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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of West Vancouver Memorial Library.
Nov 09, 2018RebelBelle13 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
I'm torn how to rate this book, honestly. On one hand, there are several ideas that Raasch introduced here that are refreshing to the fantasy genre and kept me interested. On the other hand, there's that handful of YA tropes and cliches that were added that bring the whole novel down several pegs. There's a big, scary bad guy that's in control of several kingdoms. There's a girl who'd rather fight and wear pants than be ladylike and wear a dress. There's magic that's been lost over time. And there's a protagonist who is an orphan and who is unsure of her lineage (I won't spoil it here, but if you've read at least one other YA fantasy, you know where this one is headed). I can understand why authors resort to these overused plot devices- it's the whole "if it's not broke, don't fix it" idiom. But for those of us who read a lot of fantasy (*raises hand*) it gets old and annoying really fast. Why can't an orphan just be an orphan? Why can't a king just be a king? Now, the positives. Meira's world is divided into 8 kingdoms- 4 seasons and 4 rhythms. Each season kingdom only has that season in it- summer it's constantly summer, spring it's constantly spring, etc. Each kingdom's ruler has a conduit for magic, which only the blood heir can use, and can manifest in whatever way they choose, even to the point of manipulating their people. This may not be anything new (Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses does something very similar) but the magic system made it new and interesting, and distinctly separated the kingdoms. The fact that Winter has been completely taken over by Spring, while ironic, gives the story a driving force. Meira is a strong character, albeit a little cliche. Theron was a breath of fresh air, which was nice to see. Also, Raasch's detail really helped in the immersion of the story. Her characters commenting things like "Sweet Snow" and "what in the cold is this", while cheesy, really drove home how important the connection to the seasons was for the people. There were some slow parts- the section in Cordell and the Spring work camp- all in all, it was entertaining enough that I enjoyed myself. I will probably eventually read the next.