I wanted to like this so much. I was incredibly excited about it when I first heard about it and was ecstatic to get an ARC to read! African tightrope walker who can't die? Yes please!

Unfortunately, within the first two pages I knew I was in for a disappointing ride. The writing was clearly trying to create an atmosphere but it all felt too flowery and forced. Nothing felt natural about the writing, I just couldn't get into it. I found myself rolling my eyes at the writing more often than not. The disappointment that I felt in not loving this book made it worse.

Basically it's an excellent premise executed poorly.

Iris is described in the synopsis, as a tightrope dancer from Victorian London. I thought the circus would have a more prominent role in the novel but outside of the first few chapters it has little to do with the actual plot which was disappointing.

I ordinarily prefer plot driven over character driven stories. That being said this was a multi-layered plot that lacked character development and I DNF’d it at 67%. At first, I was hooked by the prologue that made Adam seem like a sort of assassin about to double cross a society of assassins by faking a murder and discovering some long lost key to taking down said assassin club. Afterwards, I just felt like a fish who was hooked on the line but the fisherman forgot to wheel the line in.

The character development was non-existent. I am actually struggling to think of a single adjective to describe any of the characters. Some characters' existences felt repetitive in that both their characteristics and purpose in relation to the plot could also be found in a different character.

Also the love square (I may be reaching here for a term but there were literally three boys in love with Iris). I really don’t understand what was so appealing about Iris that all the boys wanted her. The book never really explored why Jinn was drawn to Iris or what any of their interactions were like before she fell from the tightrope at the beginning of the novel. Adam wanted her because of what she represented and who she was. As for the third boy whose name escapes me, he loved her the moment he set eyes on her at a boxing match.

I also might have missed it but I still don’t think I completely understood why the “freaks” participated in this competition.

I also found the naming of a character “Fool” was kind of cringy.

My thanks to #Netgalley and #SimonandSchusterCanada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was incredibly excited about this book because I want to see more fantasy books with people of color but unfortunately I was just unable to really get into the book. As much as I tried it just did not get my attention and dragged on too much for my liking.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Bones of Ruin in exchange for an honest review.

This book has an absolutely fantastic plot but unfortunately, I'm a character reader which is definitely where it's lacking.

The Bones or Ruin follows African circus performer in historical London who's harboring a big secret: she can't die. When she's discovered, she must join a dangerous tournament with other super-powered people for the entertainment of a high society secret society trying to find a leader for the apocalypse if she wants a chance at finding out what she can't remember about her mysterious past.

Right? RIGHT! That's so cool. I wanted to love this so badly but everyone felt like such a stalk character that it was really difficult to become invested in any of their stories.

Iris is clearly supposed to be a powerful MC and she has a few lines that are supposed to be and should have been huge and impactful, but since her personality is basically "perfect person who every man instantly loves and every woman wants to be besties with", it falls flat. Her original love interest, Jinn, is described as having a kind of enemies-to-lovers arc with her but they're both so clearly in love and openly affectionate that when they trade quips it feels like they're doing it because that's the cool thing to do in YA right now, not because that's their general dynamic.

Max, in my opinion, was the worst offender. I originally really liked his character but something about his humour style always seemed to clash with his actual personality and role within the story and for some reason every time he was on page, I couldn't help but get pulled out of the story and find myself day dreaming about The Gilded Wolves instead. Going into writing this review, I now realize that this was literally pitched as "for fans of The Gilded Wolves" which might explain why Max felt like a caricature of a character from there instead of one who belongs in this narrative.

This book had an interesting premise and characters. However, the deeper I got into the book, I found that the pacing was agonizingly slow. I appreciated the historical elements and the presence of colonial themes. The plot of the book appeared interesting but did not fulfil on that note. Further, there were so many side characters they all got lost in my head.