“You are my roots, my very source of life”
-Scorched, Cassie Swindon
☆☆☆
I got an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review and honestly, this book was not for me. The world that the author created was interesting throughout but the characters were not for me. The main heroine Kyra’s whole thing was that she hated men. There was a good reason for it as she had some trauma in her past but she seemed to change her mind about whether it suited the plot or not. I would have loved there to be more in-depth about Kyra’s past and how it affects her. We got some broad strokes but again Kyra’s love or hatred of men felt like it only changed when the plot suited it.
The world that Kyra and Jadox lived in was super interesting and cool. It was like an Avatar The Last Airbender-type magic system with different factions having different powers. There was a fire, earth, air, and water. Each faction had a tattoo where their power came from, a circle on their stomach with the colour of their power. Red for fire, blue/white for air, brown/green for earth, and aqua for water. But Kyra had a golden tattoo which is special and we hopefully get more information about it in the next books. I liked the magic system in the book and there was even a glossary at the back of the book breaking down all the factions and their powers. There were some confusing aspects to the powers like why some people had enhancements like healing, or a strong sense of smell while others didn’t. The world was super interesting with a dystopian feel and had a touch of fantasy-like aspects. My problem was I felt like I was thrown into the world with zero explanation. I felt as if I missed several chapters of setup because of how fast I was thrown in. It left some world-building to be desired especially when the concepts were interesting and probably fun to play around with. I felt confused going in and for a lot of the book I stayed confused.
The biggest turnoff I had was probably the characters. Our two main characters are Kyra, a drummer who discovers she has powers, and Jadox, who has earth powers and has been tracking Kyra for her necklace. Like I said Kyra has a thing against men which is 100% valid because of the trauma she’s had but I felt like the trauma was almost ignored and it was just used to make the plot go forward and have tension between her and Jadox. Jadox was just against people in general and all he cared about was his dog. It was almost awkward reading their interactions because it felt like two teenagers going “ew boys/girls are icky” but they are teenagers so they are horny. Even though Kyra was the “hero” of the story I did not root for her. She made the entire male population disappear and caused thousands of deaths and the only thing she cared about was her nephew. Her whole character surrounded her nephew and that was it. I hope in the next book more depth is added to Kyra and Jadox. There were good bones for these characters but there was not much to them.
A huge thank you to the author for sending me an ARC of this book. I did like the concept and the main ideas of the book but I found the characters and writing lacking. This series is a trilogy so I’m hoping in the next books we get to see the characters develop more and grow. The cliff hanger at the end was good and it set up nicely for where a new book could lead. If I have time I will try to read the next books once they come out to see where the story goes and if I grow to like the characters anymore. If you are looking for a dystopia read with some fantasy elements this would be a great read. Unfortunately this book just was not for me but I’m hoping the author all the best on their release!
Follow the author’s instagram: cassie_swindon_author
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Fantasy violence, death, domestic abuse
RATING: 16+ mature themes
SPICE: 2/5
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