Alex Pheby

DNF@60%

I was absolutely swept up in the strange, dark city in a bizarre, morbid world. The worldbuilding is vague and wonderful. The Oliver Twist style gang was a lot of fun. But as it moved into part two and away from these things into what I found to be boring infodumps and so much time spent doing nothing snd/ or lessons and hobbies, so out of tune with what this book had been, it just couldn't keep my interest.

I really tried and then went away and came back and tried again, but I just can't. It's as much a me problem as anything else and there is a lot I love about the first half of this book, so your mileage may vary.… (mere)

In this first of a trilogy, a grim world is described from the point of view of 13 year old Nathan whose father is dying and whose mother must prostitute herself to keep the family going. His father warns him against using his magic, but Nathan doesn't really understand his power and just struggles to survive in the midst of the overwhelming mud, filth, flukes, worms, gill men, and kidnappers. An extensive cast of characters and glossary are required reading to make any sense of the plot, but the map is too small to shed much light. After the 512 pages of story, I was ready to be finished, but alas, the story carries over to the second installment of the trilogy.… (mere)

DNF. I checked this out to test the theory that I'd enjoy any story read to me by Kobna. And that did carry me through quite a ways, perhaps too far. I should have known, it's a giant red flag when every book blurb is about something that doesn't happen until the end - almost as if nothing before then is very interesting.
The writing is all over the place, and it seems like the intent was fantasy but grosser and with more rape threats. There's something about toxic male bullshit that doesn't know it's toxic male bullshit, that thinks it's justified, explainable, sympathetic. It's boring.… (mere)