While I didn’t appreciate the insinuation that characters (people) are wholly defined by these attributes and cannot be more, less, or anything other than their anxieties, I knew that this was wholly subjective and not necessarily the author’s intent. Malik and Karina’s mental health struggles felt somewhat overdone, like a narrative crutch to bolster otherwise empty, gratingly repetitive characters. The protagonists paled in comparison to Brown’s detailed worldbuilding, and this unfortunate realisation tends to crop up every few chapters, like a splinter gnawing at one’s peripheral. Given that the book is narrated solely through two POVs, it struck me as odd that its characters appeared to lack scaffolding. Unfortunately, while the first 50 pages had me absolutely hooked, the plot-point leading up to the middle of the book lost me for a while, and I almost DNF’d this one as a result.
I loved the rich worldbuilding, the weaving of lore through storytelling, and the occasional bursts of dry humour. I wasn’t expecting ASOWAR to be quite so rooted in contemporary YA - I was hoping for something grittier, akin to a young-fantasy Hunger Games but without the love triangle and ‘telling’ versus ‘showing’. The sights and sounds of the city of Ziran, the deep-set racism and poverty clouding Malik’s little world, the gilded prison of Karina’s lavish palace… I hung on to every word!Ī few chapters in, though, and I was left feeling a little jarred by inconsistencies in narrative voice and setting/period - instances of discernibly “modern-day” phrases really pulled me out of the story, and parts of Karina’s monologues felt like plot-holes (possibly in an effort to establish her as an unreliable narrator, but given that this wasn’t followed through to the end, it didn’t appear to serve much purpose). Although the synopsis gave me pause at first, the opening chapter had me hooked. The story follows the lives, trials and misadventures of Karina and Malik: two unlikely, star-crossed lovers who must overcome a deadly competition/ritual set against the backdrop of forbidden magic and colourful festivities in order to save their loved ones (now, where have we heard this before?). Brown has been popping up on my feed for several months now, so when a friend offered to send me a copy, I knew I had to give this a read! A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (ASOWAR) by Roseanne A.
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