book I found was quite good, even if it was a bit mashed together where we get to see the other worlds, I both wanted to get back to the main plot yet explore the reveries themselves. Discombobulated a bit as Kane would feel it.
I think the explanations of the world and what had happened to Kane were a bit hit and miss. I know things were explained but they either weren't very interesting or didn't make sense as I finished this book twenty minute ago and don't remember them!
All in all I liked the idea of this book, but in it's arc format there is a bit more work on the execution that need to be done and some real plot points from the beginning that need to be tied up at the end. The real world consequences were not properly addressed. I imagine this book would be better adapted to the screen and I see it a bit like that scene in Dr Strange where he faces Dormammu, totally trippy and with the plot all over the place but the fun colours make it all ok.
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