This is a spoiler-free review!
I really needed to get back into fantasy books to kickstart me into finally working through my TBR pile, but I fear this book has actually sent me right into a fantasy reading slump. I have heard so many good things about this series, so I was pretty excited to dive into this book on vacation. The synopsis definitely pulled me in and the world-building and general idea was very intriguing, but I kept finding myself wanting to throw the book into the ocean.
Ophelia, our leading lady, is not like other girls! She wears glasses! And has curly brown hair! Which means her life is hard and that she does not like anything that has to do with marriage or femininity or apparently, common sense. I swear I wanted to grab this girl by the shoulders and shake her to knock some sense into her, just for a second, so that maybe a loose thought would find its way inside her brain. She somehow trusts everyone but also no one, while at the same time becomes upset when her fiancé, Thorn, does not want to tell her things, in order to keep her safe. She would actually be an interesting character if she used the logical thinking she claimed to possess every other chapter.
The side characters were absolutely insufferable on numerous occasions, so much so that I would have to go back and read conversations they had between each other when they were not interacting with Ophelia. I consider myself a fast reader, yet reading this book felt like it took forty hours to get through, not five. Maybe I would have been better off reading the French version instead of the English translation, but the prose and pacing felt off. There were definitely certain points in the book that had my undivided attention, but I spent the majority of the book begging for something remotely interesting to happen. I understand how important world-building is, but that too felt abandoned in order to make room for what seemed to be never-ending scenes of Ophelia and her thoughts.
Ophelia's aunt and her constant hysterics had me banging my head against the wall -- she was definitely making some valid points considering the number of situations she and Ophelia were placed in, but oh my god I thought I would never hear the end of it. For a woman who is so vocal about her displeasure, she sure does not do a single thing to try and remedy it. Thorn, on the other hand, had barely any page presence, yet I found him to be the most intriguing out of the ensemble. He is cold and keeps to himself, but I kept finding myself hoping that when I flipped the page, his name would show up and the plot would get moving. Ophelia's distain for him does not help this matter, and she spends more time thinking about how annoyed she is at him than actually helping her and her aunt's situation.
It takes literally about 350 pages for something remotely interesting to happen in order to move the plot forward, which is an issue as the book comes in at just under 500 pages. The author was dedicated to world-building, but seemed to leave character development at the door. Learning about the world was intriguing and I loved those aspects of the book, but the characters really did not experience any form of growth during the story -- understanding that this is the first book in a series, they will definitely have time for development, but nothing in the book was making me like anyone in particular.
Things really do pick up in the last fifty pages or so of the book, but I personally found it all very predictable on what was happening. Maybe it's because Ophelia's so-called common sense that everyone was boasting about seemed to finally kick in for her, but I was not surprised at anything that took place towards the end. Some characters had a little bit of growth in the sense that their true character was revealed, but nothing groundbreaking. I still very much need to know what happens next though, and will be pushing forward to see Thorn and how the series moves forward.
I do own the second book and will be continuing on with the series, but I will probably need a break and will be reading some other books before diving back into The Mirror Visitor world. The concept is original and intriguing, yet I believe readers will have to power through the first book in order to really get into the plot.
You can add A Winter's Promise and the rest of the series on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment