blancavelasco

It took me a little while to get into this book, I have to admit. Normally this would be the type of book I'd really love & would get into, but for some reason it was just very slow to start off with. The Good: The premise of the series is pretty intriguing, a post-apocalyptic world where kids go to school in abandoned buildings & demons roam the world, tormenting anyone they come across. Also cool is the idea of a set group of people who are going to fight against these guys. I liked how fast some relationships are formed & I also loved the badness of Master Harper. As far as jerky adult almost-villans go, he's pretty entertaining to read about. His character is over the top but still fun to read about. (Just curious as to why someone like him would be left in charge, but I'll let that pass in the hopes it's explained in future books.) The Bad: Some parts of the book just felt underdeveloped. We're told this is a post-apocalyptic world but that's about the long & short of what we're told. There's no details as to *how* it got this way or why things are the way they are. I understand that this is just book 1 of a series, but things are way too vague in this first book. I also occasionally got irritated with Riley. I like that she's got guts,but at times she kind of came across as your typical Gritty Heroine. She's not really a Gritty Sue, so don't worry on that aspect, but Riley is pretty much your typical run of the mill heroine. We also get tons & tons of scenes with Riley complaining about this or that, which sort of grated on my nerves after a while, especially since Oliver is so stingy with other story details. Riley might have good reason to complain but did we really need so much of it? This is a pretty decent book as far as teen UF goes, but I just wish that more was explained & that less time was spent on teen angsting & more was spent on building up the general world in the book. (Review copy provided by Amazon Vine)

2022-09-05 01:11