While I adored the setting of this book, the magic, the moody aura, unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I knew how it would end based on the Tempest, and I was rather hoping this story would veer a bit from the tragedy it is based on.

This retelling of the Tempest didn’t initially strike a chord with me, probably because I have not read the Tempest. Whoops, that’s on me. However despite my shortcomings, I did love this magical, mysterious plot. The story takes place over the course of a single day, which I felt lead to the world building being less than complete. It was such a unique and fascinating world/society, I would have loved to dig deeper. Overall, I enjoyed the story, characters, and the unraveling mystery.

The audiobook production was wonderful. The narrator did a fabulous job capturing each character and was a wonderful addition to this plot.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Bright Ruined Things,
Having a passing understanding of Shakespeare's The Tempest, I connected with a few of the characters in your story. You were not what I imagined from reading your synopsis, but were much better. I loved that you were placed in the roaring '20's, and the decadence and grandeur of the entire decade was stamped all over your story. I loved the magic and darkness woven through your story and Mae was such an interesting woman. The balance that she walks between her desire for more and her small, sheltered life was so interesting, and it made for an interesting narrative to have such a sheltered narrator to spin out all of the details of the story, but unable to connect all of the pieces. It made it difficult for me to put the pieces together, but helped all of them make sense when it was finally all put together. The Fae on the island were a fascinating part of the story, and I wanted to know more about them every time they showed up. You were a compelling retelling of a classic, with wonderful fantastical elements.

The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. I was curious to see how this would be retold in the 1920s. While this story is well-written, it lacked the charm of the original. The characters do not seem like their Shakespearean counterparts. The audiobook helps enhances the book. The narrator is very engaging and made each character come alive. I recommend this for fans of Shakespeare!

Fresh take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest! I thought the narrator did a great job and I found myself definitely getting lost in the book.

Certainly a unique approach to the story of The Tempest. We don't usually consider the source of the magic on the island or what it means for Prospero to have mastered the spirits. Cohoe certainly does. This book gives us an island where things have gone very wrong indeed. We're examining the corruptive nature of power, the destruction of colonizing. Adding in the backdrop of the jazz era is icing on the cake.

My feelings about <i>Bright Ruined Things</i> went up and down as it unfolded. I started off loving it and couldn’t stop listening, then I was very frustrated with the main character, May, and didn’t listen for two weeks. I finished the last two hours and was in love with it again.
Twelfth Night is not one of the two Shakespeare plays I’ve read, so I wasn’t familiar with the story aside from the fact that there’s a character named Prospero (it took me an embarrassingly long time to connect Prospero to the Prosper family). So, I can’t comment on how it honored or diverged from the inspiration (or what easter eggs there were because I’m sure there was a plethora)
Setting: I don’t think it was established as well as it could be. I knew from the cover and synopsis it was supposed to be the 1920s, but I started to doubt my memory of that as the story unfolded, and it just felt like a secluded island. When magic is involved, it’s sometimes hard to tell what has or hasn’t changed in the world.
Atmosphere: 5 stars
<b>Audiobook Review:</b> The narrator did a beautiful job! It definitely added to the atmosphere of the book more than just reading would have

This is a really neat sort of retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It takes a particular focus on the spirits and magic on the island, which Shakespeare doesn't explain much in his play, and made for a really neat novel! I wish there had been more explicitly twenties atmosphere, but I enjoyed the characters, the drama, and especially the ending. The audio is well done and both easy and pleasant to listen to. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for a copy to listen and review.

This book was a nice young adult fantasy that isn’t the most memorable story. This story follows Mae a young woman who was born and grew up on a mysterious magical island. The island was found by the Prospers many years ago where they discovered a way to mine aether. The island is still owned by the Prospers who have gained large amounts of wealth do to the magic. Mae gets tangled up with these dramatic aristocrats as Mae try’s to uncover the mystery of what really happens on the island.

This was a nice enough book it was entertaining and the characters were well written. I just felt it was a little forgettable, it felt very similar to other young adult fiction thats available. This is supposed to be a reimagining of the tempest I will admit I am not to familiar with that story so I cannot say how the reimagine holds up to the original. I did listen to the audiobook I enjoyed the narrator she had a great voice and kept me engaged. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

I was initially intrigued by the synopsis of Bright Ruined Things, but unfortunately I struggled to connect with the book. I will say I loved the setting and thought the narrator did a nice job.

After the death of her father, Mae wants nothing more than to be apart of the Prosper family. Born on the island, Mae has known nothing different than being at the beck and call of the magical family. Now that she is almost 18, she realizes that her time on the island may be coming to an end, unless she can secure a spot within the Prosper clan, one way or another.

I found the world building in this to be interesting. I liked learning about the magic, and how it worked on the island. I really wanted to know more about the spirits, and why they served this family, when it was clear they didn't want to. I was so intrigued by all the drama and family secrets everyone was hiding. I found it interesting that the author chose to have the book span over a single day. I think that it made the plot all the more fast paced and thrilling. Mae started off as a very weak willed individual, but I enjoyed her character development in the end. I like how she finally started standing up for herself and what she wanted, instead of doing everything she thought the Prospers wanted her to do. I was a big fan of Ivo, but I think he may have been the only character I actually liked... everyone else was so unlikable... which I think was the point... but still. The biggest complaint I have was the romance, I really disliked the love interest and how Mae was so enamored by a man that sucked so completely... I was definitely rooting for the other guy. I ended up listening to this on audio, and I really enjoyed the narration!

Overall, a lot of fun, and not what I was expecting from this book!

