Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: January 9th, 2024
Pages: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“Seventeen-year-old Krescent Dune is buried under the weight of her dead parents’ debt and the ruinous legacy they left behind. The only way she can earn enough money to escape her unforgiving island is by battling monstrous creatures in an underground fighting pit. After a fight goes terribly wrong, she’s banned from the pits. Now hopeless, she is offered a deal: in exchange for the erasure of her debts, she must join and protect a hunting party for a rescue mission deep within the mining caves beneath the island.
Krescent is determined to keep her head down and fulfill her role as the dutiful bodyguard, even though she is trapped underground with her childhood enemy and a company of people who would gladly kill her if they knew who her parents were. As they come across creatures she believed only existed in legends, it becomes clear they are in far more danger than she could have imagined. But someone doesn’t want her to make it out alive. And she’ll have to figure out who before she’s left alone… in the dark.
From the author of Monsters Born and Made comes an action-packed South Asian inspired fantasy that will have your heart racing at every turn.”
My Review:
I want to start off by saying that although this can supposedly be read as a standalone, I personally would not recommend it that way. There are parts of this book that allude to certain things in her first one (Monsters Born and Made) that will definitely spoil the events of that book if you haven’t already read it. I also felt like some of the world-building aspects were not as fleshed out, almost as if it was assumed the reader already knew these things from reading the first one. The events in this book occur simultaneously (within the story world’s timeline) with the events of MBaM. But it still read to me like it should have been marketed as a sequel.
That being said, it is a fun and fast read. I did love the main character. There’s a sense of found family. The plot is very harrowing and action-packed. There’s also a cute friends-to-more situation. I also love the context of deeper issues that she addresses, like the consequences of oppression in a society. The lore in this world is very interesting and I enjoyed learning more about it. There’s old gods, monsters, creatures, and a rich history of early peoples.
It did feel a little standard as far as YA fantasy goes. But if you are looking for something that is light and predictably entertaining, this is a good choice. Overall, I enjoyed the story and do recommend it to lovers of this genre if you’re looking for an easy read that is fun and satisfying, even if not necessarily mind-blowingly memorable.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Have you read this book? Planning to add it to your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love a good book discussion. 🙂
Leave a Reply