Mel’s Reviews > The Demon Star > Status Update

I think we’ve reached the moment where it’s officially too much going on.

The pacing has gotten a little weird. And I don’t think we have built a deep enough relationship with some of the secondary characters for the stakes to be high enough for us to mourn them should something happen.

These characters are all incredible self aware in a way that I appreciate. I think the pacing of this middle section is a bit of a struggle but I’m not gonna be too harsh yet.

Couple things: This is incredibly ambitious. We’re juggling multiple genres. We’ve gone from Epic Fantasy mystics to Science Fiction alien colonization to rage fueled Body Horror & back & not one ball’s been dropped. Ysira! Auntie Mel loves your war crimes, gorl! Finally, “Jacen” sounds like “Jason” & he’s my favorite character so far, but his name being Jason considering all the other names is WILD.

The fact that this is a debut novel is WILD.

I’ve had multiple recs for this just this week and i am elbow deep in sewing projects so we are rolling directly into this after just finishing another audiobook. And you know what, the recs were right. I’m not even done with the intro and this slaps.