This is a spoiler-free review!
It had been seven years since I read the first installment, Reawakened, and as I make my way through my physical TBR pile, I thought it was finally time to get the ball rolling on finishing this series. Should I have refreshed my memory on the events of the first book before diving right back in? Probably. Did I? Absolutely not. Yet here we are, and I made it through in one piece and just a touch of confusion during the beginning of the book.
Gosh, I could not get into the Tia storyline to save my life. I understand that it added a different dynamic to Lily's character development, but it felt like my eyes were glazing over every single time I had to read those italic remarks. If this plot line did not exist, I honestly do not think it would have drastically changed the story -- maybe a little bit regarding the journey Lily was taking, but it surely could have been resolved eventually.
Lily is running around all over the place and not listening to anyone's advice, and making decisions quite literally based off of vibes. Solving riddles? She is starting to sound like first graders trying to solve a multiplication problem for the first time. Absolutely just throwing guesses out there that somehow are always correct. And when it comes to battling random creatures or traveling through dangerous areas? She always manages to come out with barely a scratch on her. For a journey that is supposed to be one of the most deadly to go on, this seventeen-year-old girl seems to have it in the bag.
I did enjoy the new dynamic that Lily gains with two characters in particular, and for the sake of spoilers, when you get to that part in the book, you will absolutely know who I am talking about. The way that her influence on others starts to really shape the progress of her journey was interesting, but as the story went on, it started to feel like a constant back and forth with Lily as the culprit when it came to creating unnecessary obstacles for herself.
Amon and Lily's relationship -- I wish I was more invested than I was, because from what I remember about their relationship in the first book, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, circumstances are much different in this installment, and while there were some moments that were heartfelt, I was just not loving it as much as I thought I was going to. There was a lot going on with Lily internally, and it really put a strain on their relationship, as well as introduced a bunch of new conflicts with her other relationships with characters.
This is a quick read clocking in at under 450 pages, and the plot eventually picks up enough in the second half that you will fly right through it -- I will say that the beginning of the book certainly is something you have to work through, but once the pacing gets going, you will be fine. There were moments that could have been scrapped from the story and the plot would have moved on just the same -- a decent amount of chapters were heavily leaning towards being filler rather than actually helping the plot. Towards the end of the book is really where the action picks up and the plot is finally moving forward, but that is essentially in the last few chapters and then the book is over.
I will definitely be seeing this series through and am determined to finish the final book (and maybe the prequel, only time will tell). Fans of Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles will get a slight kick out of this series, but I would say to not get your hopes up regarding the depth the author went into her research. It covers the basics, but does not dive too far into as much detail about Egyptian mythology as I wish it did.
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