Kingdom of Readers

As always, I went into this book blind, other than knowing it definitely falls into the mainstream category, boasting over 80,000 reviews on Goodreads with a solid 4.01-star rating.

Now that I’ve finished, I’m left wondering… is it really worth that rating? Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, but I was expecting something a bit… better? I ended up giving it a 3.5/5, erring on the side of 3.

It was entertaining enough, I SUPPOSE. I stayed engaged and enjoyed it while reading, but there wasn’t anything about the writing that made me feel like I had to keep going to find out what happened next. There just wasn’t much suspense… neither exciting twists nor truly dramatic moments to keep me on edge.

From the start, one of the first things that crossed my mind was, “This feels very young adult.” After learning that this book is a spin-off from a YA series (again, I did zero research before picking this up), it makes sense why I felt that way.

The writing style overall just… wasn’t great. In fact, the first chapters had me questioning if I’d make it through the whole story—not because of the plot, but because of the writing itself!

It had this old-school, preppy vibe, using words like “rake” to describe men, which honestly just distracted me. Then, other parts of the writing were overstuffed with adjectives, like a high schooler adding unnecessary filler to an essay.

Once I pushed through that, the next challenge was the characters repeating themselves. I found myself thinking, “OMG, we GET it. You don’t need to state the same f***ing thing again.” Way too many times.

Seriously, just… chill. We get it.

But as I said… the story itself wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good either. Overall, it was pretty predictable—even to the point where I saw the big betrayal “twist” coming before it even happened… but it did have some good moments.

For example…. I did enjoy the trope of him falling first.

….

Okay, listen… there were other positives, I’m just not sure what they are right now… It’s like writing a Google review—the bad stuff just comes to mind first.

All in all, it wasn’t anything special. It didn’t blow me away, nor did it make me want to talk about it in great detail. It took me about three weeks on and off to finish, which says a lot… but you know, read it if you’re so inclined.

P.S. I’m not really interested in the other characters or books in the series, but I’d definitely check out a story about Blade.