I've been putting off this review because I have to eat crow while writing it...
Rebel of the Sands is a great example of a book that starts off brightly, but fades with each turning page. Honestly, the first three chapters are about as good as you can get in YA — vivid characters, vivid setting, vivid language, and vivid promise... And so, you see, a month before Rebel of the Sands was released, I read the sampler package and called it then and there.
"This is going to be the new Graceling," I said to myself and others. "It's going to be the best book of 2016."
No, no, no and no.
Despite its glorious start, the middle of the book sags, and the ending is a muddle. I went from hanging on every word, to speed reading, to flipping through chunks of pages. I'm so disappointed.
I can pinpoint exactly when things when south for me, too — when the MC and her love interest join the traveling caravan. Right then, the momentum of the book just stalled. That part of the book was pointless. If I was the editor, I would take that chunk of a hundred or so pages and throw them out. I would ask the author to transplant her final content into the early middle of the book and writing a new ending. That way, there would be some purpose to the plot right after the exciting events of the beginning. Does all that make sense to those who've read the book???
(If only I could have this kind of clarity with my own WIP. Wouldn't that be nice?)
So even though I love, love, love the beginning of Rebel of the Sands, I wound up having a lot of problems with its structure. It's amazing, isn't it? Writing a story is like building a house of cards. If one card is off, the entire structure can fall over.
I loved the beginning of this one too and I agree with you, it started to go downhill after a while. I just wasn't as invested in the second half as I was with the first. I'm still going to read the rest of the books because I like the characters and I think the author's writing itself is great!
ReplyDeleteI agree. The style and the voice of the writing were great!
ReplyDeleteOh dang, that's really too bad! I'm sorry this one was a dud for you. It's always so disappointing when a book starts out strong but just sort of fizzles out.
ReplyDeleteOh no! It sounds like this started out so strong and then petered out. I hate it when that happens. :(
ReplyDeleteOh I can definitely relate with the dogged mess of the middle part of this book. I should say though, that I've enjoyed this one - probably much more than you had. I forgave the author for that middle yawn.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw that you enjoyed this one! When writing this review, I felt some angst for disagreeing with you! Haha
ReplyDeleteI seem to have a minority opinion, though. I'd love to know what you think of RotS!
ReplyDeleteYeah, my disappointment when I realized I wasn't enjoying it anymore was acute. :(
ReplyDeleteAww, so sad that this book didn't work out for you. I guess they sometimes trick us like that and not knowing entirely why you disliked it makes writing the review even more difficult. =/
ReplyDeleteBut indeed! Only if we were able to edit our own WIPs as easily! XD
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