Elska Bee reviewed Seven deadly shadows by Courtney Alameda
Review of 'Seven deadly shadows' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This could have been great... with some harsh editing [spoiler free]
TL;DR: Parts of this were four stars (the action scenes mostly, some of the shinigami), some of it was three stars (the stuff with school and the parents), but a lot of it was only one or two stars (the romance, the pacing, the writing style, characterisation and character development).
If you're intrigued by a Japanese inspired urban fantasy, just know that it's a very average YA fantasy book underneath all that aesthetic.
The worst part was probably the writing style. It was overly descriptive in terms of its use of metaphors that were often clumsy, did nothing to add to the scene, or made it difficult to tell if it was a metaphor or literal. My least favourite was "(a scream/shriek) pierced my eardrums like a sharpened pencil" which um yeah not great. The overuse of italicising words …
This could have been great... with some harsh editing [spoiler free]
TL;DR: Parts of this were four stars (the action scenes mostly, some of the shinigami), some of it was three stars (the stuff with school and the parents), but a lot of it was only one or two stars (the romance, the pacing, the writing style, characterisation and character development).
If you're intrigued by a Japanese inspired urban fantasy, just know that it's a very average YA fantasy book underneath all that aesthetic.
The worst part was probably the writing style. It was overly descriptive in terms of its use of metaphors that were often clumsy, did nothing to add to the scene, or made it difficult to tell if it was a metaphor or literal. My least favourite was "(a scream/shriek) pierced my eardrums like a sharpened pencil" which um yeah not great. The overuse of italicising words was a bit much as well.
The pacing was horrendous. It started off very strong and then quickly deteriorated in the second third. The romance stuff felt like it dragged everything to a halt every time it popped up and simply didn't need to be in the book at all. It was unsatisfying and ham-fisted. A lot of the middle third is also occupied by not much being accomplished at all and constantly reminds you of it too. It is incredibly repetitive and treats the reader like they can't remember the most basic plot-points from chapter to chapter. Random scenes happened with little to no explanation that often take up no more than a paragraph leaving you wondering "what just happened and was it important???" and then NEVER comes up again.
The protagonist (Kira) has such inconsistent characterisation. For the first two thirds of the book she flip flops between being "shy, awkward, traumatised girl who doesn't know how to stand up for herself" and "badass priestess who gets things done". It would be fine if this was character development, but she switches between the two constantly until in the last third she is more consistently the latter (not that it feels entirely earned). Most of the other characters were a bit one dimensional or under-developed imo. Obei Katayama was the most interesting character by far.
[spoiler-ish!] The best part was easily the last third and the entire climax. I don't think it was perfect, but it still wrapped up things in a satisfying way and as mentioned, the fight scenes were easily the most well done portions.