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review 2019-09-22 20:17
Ruthless Magic by Megan Crewe
Ruthless Magic - Megan Crewe Ruthless Magic - Megan Crewe

***I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***


With that being said I must start off with a declaration...WOW! Not only was this ruthless but it was brutal and painful to experience. It has been likened to a literary baby procured from the loins of The Hunger games + The Magicians and let me tell you...it is an extremely apt comparison.


"Maybe we’d grown up at opposite ends of the city, on opposite sides of that invisible divide between old magic and new, but in that moment we were feeling the exact same horror, and he would go every bit as far as I would to overcome it."

 

I gathered that the trials were to be difficult and dangerous but torturous to read was not what I was expecting when I first ventured down the magic rabbit hole. The characters were diverse, true, and a few were fleshed out nicely but the 2 characters whose POVs we were privy to were my favorite. Rocio was not only brave and talented but she was strong willed, humane and fierce as well. Seeing what was to become of her (and Finn) kept me reading well after I lost interest in the torture fest. The big twist was an interesting wrench thrown into la machina and it even has some future potential but I can not foresee which direction this will go...that's sort of how this entire book went. We went from horrific situation to even more gruesome/ morally bankrupt scenario...on and on until the very end (which was slightly on the underwhelming side). The beginning sucked me in and had such potential but when the barbarism kicked into high gear, I lost my stomach and will to see it through to the end. I somehow perservered and made it through to the end but just barely...I must admit to a teenie bit of skimming in the home stretch....it wasn't much but that's always a bad sign.


All in all it was well written, the world building was excellent, there was a twist with regards to the magic system (possibly intriguing in the future...we'll see) and the main characters were nicely done. The crazy Battle Royale wasn't my thing but it could be yours. You should definitely give this a try if you're into that sort of thing... it was intense!

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review 2017-09-08 00:00
A Mortal Song
A Mortal Song - Megan Crewe Excellent production quality, but a slightly awkward premise that maybe could have benefited from stronger world building. There's some challenging and well developed ideas the author's working through, and I appreciated how she consistently subverted expectations. There were multiple points where I was sure she was headed towards a stereotype or trope and then she pivoted. However, the setting and premise to me read more like a fan homage to anime/manga/light novels than an immersive fantasy experience and it kept pulling me up out of the story. I could see how fleshing out an unfamiliar set of legends as well as the Japanese contemporary culture and environment could be a tall order while still keeping the plot moving, and not sure if the author had actually been to the locations she wrote about or just knew them from media, but it felt a bit too distant. Generally a solid read otherwise.
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review 2017-08-01 00:00
The Worlds We Make
The Worlds We Make - Megan Crewe Megan Crewe is a genius at weaving authentic emotional journeys into tightly paced thriller plots. Her characters are instantly recognizable but not tired or rehashed; love her exposure of character inner lives, struggles and uniquenesses including empathetic portrayals of diverse personality types. She seems to portray teens incredibly well (but I'm in my 30s, so my ability to assess this may be limited, lol). Generally on the 'clean' side of YA; light, natural-seeming romance without any explicit action, some offensive language but always used in-character and in appropriate scenes. I'd recommend for ages 14 or 15 up. This story as a whole holds up well as a plague-disaster thriller, the sort of thing that would make a good summer blockbuster. It's near-future/real-world setting, so no magic or aliens, and the challenges and darkness are real but not overwhelming or contrived. I've enjoyed this series the most out of her work so far and will continue to hunt down the rest of her books!
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review 2017-07-20 00:00
Earth & Sky
Earth & Sky - Megan Crewe Entertaining time travel SF read with an appealingly slow-burn romance and challenging characters.

The more action-oriented outer story, a quest for parts of a weapon that will stop aliens from slowly destroying Earth via time-related experiments, ties in nicely to the MC emotional and literal journey to come to terms with her brother's childhood disappearance/death. The alien boy/love interest is the opposite of YA romance genre tropes, not dependable and interested, but essentially using the MC as a tool for most of the plot, while the MC resists developing feelings for Mr. Alien for as long as possible. They both make for more complex, troubled characters than the usual YA heroic fare.

The premise brings back childhood memories of time travel TV minus the on-the-nose educational agenda. Trips to ancient Rome, colonial America and revolutionary France, with a thriller-esque pacing as alien agents chase the leads through time - but the plot does drag a bit, or possibly just not dig deep enough, I never quite worked it out, in the middle.
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review 2017-07-09 00:00
Give Up the Ghost
Give Up the Ghost - Megan Crewe This was a really solid paranormal YA entry.

Ghosts, in the non-scary sense, not shifters etc., and the romance is very believable teen stuff; light, awkward attraction that doesn't really go too far too fast and involves believable interactions. I found the MC's voice a little rough at the start, but came to appreciate how prickly and challenging she was.

It covers some tough territory, with family deaths, bullying, adults not coping well, secrets and backstabbing, substance abuse and suicidal depression, but feels clever, sarcastic and ultimately has some real heart to it, instead of just being bleak, grim, or miserable. The slow, tentative change arcs were unusually authentic; this plot felt like it reflects life better than most, but since it doesn't follow genre conventions and rigid plot structure so completely, it takes a little more work from the reader to appreciate.

Not just throwaway entertainment, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Great quality; no issues with the editing or proofreading at all, which is refreshing. Bonus points for Canadian author! Will certainly look up her other books.
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