Okay honestly, wasn't digging the story, DNF'd at 27%.
I liked the premise and I'm gonna try to read this as a physical book, because I didn't really like the narrator either and I think that's probably why I wasn't digging the story.

I really struggled to get into this book. I was really intrigued by the premise but unfortunately I just never felt invested in the story. The main character was the biggest problem for me. She was incredibly unlikeable and not in a good way. She was selfish, gullible, and really whiney. I found the narrator's voice a bit grating because it sounded like she was trying too hard, but this was likely influenced by my dislike of the story in general. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me.

Synopsis: Mae has lived her whole life on the Prospers’ island, an outsider due to her status as the steward’s daughter. Now that she is eighteen, the Prospers’ promise to her dead father to allow her to remain on the island has expired, but Mae has a plan to remain: marry Miles, the illegitimate Prosper she has had a crush on her whole life, and convince Lord Prosper to teach them magic. But on First Night, as the family and guests gather on the island for a party, several secrets are about to be exposed, and turn Mae’s life and beliefs upside-down.

▪ Retelling of The Tempest. This is a strength and a weakness. The spin that Cohoe gives the story, setting it in the roaring 20s, and giving voice to one of the island’s less prominent inhabitants, is fantastic. However, if you’re familiar with the source material, and especially the post-colonial readings, it may be a bit frustrating that Mae doesn’t understand what is happening faster.

▪ Mae is a really interesting character. Because of her circumstances, she is very naive, but she is also resourceful and extremely ambitious. These traits, taken together, make her a perfectly flawed heroine, and give her challenges a lot of weight.

▪ Several love interests. It’s YA, so that is to be expected, however the way the love interests are presented makes them all feel vaguely shifty, so that it is hard for the reader to root for one over the other(s). That really ratchets up the tension.

▪ The ending! The last lines are just perfect. I won’t say more, but it left me completely satisfied.

▪ Imani Jade Powers’ narration is perfect. Her Mae sounds like a spoiled upper-class girl, and because she copied her behaviour on the Prospers it fits, even though she isn’t at all what she sounds like. Her rhythm and emotion are spot-on.

I really, really enjoyed this book--it surprised me how much I did, honestly. I generally find it hard to enjoy fantasy, but Bright Ruined Things was a solid, engaging story. I thought it had the right amount of world-building and character development, without bogging down readers with "too much" and losing the plot in the process. The pacing was perfect! I thoroughly enjoyed the turns the book takes, and was so engaged that I "read" this in one sitting! Props to the narrator as well, for reading this one so perfectly. I look forward to reading more from Ms Cohoe in the future!

Mae has only known life on the island, continuing to live there after her father died thanks to the generosity of the Prosper family. However, Mae is about to turn 18, and she doesn’t know if she will be allowed to stay on the island after that. Tonight is First Night, the island’s celebration of the Prosper Family patriarch first harnessed the island’s magic and producing aether to provide magic to the world. Mae dreams of having magic of her own, hoping her best friend, Coco, would finally consider her an equal, and her crush, Miles, would finally notice her. However, she finds herself trapped into becoming engaged to the family heir, Ivo, instead. The island’s spirits seem to be dying, and Mae is determined to get to the bottom of what is really going on with the island’s magic.

The novel had a very intriguing premise, but the story itself underwhelmed me. I did not realize until after reading that this book is based on Shakespeare’s <i>The Tempest</i>, and I have not read that play, so I’m not sure if that affected my feelings on this book. There were no even remotely likeable characters, and that generally makes it hard for me to get invested in a book. I did enjoy seeing the little tidbits that showed this book was set in the 1920s, such as the reference to Bessie Coleman. I feel like the book didn’t go into much world-building detail for how the magic worked. I know the secret behind its source is the big question throughout the book, but how is the magic being used? Leading up to the big reveal, other than seeing a few instances of the use of magic, this could almost be an ordinary world with no magic.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

I loved this story! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for letting me listen to an early copy!

With a gatsby-esque flair, Bright Ruined Things introduces us to mousy little Mae, a ward of the glamorous Prosper family. They hold control over a magical and mysterious power, and so control all of society. With Mae turning 18, all she wants is to know magic of her own but they make it clear she will be cast out unless she marries the oldest son Ivo, a reclusive and unpleasant man. When she catches him possibly murdering a spirit, she and her true crush Miles must find out whats really going. ⁣
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Despite having a little trouble finding someone to root for in this array of characters, as they are a bit unbearable for a while each in their own unique way, the mystery had me wrapped up in it. There are quite a few twists in both plot and character, especially in our floundering main character. On the whole, I found a worthwhile story about doing what's right even when it means you could lose everything. It wasn't love, but I definitely enjoyed it.

3/5

mae has never known a life outside of the prosper family's island—where there's magic and sprits and a rich, clean energy source. and she wants nothing more than to stay, but she's turned 18 and their obligation to her has ended, and now she must find a way to convince them that she's worth sticking around.

i've sat on it and i'm still not entirely sure how to feel about this book. fitting to the great gatsby aesthetic of the cover, and the time period this book takes place in, i feel similar about the characters. they're bad people who do bad things, and i'm not necessarily rooting for them or any of their relationships, but it's still somewhat intriguing.

i think, perhaps, that the ideas here could have been a little bit more fully realized. the pacing felt a bit off to me, a very slow beginning and then everything happening at once, and it felt like there were some storylines that could've been explored more. the narrator for the audiobook, however, was excellent and i really enjoyed their performance!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* 4.5, really like this book, reminds me of another series i read but better since it did it all in one book not several lol