destiny ♡ howling libraries's Reviews > Furyborn

DNF @ pg 210

I normally don't give star ratings to DNFs unless I've put in a substantial enough effort to fully determine my thoughts on the book, but I'd say 200+ pages of effort is enough to justify a star rating for this one.

Do you ever have one of those books that something in your gut tells you, 'You're not going to like this one, but you give it a try anyways? And then within a few chapters, you realize that your intuition was totally right and you never should've bothered? Because that was this book for me, from chapter one onward. Despite reading this with a group of lovely reviewers who were all enjoying it vastly more than I did, I just couldn't seem to get into the hype or form any enjoyable connection with the plot or characters.

Furyborn starts off strong, don't get me wrong. The prologue is absolutely beautiful and had me thinking that maybe I would end up shocking myself and loving this book, but as soon as chapter one began, it felt like a totally different author had taken over. The writing wasn't as beautiful or captivating, the characters weren't as intriguing, and the plot wasn't as enthralling. By the end of the first chapter, I felt like a dark, gloomy cloud had settled over my entire reading experience.

The story shifts between two perspectives: Rielle, from the past, and Eliana, from the present - two queens, both with incredible powers foretold by prophecies. I love alternating perspectives, I love split timelines, and I love prophecies. I even love tournaments, which is what a substantial portion of Rielle's narrative revolves around. And there's bi rep? Theoretically speaking, this book should have checked all my fantasy boxes! Here's why it didn't:

• Eliana is painfully unlikable. I adore morally grey characters more than anything, but I need them to be genuinely grey, and in my opinion, Eliana wasn't. She flips constantly between cold-hearted cruelty, or bouts of angst and shame, and I just wanted her to commit one way or another rather than falling to pieces every time she was alone for more than five seconds.

• I immediately grew weary of Eliana's arrogance and insistence that she could destroy or seduce anyone she met. I am so here for sex positivity, don't get me wrong! But half of the time, her motives behind seduction or even flirting are to gain the upper hand or trick someone, and that's a trope that gets old fast for me. I'd much rather see a character have sex because they want it, as opposed to using it as a means to an end.

• Rielle is not only boring, she's also fully out of control - which makes sense, given that she was raised not to utilize or temper her powers, but her lack of self-control is portrayed via a scene of animal abuse that left me positively infuriated and sickened. There are so many ways it could have been presented that wouldn't have made me hate her character, but the fact is that, as the abuse was occurring, she noticed that her actions were harming the animal, but disregarded the consequences until they were brought to her attention in a fairly graphic and incredibly difficult to stomach manner.

• The world-building feels so unrefined to me. The entire notion of their world, politics, and belief systems were fascinating on the surface, but after over 200 pages, I still felt like nothing had been properly explained and, to be frank, had lost faith that they ever would be. I love books with action as much as the next reader, but I genuinely feel that Furyborn sacrifices building up its world and magic system in favor of over-dosing on fight scenes and trials, and I wasn't here for it.

There were a few things I enjoyed, such as the prologue, or the bi rep Rielle offered (I actually almost finished the book just in hopes of seeing a polyamorous relationship form between herself, the man she loved, and that man's fiance). Unfortunately, though, there was a lot more that I didn't like.

I received this ARC from Fairyloot, but these are still my honest opinions, as always. If you disagree with my opinions, I'm always happy to have a friendly conversation about our disagreements, but please be respectful in your discourse! <3