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The Disney movie only takes up the first two chapters of this lol. The movie is basically fanfiction. Good book so far!

This is taking me ages to read. Im very bored. I’m determined to finish it because of sunk cost fallacy but I’m not enjoying myself. I wasn’t going to write a review for this but I might. Hopefully it picks up in the second half…

Also I kind of hate this book. I have a lot of complaints just piling up as I read. I wasn’t going to write a review for this but I am. This is… just not it, dude…

I hate Matthias and I despise being in his racist ass pov. He’s a fucking KKK member. He’s constantly calling his LOVE INTEREST Nina a witch and how she and her people are “non-human” and shit. It’s fucking vile. I do not ship this. Nina, girl, find you a new man who isn’t racist.

Leigh Bardugo is not a bad writer but she’s not an interesting one either. The prose is so bland and the dialogue is wordy and try-hard. If I wasn’t determined to finish this, I would’ve given up right here.

Bardugo keeps doing this thing where she slips out of 3rd limited into 2nd person (of all perspectives) to talk directly to us. Stop! It breaks the flow so much. It feels like an unavoidable pothole on an otherwise clear road.

Why are these guys teenagers when they behave like thirty year olds? I understand that this is a YA but aren’t YAs supposed to be relatable to teenagers? These aren’t teens, they’re adults. This is 100% a me thing but I like YA books where the teens behave like teens even in escapist stuff like this. It just makes the book feel more grounded

The military doesn’t make sense to me anymore. Why are they starving and beating recruits and then expecting them to perform well during training? I see this so much in fantasy books and it feels like trauma porn. The evil military is already evil for stealing kids and putting guns in their hands. The trauma of war is enough. We don’t need the starving and shit. It just makes them look stupid to me.

Alright. I’m finally at my 50% cut off point. I’m losing a lot of interest in this. I like the beginning, I like that our main character makes mistakes, and I like the magic system, but the repetitive trauma dumping is wearing on me. This is a dower book based on real events and while I can appreciate that, I’m not enjoying the execution. Let’s see if it gets good again.

The dragons are the only things locking me to this book at this point.

Yeah I am not enjoying this. I really like the concept but the extremely fast pace in a very densely packed world is grating on my nerves. I also hate Ris. Every time she speaks, I cringe.

I’m only 9% and I already have complaints. The worldbuilding is pretty neat but I’m not a fan of how we’re just dropped into the middle of stuff and then have to be spoon fed all the info afterwards. I like to be gradually led into a story. I’m also not liking the prose. It keeps interrupting dialogue and it’s very… YA. Not a fan. There are also too many characters to keep track of.

Garrick has a second signet as well because of course he does and Violet will get another one too because of course she will. I greatly dislike how underdeveloped and overpowered the magic is. It ruins the tension of all action scenes. It’s The Inheritance Cycle all over again. Our main characters are just gods. There are no stakes

Violet’s ward plan legit makes no sense. She fucks with the wards, allowing the gryphon folk to use their powers in death college, which in turn reignites the alliance negations… somehow. And then the pardons that she and her friends got for the shit they did last book somehow excuses them of the crime they just committed. Thats not how that works, Yarros! My head hurts.

This is one of the most confusing openings to any book I have ever read. I have no idea what’s happening. Characters are throwing out terms and names without explanation. Violet and her crew are doing stuff that is vaguely written and confusing to understand. I fucking hate this. I don’t know if I’m going to finish this. I’m starting to get a headache.

Me years ago: “I want a book through Tawnypelt’s pov”
The monkey paw curls
Erins: “Here ya go! *gives me TawnyxCrowf*
I genuinely love the idea of watching older folk fall in love but why Crowf?? I love Crowf but come on no! Tawnypelt is too good for him. Tawny you can do better! 😞😞
On a lighter note: I’m loving Birchfeather and Tawny’s familial relationship. Very cute.

Oh god what is this?! Are we shipping Crowf and Tawny now??? 😭😖😡😞😒

I’m not liking this new narrator. Her tone overall is monotoned and she keeps stumbling over the cats’ names. I just heard her say “Firbark” and the. “Firbank” back to back. Sigh… I don’t want to be mean but this arc is gonna be rough with her narrating it.

Oh come on we really are just doing TNP round 2…

Oh now this is pretty good so far! This is a hefty book so it could go downhill but so far I’m really liking it. Now this is how you write a jerkass character! I’m really liking Lazlo.

So far I am not enjoying this. I swear like a sailor but I do not like constant vulgarity in my books. There’s a finesse to swearing and this book is taking the Vivziepop route by having our main swear every few words. Luckily the premise of animals navigating a zombie apocalypse is interesting enough to keep me going

Whoof, I am not having a good time with this… the fish killing quest bored me to tears. I skipped all of it just to get back to the plot and missed nothing. It’s giving Brisingr flashbacks

Good lord the lore is getting more absurd.

Now I just want the book to end. It’s very repetitive. A lot of telling and hardly any showing. I’m used to this in Warriors but damn…

There’s some things I like and things I don’t like so far. To avoid spoilers, I will say that I don’t care for the big secret reveal and I find the exploration of Ivypool’s grief shallow. I do like Icewing and Whistlepaw though! So glad they’re getting more characterization. I’m not bored so that’s also a plus