lisa (fc hollywood's version)'s Reviews > Song of Silver, Flame Like Night

Many regards to Random House Children's for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange of my honest review.

"A sword's purpose may be determined by its wielder, but take the weapon away entirely, and neither the merciful nor the cruel may draw blood with it.

This book brought me onto a roller-coaster of emotions with a great start, a mediocre medium, and an excellant ending. I rarely change my rating as quickly as this: at the 50% mark, I was convinced that this was going to be a 2-star-read, but the last action sequence blew my mind, and now we're here, with a 3.75/5 rounded down (because the ending left me a little disappointed).

The book started out smoothly: we were introduced to our main characters, Lan and Zen, who I quickly fell in love with. I love their dynamic, and how they balance each other. The slowburn is exquisite, and I loved seeing how they came to trust and to lean on each other.

However, the middle bit of this book was incredibly tedious as the actions were quite repetitive. I honestly didn't know that this book is 500-page-long (which is a lot for a first book of a YA Fantasy series), and I think that a big chunk of it could have been cut off or condensed. Nevertheless, I was really getting into the tension around the 75% mark. Amélie Wen Zhao knew how to build up tension for an explosive final battle and I can appreciate that. I was on my toes, reading as if my life depended on it.

Pacing problems aside, what really prevents me from loving this book was its lack of uniqueness. At this point, every mythology-inspired book starts to read the same, because the authors would take the original myths and dress it up as worldbuilding with little to no change. I think that's why I tend to enjoy Adult Fantasy more, because the YA Fantasy genre lack the freshness I crave. The same can be said for the characters and the events: a lot of them falls into archetypes or clichés that I have seen again and again. For example, I wish the ending was a little different, more intense perhaps, because I feel like I have read this before in other books.

Bottom-line: I didn't plan to read the sequel, but the last 80 pages changed my mind. I hope Amélie Wen Zhao has planned something explosive for the second book and the publisher has a gorgeous cover waiting for it *wink wink*.

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