DNF - writing style very messy, does not flow very well. The cover is beautiful and very eye catching but the content lets the whole book down. I think the author should go back, expend on the content and story and make sure there is not as many holes.

The main thing about this book was that it was so problematic in so many ways. I can understand a child of a Nazi being the main character. I can understand the idea of what the author was trying to do. However, all of these things were done so poorly that it hurt to read. There are a ton of stereotypes, tons of weird added folkloric elements that could have been cool had the writing not been so bad. So, this was kind of a miss for me.

This is only an excerpt - if you're interested, please read my full review here: https://thebooksintheirhands.wordpress.com/2022/04/23/voice-from-the-dead-aster-shock/

Aster Shock clearly has a great passion for writing fantasy and I would hate for them to be disheartened by my comments below – their ideas seemed to leap off the page and I was truly excited by them.

With the historical setting and the bad beginnings that Tosho had had in life, I felt that this book definitely had some great potential to explore the human condition. And I did enjoy thinking about some of the darker themes Aster touched upon; identity, death, the inescapable fate and hopelessness, for example. Unfortunately, for me, the writing only touched upon the topics, it didn’t address them nearly enough. To be honest, they just weren’t very deep.

Take Tosho himself, whose character only seems to develop a little, if at all, despite facing a number of challenges and adventures in the story. Tosho’s character does, however, seem to pick up a few meagre (and cheesy!) catchphrases which have been rinsed and repeated from the other, stereotypical characters. In all, the characters felt flat, lacking the development and personality needed for me to get invested in their fate.

Folklore and mythology seem to be thrown into the narrative haphazardly, which is such a shame. No sooner are we introduced to an interesting setting or character than they are whisked away. This caused me lots of confusion when reading – so much was happening that I found myself struggling to follow the events of the story chronologically and had to keep jumping backwards and forwards a few pages to figure out where Tosho was supposed to be, which really took away from my ability to immerse myself in the story.

As there wasn’t enough information to hear the points that Aster was making at times, I really wish I could have filled in the gaps myself. I’d have loved to peek into the author’s brain and see exactly what the author was seeing… I think this story would best be redone over the course of 2, even 3 books, where the author spends less time introducing a huge cast of characters who contribute little to the story, and more time on fleshing out her big ideas.

I did enjoy this book but it did feel as though is had enough action for at least two book. Perhaps the author could have packed less into each book, added more background and worldbuilding and created two better paced books.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

What the heck did I just read... I don't even know how to review.

I really connected to Tosho right from the beginning because he felt very realistic and his story was extremely tragic and heartbreaking, and I did root for him all the way through to have some breath of hope or light in his story.
I felt he was written very tender and a deep, knowledgable understanding to what he was going through-I felt all of the dark parts were researched and written quite well,
However, the rest of the story didn’t seem to have much as thought and solid believability behind it and at times other parts felt they hadn’t been researched well at all.
I saw another reviewer talking about how his name Theodore should’ve been without the e if it was a German-born name, and also that they felt the afterlife themes rooted throughout weren’t weaved through very well-I agree a lot… instead of being a complicated mass that had knots and tangles but also long lines of smooth, fine threads. it felt all a tangled mess of wool without any slow and smooth skeins.
I agree, also, that the Merlin part didn’t work at all-it felt a rush, knotted mess and I sadly didn’t find this section of themes believable.
Also, the development of the world around him the supporting characters often at times rushed or needed to have more weight to be believable-at times it was either not explained in a heavy amount or felt like the world building was being left to our imagination more than being written in bigger detail. Which, at times, is completely fine-leaving the reader to imagine buildings and shops and streets can work wonders,
However, to end on a better note, I felt Tosho had a great amount of care and imagination behind him and the bullying, cruel parts were very vivid and memorable scenes to me.

DNF. the first chapter was a chore to get through. not only did i dislike the main character—the child of a nazi? really? why did the author think that he would be the perfect protagonist of this story—but the writing not only needed heavy editing, it also read like a very badly written middle school creative writing essay. at first i wanted to call the prose sharp and succinct, but the further i went, the more it just became confusing, choppy, and irritating. the worldbuilding felt hastily thrown together on the author’s whims, barely introducing one aspect before bombarding me with the next. i won’t even go into depth about how laden with unconscious (or even conscious, who know) racism the author treats all the characters of color. the author either seems to have some unchecked biases, or thought that writing caricatures of poc was a good idea—it was not. i was excited to read this because the synopsis was interesting and the cover beautiful, but i put it down as quickly as i picked it up.

The premise of this book was interesting, and the author's use of the afterlife could have been a brilliant story, but I thought it was poorly executed. There was just too much information and too much happening, with very little explanation. I'm still not entirely sure what was what, who was who, and how the world worked. It feels like there was a lot of effort to world-build, but it was just never finished.
The characters were interesting, but they lacked chemistry with each other and there was very little actual character development. I would guess that was because the author was trying to work through so much world information, that there just wasn't space, and I think the story suffered for that.
There was also a large amount of missing punctuation, and especially in later chapters, repeating pages, that made it hard to stay focused on the story.

I got an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Boy, are they gonna regret giving me one.

I think this might have been the worst book I’ve read in years. The blurb says something like this: Tosho is murdered, then he has to go on an epic quest through the afterlife to find the sword of bartholomew.” Yeah. Sounds interesting enough? And my teachers always used to say that you should start with something positive when writing a critique. So here’s the positives of this book: The cover is nice, I guess? And the title is very much in line with current trends. And, as I said before, the plot description sounds nice enough.

Okay. Buckle up. Because here come the negatives.

