"I Am a Barbarian" by Alex Evans is a thought-provoking exploration of societal complexities and personal identity. The novel navigates the challenges of a world in flux, offering glimpses into the lives of characters grappling with the consequences of their actions.
Evans brings a raw intensity to the narrative, capturing the essence of the characters' struggles. The thematic exploration of power dynamics, morality, and survival adds depth to the storytelling.
However, the novel's execution is uneven, impacting the overall reading experience. At times, the pacing feels disjointed, hindering the immersive quality of the narrative. Some sections could benefit from further refinement to enhance coherence.
"I Am a Barbarian" presents a captivating concept, but the execution leaves room for improvement. Despite its unevenness, the novel offers moments of brilliance that make it worth exploring for readers intrigued by intricate explorations of societal and personal challenges.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I requested this book because I thought by reading the synopsis that the story had potential. Unfortunately, I found that this potential was either unexploited or badly exploited.

The story follows Delta, a fourteen-year-old teenage girl on her way to Samarzal, where she will go to school. More exactly, the story is about her journey to Samarzal with her caravan, and all the dangers she and the members of the caravan will encounter on the way. When reading the synopsis, I was really intrigued by the story because it is about a trip rather than a quest or an adventure, and it isn’t something I have seen very often in fantasy.

Much to my disappointment, the book did not live up to my expectations. The only good thing I have to say about it is there was POC and queer casual representation and that I enjoyed that.

My first problem with this book was that a lot went unexplained and a lot was confusing. The author obviously put a lot of thought into the worldbuilding and the characters’ backstories but most of it was not well-explained. The book starts in media res, which is usually great, but this time too much was happening at once or in close succession, while the reader still knew nothing about any of the characters or the worldbuilding. And yet the author acted as though we did, which was only confusing. Another thing that really bothered me is that after this opening where a lot is happening, the rest of the plot felt flat to me. Now, this is mostly a matter of personal preference and perception, but I was bored for most of the book because not much happened and when something happened, it was usually over quickly. This could have been compensated by the characters and their arcs, but unfortunately, I found that aspect lacking too. Again, it’s obvious the author tried and cared about the characters, but there is still room for progress. I think the book would have been more interesting overall if the major plot points, the characters, and the relationships were developed more in depth while the daily life of the journey was less talked about.

My second problem is inherently a matter of personal preference and pertains to the writing style. I personally didn’t like it much, which made reading the book a less pleasant experience than it could have been regarldless of the problems aforementioned. I also felt like dialogue was a bit forced and that there was often too much of it, without much of Delta’s thoughts to counterbalance that, which is not what I tend to look for in a narration.

At last, and this is more about the form of the book than its content, I noticed several typos in here, which didn’t hinder my reading but that were more numerous than they tend to be, so the publisher might want to check again for them.

Overall, this was a rather disappointing read for me because while the story definitely has potential, I found it remained largely unexploited.

Delta has only known the nomadic life as she travels the continent with her family. At fourteen, it has been decided that she will attend a sorcery academy which will require its own new journey. She will not be alone, but the path ahead has numerous dangerous creatures. Even with all the risks … friendships are created. What dark secrets will Delta uncover along the way? Will Delta survive the perilous journey?

I Am a Barbarian is a stand-alone adventure that starts strong and fizzles out quickly. It is a short read, so readers don’t have to give it a large commitment, but that is the only saving grace. I wanted to like the book, the description sounded great, but I found my mind wandering constantly and I had to restart chapters to figure out what was going on. I have to tell readers they probably should pass this one up.

“I Am A Barbarian” by Alex Evans is a fantasy YA book about a girl named Delta. Delta, with her family, is on her way to sorcery academy in the city of Samarzal. The caravan she is in with many other characters has a long journey ahead full of trials and dangers. They are plagued by demons, necromancers, untrustworthy locals, and dangerous animals. Delta and the other interesting people in the caravan start to build relationships and unlock secrets along the way.

The book is full of magic and peril which is good for readers that love an epic-like vibe in their stories. One of the things I didn’t like about the book was that you are thrown into the story really fast, and a bunch of world building things were difficult to understand because it was so quick and then off to the next one. Also, a lot of the characters got confused, and I had to go back track to figure out who is who. With the characters as well, the story was so fast that I didn’t feel connected to many characters on an emotional level, so I didn’t really care when bad things happened to them. This book has loads of action and it holds so much promise for the story in future books, I just think it would have been better if it was longer so things could be described, and characters developed a bit more. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars, good but confusing and rushed.

