Der Name aller Dinge

I recently read the first book in this series and mentioned how chaotic and confusing it was. While most of the reviews for this sequel say this one is easier to follow, I had the opposite experience. I could not tell you what the full plot of this book was. I understood the bare bones, but I can not keep track of all of these different characters. I was constantly confused on who was a good and a bad guy, and that made it nearly impossible to discern what was happening.

All of that to say, I still really enjoyed this book. I don't know if it's just the interesting, diverse cast of characters, or if it's the narrators that made it fun for me. But even though I could hardly follow the plot, I still found myself enraptured with it. I'm giving it 3 stars solely because it is just so confusing to me. I didn't enjoy this one as much because of it. While the first one was confusing, I still at least could differentiate the characters and follow the plot, albeit loosely. This one, I couldn't differentiate any of the characters besides the main cast of like 4 characters. Everyone else was a blur to me so I couldn't keep track of what anyone's motivations were or even who everyone was. My confusion could be because I listened to the audiobook instead of reading a physical copy, or it could just be that my comprehension skills weren't up to snuff while I was reading. Either way, I can't give it more than 3 stars since I couldn't even really tell you what it was about.

Overall, I do still recommend this book to any epic fantasy fans. Most reviews say this book is easier to follow, so I'm definitely in the minority with my confusion.

TW: assault, blood, bones, child abuse, death, demons, fire, gore, homophobia, misgendering, misogyny, physical abuse, poisoning, pregnancy, sexism, rape, slavery, violence, war