The book opens in East Berlin, GDR. 1961. Because of course. Bad luck for our author Our main character Theodore (which infuriates me - that’s not how you spell that name in German. It should be Theodor.) is nicknamed Tosho (what??? who came up with that? someone who doesn’t know a damn thing about German naming customs and spelling rules, that’s who). He, I assume, is working at rebuilding the city, despite the fact that it is 1961 and the rebuilding effort was mostly finished by then. But what is being build at that time? The fucking Berlin Wall.
Anyway. Tosho is being called a nazi, he calls other people nazis, I honestly don’t remember because it was very confusing, and then in a sequence where the author or Tosho or whatever manages to insult the guest workers, German people, Turkish people, and manages to confuse Eid with Ramadan, Tosho dies. He’s killed. I almost cheered.


And thus ends the not-confusing part. I mean, the book is supposed to be about his journey through the afterlife, but what is this world building??? It makes no sense. The author throws together every scrap of folklore and mythology they can get their hands on. Turns out Tosho has no soul, instead MERLIN lives inside him. Yes. Merlin. That one.
I’m gonna spare you more of the plot, because it is confusing and it is infuriating. Instead, I’m gonna talk about the racism.

Not one character of color is introduced without racism. The Egyptian kid starts every sentence with “by isis” or “by Osiris” and he can only walk on sand. The mermaid is described as “exotic”. The Turkish people who try to save Tosho’s life at the beginning are caricatures of their culture (and did I mention the Eid thing? Because one quick google search would solve that problem.) It’s honestly shameful that a book is so close to publishing with so many glaring examples of racism in it. And of course, as an East German girl, the main character and the portrayal of East Germans makes me so incredibly angry.

Maybe this all could’ve been not forgiven, but bearable, if the writing had been any good. Instead, it reads like the first fanfiction a twelve-year-old me wrote after discovering One Piece and fanfiction.net. The character talk in such a stilted way that it almost hurts, with some having ridiculous catchphrases (“crikey-o-blimey!”) and so many stupid pieces of dialogue that I wanted to reach into the pages and strangle some characters.

It is absolutely unbelievable to me that a book like this is being published. Has an editor ever even looked in the general direction of this book? Because honestly, I wish I could rate this zero stars. It was terrible, and those are hours of my life that I’m never getting back.

Oh, and another positive thing to round this review out: it was a quick read (but still too long by far).

Thanks, Netgalley, and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
The writing style definitely reminds me of a Japanese light novel. Quite simple, not impactful enough in terms of mood-building, especially regarding the descriptions. That style isn't suitable for everyone. I find the plot concept very intriguing, the setting very colorful and interesting as well, but the real character development is lacking. The romance aspect also seems a little out of place. There's also not enough attention to the side characters. The novel as a whole holds great potential, but the execution definitely needs some more work.

This was a story full of potential and adventure but i felt it quite the drag to get through. There were parts where the characters were interesting and the story great but the way the writer described the setting and aspects was a chore.

This story has potential, and overall it's a great adventure with whimsical and dark aspects, worthy of telling. Sadly, the telling of it is a chore to get through, rather than a pleasure. It needs a heavy hand of editing and rewriting. The characters could be interesting, the story compelling, the setting engrossing, if only the writing was of better quality.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was very disappointed in this book because I just couldn’t get into it. It was not as interesting as I thought it was going to be. Things were happening in the book too fast to really get a firm grasp of what was going on unless you went back and reread it. I like a fast pace book but this book was so fast paced it literally left its reader behind. It left out details that could have had the reader actually get to know and care about the main character. I’m 50 pages in and I have DNF’d this book because I don’t care about this character and what he’s going through. I haven’t learned enough about him in the first 50 pages and yet I have been dragged through two harrowing ordeals that I couldn’t describe to you with any detail because there wasn’t any in the book. I’m just really sad because this book had a lot of potential and I feel like it just was a big mess.

OH MY GOSH I really enjoyed this book. Well written with well developed characters and a storyline full of action.
There were so many supernatural beings in this book from ghosts and vampires to mermaids and Gods. It was a thrilling ride and I was completely there for it. I can't wait for more from the author

I want to start this off by saying thank you to netgalley for providing me with the ARC of this book, and in return I promised an honest review so here it is!
*3.75 starts*
the first thing I loved about this book was that before you even start it, it has a list of the trigger warnings for you to check out which is so important. I know a lot of books that don’t have any, or people recommend them without any warning or advice so this was a really positive touch.
this book follows a young man who dies and has to navigate himself through the after life, but it comes with its own rules and creatures- and a plot against him. this was such a cool premise, it was so unique and as soon as I heard the description I was hooked. tosho, the main character, was super easy to read about. he had his own complex backstory and emotions, and reading about him coming to terms with his life, death, future and guilt was genuinely so interesting. I really enjoyed the other characters too, it was like a really cute found family trope. they all had such tragic backstories and ways that we could connect to them. each one was a different type of creature or had different powers so finding out all the little fun extra bits about them was cool. the main plot was fast paced, detailed and full of plot twists and turns. it genuinely is one of those books that you can’t predict what will happen next or how it will go.
I think my biggest criticism (I hate using that word) is that it was VERY complex and difficult to follow in my opinion. there were ghosts, vampires, oracles, mermaids, Greek gods, Egyptian gods, creatures made specifically for this book, ogres, pirates and even more. It was hard at times to get connected to the world and the type of creatures the characters were because so many were being thrown at you. I think if they would’ve been introduced gradually or even over two books rather than one it would have been a lot better and easier to follow. like I love the characters and the plot but I feel as though if you asked me about the world I couldn’t say much because I didn’t really fully understand? but I still really enjoyed it!