One of the top things about this book is that we start the story, and we go straight to the story instead of trying to understand the world-building that sometimes gets quite confusing. In this book we have a good world-building with a lot of action through the story that has an interesting and intriguing setting.

The book was a bit confusing because there’re many people and places being introduced and sometimes, I felt lost and had to go back to understand who we’re reading about. But the writing style was easy to read, and the mysterious setting compensated.

I really enjoyed this book, overall, the plot was very well accomplished, and I highly recommended it since it goes by so quickly. I’m keeping an eye on the author next books.

Thank you, NetGalley for approving me to read this arc and write this review.

I Am A Barbarian by Alex Evans started out strong. The author brings you straight into the story without wasting time on lengthy and confusing descriptions, which I was thankful for, since it can sometimes be difficult to start a book when it’s just all world building and no plot in the beginning.

The main character Delta is on a journey through her world, with a bit of a secret. She’s not who you think she is. But don’t worry, it doesn’t take long before you find out this intriguing plot point. The continuous action and mystery is what will keep you reading. What sets this book apart from other fantasy reads is its unique characters and creatures.

I do wish I didn’t have to write this next part of my review because I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It started out great, and I guess I expected a lot from it. Unfortunately, I was confused for much of the rest of the novel.

Though I appreciated getting straight into the action at first, the world building was a bit more lacking than I would have liked. There were some parts where certain parts fell flat and I had to reread to wrap my head around the transitions from one part of the action to another. I often found myself questioning what the point was because there didn’t seem to be much of a central plot holding the action together. And while I don’t wish for books to be predictable, I kind of felt like I needed to know where it was all going and why.

I also felt that the characterizations were somewhat lacking as well. It was hard to keep track of all the names and who they belonged to. The descriptive words about the characters such as “cameleer” and “bard”, while I understood their meaning, did not connect to actual names in my head… so when the writing switched to using their given names, I was like “wait, who are we even talking about here?” The writing often confused me because the pronouns were not connecting to the right characters, so I sometimes didn’t know who was speaking or being spoken about.

One other thing I want to mention is that I didn’t understand the point of the introduction of some characters. It was so difficult to figure out who was important because characters that spoke a lot in the beginning or middle were suddenly just left behind or dead with no seeming point to their existence in the first place. Not to mention there was no stopping to mourn these characters and no hesitation to continue to the next part of the journey immediately.

I really did want to like this book more than I did. It has a great premise which seemed pretty unique. But the execution wasn’t there for me. I would give this book 2.5 stars out of 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for sending me this ebook copy!

I'm going to be honest. I got extremely lost and confused between all the names of both people and places introduced in chapters 1 and 2. I had to re-read them just to make heads or tails of who Delta was speaking with or about. This made me lose the drive to finish the book. As of right now I have made it to chapter 3 and called it quits. I know this is not what any author wants to hear, but I am sorry.

The story was great and high action immediately. Lot's of danger out of the first few chapters and they don't really let up. There were a few sad moments that touched me a bit too. The religious or spirtual system in this world that is not entirely explained at first. The expressions characters use is your first idication of this system and you get a sense of it as they explain it. I love a good spiritual system.
There are issues with too many characters being introduced right away. This being said, most characters have a different speech style. Once I discovered this, it got easier to track who is who.
Writing is very precise one paragraph then sloppy the next. Some paragraphs are just one word descriptions with comma after comma. This gets less frequent as the book progresses. Some reader my have a hard time with comprehension because of it not being everyday English.
Overall, hard to start but once you get into it, great story.

This was a fun adventure story! I'd hoped for more regarding the worldbuilding and character work, but overall, I can definitely see the potential. Will be on the lookout for the author's next works.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The world building was very well written. The plot line was also well done. The romance was top tier. I would highly recommend!

This story follows young girl named Delta who is on a jouney with the Crescent Moon Caravan.
Due to an unfortunate event, they cannot continue their journey along the usual route. They decide to go down a very dangerous path.

The story is exciting, easy to read, and it goes by quickly.

But I have to admit that there were parts where I was left confused (the part about gods) but it didn't detract from the book much.

I also liked the characters and their realitionships, the setting was really interesting and magical, I wish there were more stories from this world.

Although I know I would have liked it better if it was longer.

3.5 stars

This book has lots of action, but I also feel it has lots of nothing actually happening. I would read the next one just to find out if something is actually going to advance the plot.

The world-building is good, and I like the main character, Delta as she journeys with her cousin and uncle to get to her school. However, a series of deadly events take place derailing the journey, which is why the plot never really advances too much.