Alya’s Reviews > A Memory Called Empire > Status Update

AGHHH Nobody speaks like this! The author has clearly never spoken to another human being because why is everybody speaking in Tumblr-esque AU run-on sentences? Three Seagrass is the worst offender here but Twelve Azalea and Marit come in pretty close right behind her. Any character that doesn’t irritate me does so by virtue of not appearing on page enough for them to matter. What an incredibly boring book.

This book has disappointed me with how lacklustre it is. Unless the most insane mind bending plot unfolds in the last few pages, I’m giving this two stars. Nothing happens in this book except for Mahit having conversations with people and feeling bad for herself. Ugh.

Mahit’s self pity is so. incredibly. irritating. There are almost zero critical thoughts about the empire in her head, the author treats it like some clique or sorority that Mahit doesn’t have access to and is jealous / bitter about. Three Seagrass is still here doing absolutely nothing. God, I can’t wait for this book to end.

AHHHHH. Twelve Azalea has the most insufferable dialogue in this book. The author seemed to want to make him quirky and nervous but ends up making him sound like he’s having a panic attack every other page.

The more I read this book, the more I wish I was reading ‘The Traitor Bart Cormorant’ again. This is just a boring version of that book, in space, and more of a trudge.

FFS. I don’t know why I’m getting so ragebaited by this book. The use of italics is far too liberal and distracting. The writing style used for Mahit’s narration feels like beginner’s fanfiction. Feelings are described through repetition which gets old very fast. The shifts of tone are not handled well, and the structure: ‘something’ said x, ‘is happening’ is used so often that it pisses me off.

Mahit is the most irritating character in this book. The author seems convinced that Mahit is incredibly badass, and writes her as though she KNOWS it herself. The number of silly one liners Mahit drops is ridiculous. ‘Hydroponics. I’ll remember that.’ Are we serious? This is just the meme: This is how I win. *loses* This book had better get very good very fast. So far: boring.

Story is interesting enough, but if I have to hear Mahit whine one more time about how she ACHES for friendship I’m going to scream. It’s genuinely every couple of pages. We get it, Mahit, you’re lonely. Can you stop self pitying enough for us to care about the narrative?

Also, Twelve Azalea and Three Seagraas call each other the SAME nickname a thousand times. This book buys very heavily into its own hype.