Nathalie

I don't know exactly when it happened, but maybe nearly halfway through this, I started caring about these kids.

The story starts off slow, and I didn't really have much that made me want to keep reading it, other than that I had bought it and it's not very lengthy, but then at a certain point, maybe as soon as Blue starts interacting more with the Raven Boys and more of it gets explained, I had trouble putting it down.

I like the story, I like the potential of the story, and I quite like the characters, which are all things I honestly didn't quite expect when I first started reading it. I'm pleasantly surprised. And am now very interested in the rest of the series.

It started off well enough, and I was thoroughly enjoying it and interested. But somewhere at the end of the first part and going into the second part I just got more frustrated and it started losing me. I didn't care for Nona, and the others were either boring or predictable. Only Abbess Glass was great but she wasn't used enough (funnily enough when the kids wanted to go to Glass but then realize she would be gone and they would have to fix it themselves - Harry Potter déja vu haha). I'm also not one who cares too much for detailed descriptions or explanations or anything but the lack of it here just started to bother me.

I hate that the second part soured my experience with it so much, because the first part had genuinely good and interesting things. Mark Lawrence's writing might just not be my thing.

I liked this! It took a while to get going, but it got very easy to read as soon as Nevare arrived at the Academy.

I think it's unfair to compare this to anything from The Realm of the Elderlings, so I won't. This still has plenty of things I like from Robin Hobb - her characters, the way she introduces us to the world, and her writing in general. Those things remain my favorite to this day.

I have said it before, but everything at the Academy was my favorite. I needed Nevare to interact with friends and other people in general outside of a family setting. It reminded me a bit of Inda by Sherwood Smith, which I have also recently read, but I found it more engaging here. In the background there was also magic looming, but I found that part only interesting sometimes. I was mostly here for the camaraderie.

The only thing that I was missing was a real emotional connection. It's hard to care about our main character Nevare. He is very obedient, to a fault. Very traditional, also to a fault. He's very comfortable with the way things are and does not see a need for change, and some of his comments (especially regarding his female cousin) are very eyeroll-worthy. Luckily there are other characters there to call him on his occasional bullshit, and he does get a chance to grow. There is still more room to grow, but he has changed for the better by the end, so it's a start.

I'm very curious about what the rest of the trilogy entails. You could in theory stop reading here, as there isn't a cliffhanger or anything, and I'm not sure about what story threads still remain unsolved.
I'm gonna check out at least the sequel anyway, so guess I'll find out eventually!

It was weird, a little fucked up at times, but also pretty cool. It also made me want to stop every now and then and look up where some of the Gods mythology came from. So, overall I liked it and I'm looking forward to the adaptation.
I think I liked the interludes more than most of the main story though. They were great! (And I'm glad at least a few of those will also be part of the Starz series!)