maeve’s Reviews > Torment of the Divine: Original Sin > Status Update

I'm really, truly struggling to get into this book, but I only continue to read bc I don't like DNF-ing. Its hard to be absorbed into a world when I'm literally just being told what happens. I want to be sucked into the world, like I'm there, but that isn't happening. The author is not describing things, and its frustrating, given the A-tier concept this book had. The dialogue is corny and bland, so Im just bored.

Chapters 9-10: The concept of the great fight between God and Lucifer being a fist fight is rather humorous, given it's not exactly the most climactic of things to happen between two all-mighty beings. And whilst I understand Lucifer had to become a villain at some point, this felt rather sudden, and honestly didn't work for me, nor did God's reasoning to blame Lucifer. The characters are just too flat.

Chapter 8: The sudden pivot into addressing the audience was a strange choice, given that the narrator hadn't done that before. I understand the impact the author was hoping for, but it really didn't give that effect. Instead, it just took me out of the story. I appreciate the sci-fi element coming back in, but it doesn't mesh well with the previous vibe. I'm tired of being told stuff. I want to be in the world.

Chapter 8: This book unfortunately contains a lot of "this happened, and this happened, and then this happened", without really much atmosphere. Again, far too much telling and not showing. I don't think that helps the juvenile tone I mentioned previously. The whole paragraphs of description for each of the angels are a good example. The descriptions were not necessary, yet they were there. Took away from the flow.

Chapter 7: Whilst I appreciated a bit more of the lore on The Darkness, this chapter told me a whole bunch of stuff I already knew. It felt like a recap of Chapter 1, which wasn't particularly needed given the book's fast pace. There was also a paragraph where two lines were repeated one after the other, just slightly reworded. The fact that this wasn't caught in editing doesn't really bode well for my AI suspicions.

Chapter 6: I'm not understanding the chapter structure at all. Most of these chapters could easily be combined into larger ones, I feel, or at least fleshed out more for them to have more impact. I understand the purpose of each chapter, but that's it. There's nothing much else to them. rather straight to the point, and therefore very underwhelming. The characters also lack dimension, to say we're six chapters in.

Chapter 5: PLOT TWIST??? was expecting the woman to be eve, Not fucking Lilith! now im intrigued.

Chapter 4, and I'm seeing the same issue with usage of tense. At one point, I'm sure it was written in past tense, but now it's being written in present tense, despite the actual time setting having not changed. The writing is also a little simplistic for my own taste, with a fair bit of telling, not showing.

Also... she fell in love with a snake.

I'm really not sure about the writing style for this book. personally, it's not really to my taste, and it feels a little juvenile to be categorised as 'new adult'. there's nothing actually wrong with the book thus far though, save for my previous mentions, and I am finding it rather compelling. predictable? maybe. but compelling nonetheless.

I'm noticing a little issue with their use of tense in chapter 2, and I can't tell if it's just me having forgotten my teaching, or the author not quite understanding either. the pacing is also fairly quick as well, given the chapters are so short, but I didn't check the actual page count of the book, so that may be why. don't love their descriptive method either, particularly for the woman, but thats my own taste.