Review - When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

 

 

 

 Title: When Among Crows

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 171

Publisher: Titan

Release Date: 14th May 2024

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

Step into a city where monsters feast on human emotions, knights split their souls to make their weapons, and witches always take more than they give.

Pain is Dymitr’s calling. To slay the monsters he’s been raised to kill, he had to split his soul in half to make a sword from his own spine. Every time he draws it, he gets blood on his hands.

Pain is Ala’s inheritance. When her mother died, a family curse to witness horrors committed by the Holy Order was passed onto her. The curse will claim her life, as it did her mother’s, unless she can find a cure.

One fateful night in Chicago, Dymitr comes to Ala with a her help in finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga in exchange for an enchanted flower that just might cure her. Desperate, and unaware of what Dymitr really is, Ala agrees.

But they only have one day before the flower dies . . . and Ala's hopes of breaking the curse along with it.

 

Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop

 

 

 

 

My Review:

 *I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books*

Note - I ended up reading the audiobook version of this book.

Monsters are real and there are people that fight them.

Dymitr is one such person, and one night he finds himself making a deal with Ala, a monster Dymitr would usually kill.

Dymitr offers Ala a cure to the curse that has haunted her family for years, in exchange for her help in finding the location of Baba Jaga, the legendary witch.

With a time limit on the cure, can Dymitr and Ala work together?

The Polish folklore in this book really intrigued me, as did the cover, so I was looking forward to reading it.

Dymitr and Ala were both likeable and relatable protagonists. I also liked Nico a lot. It was enjoyable to read the interactions between the trio.

The setting of a Chicago with what the Holy Order perceived as 'monsters' was interesting, and I really liked the fantastical element. I would have liked to find out more about the Order and the different 'monsters'.

I really liked that Polish was used in this book, and it made me interested in finding out more about the folklore.

The plot was interesting and immediately grabbed my attention, making me invested in the characters. The book is only short, and it was fast to read, but I would have liked it to have been longer.

I would happily read a sequel or a book set in the same world.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

 

Review - Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

 

 

 

 Title: Poster Girl

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 302

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Release Date: 18th October 2022

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

A fallen regime. A missing child. A chance at freedom.

WHAT'S RIGHT IS RIGHT. Sonya Kantor knows this slogan - she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation.

Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight's monitoring, went on with their lives.

Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for ten years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past - and her family's dark secrets - than she ever wanted to.

 

 Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop

 

 

 

 

My Review:

 *I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton*

Everyone knows Sonya Kantor's face - she was the poster girl for the Delegation who ruled the Seattle-Portland megalopolis.

The Delegation monitored everyone via Insights - ocular implants that recorded everything that was done and said.

When the Delegation was overthrown, Sonya was imprisoned alongside other people deemed to have done wrong by serving the Delegation.

Ten years after the fall of the Delegation, Sonya is given the chance to earn her freedom by finding out what happened to a missing girl who was taken from her family by the Delegation.

Sonya's search uncovers buried secrets and truths she might not want to face.

The blurb for this book really intrigued me, and I was looking forward to reading it.

I found Sonya to be a likeable and relatable protagonist. She was being punished for something that she'd done as a teen, something that wasn't harmful, but as the face of the Delegation she couldn't exactly be allowed to walk around freely by the new regime.

I liked finding out more about Sonya and I really felt for her - her family were all dead and she was basically waiting to die herself, living with barely anything of her own, in a place that sounded really stifling and depressing.

I really liked Sonya's relationship with her neighbour Nikhil, who was someone she knew from before their imprisonment.

The setting was interesting, as was the comparison between the Delegation and the Triumvirate who replaced them - it was quite thought-provoking.

The plot was enjoyable and held my attention. While I was surprised by some things that happened, I wasn't gripped.

The writing style was easy to follow.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

 

 

Review - Chosen Ones (The Chosen Ones, #1) by Veronica Roth

 

Title: Chosen Ones (The Chosen Ones, #1)

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 400

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Release Date: 7th April 2020

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

 

SAVING THE WORLD ONCE MADE THEM HEROES.

SAVING IT AGAIN MIGHT DESTROY THEM.

Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America. He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice - catastrophic events known as Drains - leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives. The Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.

After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal . . . for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you're the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?

Of all the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD - and her huge attitude problem - but really, she's hiding secrets from everyone . . . secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.

On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One's defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One's ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold - bigger than the world itself.

And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give.

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US

 

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley*

Ten years ago, Sloane and her friends defeated the Dark One, a man who killed thousands of innocent people with magic.

Known as the Chosen Ones, Sloane (along with four others) was picked because of a prophecy and trained using magical items.

With the Dark One gone, Sloane didn't know how to move on and became a recluse as she struggled with PTSD.

Then after commemorating ten years since they won, one of the Chosen Ones dies. At the funeral, the remaining Chosen Ones find themselves called upon to fight once more.

Did the Dark One really die that day? Or could he be alive?

Will Sloane and her friends be able to save the day again? Or will they die trying?

I was intrigued to read Chosen Ones because of the premise - what does a hero do after they defeat the villain? However, this ended up being a mixed read for me.

Sloane was an intriguing character, and while I didn't always like her, I did feel sorry for her because of the things that she'd been through. It was interesting how Sloane and her friends could be so different at times and I liked her interactions with Albie.

When I first started reading this I was enjoying it, but after a while I started to lose interest. The plot didn't grab me, but there were a few twists that I didn't see coming. I didn't feel overly invested in what happened and thought that an event at the end of the book was over faster and far more easily than I expected.

The writing style was easy to follow, but I wasn't gripped.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more as the concept sounded promising. I think this was a case where the execution didn't work for me.

Overall, this was an OK read.