I was excited for an original fairy tale, but ultimately I was disappointed.
The things that attracted me to this book
1. The cover
2. The premise of a poisonous girl, who can never touch anyone
The things I liked about this book
1. The cover
2. The premise of a poisonous girl, who can never touch anyone
So really, I kinda got what I came for. But honestly, I was extremely disappointed that that was all this book was - a pretty cover and an unfulfilled premise.
👍 What I Liked 👍
Cover: That cover might just be the most beautiful cover that I have ever seen. I cannot explain exactly what it is - might be primarily the colours - but something about it just really draws me in.
Premise: The idea of a girl who is poisonous to anyone who touches her really got my imagination going. I was really looking forward to seeing how a girl like this would navigate life, how she would learn to use this immense power. Sadly, that was not the way this book went.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Predictable: There was hardly anything that happened in this book, that I hadn't figured out early on. What was supposed to be a shocking reveal was, for me, no shock whatsoever because I had already seen it coming from a mile away.
Curse: The most interesting part of this book, Soraya's curse, was one of the smallest parts of this book, which really disappointed me, because that was what drew me to it in the first place. It was only a factor for the first 3rd of the story, and then not even an interesting part... This could have gone so many exciting, interesting, amazing ways and I am so disappointed that it went the easiest way of all - into the trash.
World building: This is obviously a rich world that builds on Persian mythology. But as someone who is unfamiliar with that mythology, I felt really left out a lot of the time. I wanted a lot more world building, more time to get a feeling for this world. To understand the divide between divs and humans. But that was not to be.
Relationships: None of the relationships in the book felt real to me. None of them made an impact. None of them felt genuine. They all just felt... shallow.
Rushed: Perhaps the biggest problem I had with this book was how rushed it was. Because many of the other issues I have (like the world building and the relationships) are a result of the rush of the story. There was hardly any build up to anything that happened, no anticipation of anything and no genuine, organic development. Everything seemed to happen in frantic jumps from one thing to the next.
