a person who enjoys roman legends and ancient Greek myths, I am always excited about modern retellings or new versions of them, However, this book is disappointing, It is good for ayears old author, The writing of the book reminded me a lot about adystopian written teenage book,
First
of all, the main character, Electa Steel, is flat as the other characters, Even the author describes Electa in a conversation with the main character as 'not like other girls',
Furthermore, it is a dystopian book but there are many similarities with The Hunger Games sitelinkThe Hunger Games e, g. Casimo and the first view of Electa from the others and even a few aspects of The Giver sitelinkThe Giver e, g. weather control. I have read some of the other comments about this book and some mentioned that a few parts remind them of DivergentsitelinkDivergent and Red Queen sitelinkRed Queen.
Personally, I have never read those books but I heard what they are about,
Additionally, the author wrote too many details, For example, Woodman mentioned suddenly the favorite purple Jacket of one of the princes and then we never heard about it, Main ideas like the Choosing, the Greys, and the family of the main character were often mentioned but there were not a lot of explanations, and questions never got answered.
Why is the Choosing at the age ofyears and how is it possible that all minors go to the war, even when they attend one year of training Also, the mother of Electa was unchosen so she went to war probably.
The fact that teenagers get married early was dragged up at the end of the book and get children at a young age was got never addressed.
What I noticed was that when there was a problem, the solution was fast found with the explanation, the story plays in the future, One of those scenes is, when suddenly Aria got bloodthirsty because of a drug, it could have a deeper meaning or been a manipulating mind move by someone other, it would be made more interesting or, when Electa went to the 'outside world', she wore a mask through security which made her look different and nobody noticed it.
My question is, how is it possible that the ULA does not know about such technology
Electra's brother gets kidnapped and tortured but I had the feeling that Lana was more important to Electa than her own brother.
It seemed to me, Electa forgot sometimes about her brother or that she only wanted to rescue him because of the fact he is her brother,
The book takes place in an alternative world where 'Rome had never fallen', Nonetheless, Woodmen address the gods, but with their greek names p,. The ancient Roman Empire used different names, for Zeus, they used Jupiter, and instead of Hades, they said Pluto, Also, the map of the world it plays is disappointing, it is still a fictional world but the map reminds me a lot of The United States of America.
On the other side, those are just small details,
My book version haspages, so they may be some differences when I mark a page,
Lastly, I am not a native speaker of English, Please forgive me for my grama and Punctuation, I found out about this book on TikTok and was immediately sold when it was advertised as Greek/Roman mythology and enemiestolovers, What I did not expect, was for it to be a complete ripoff of The Hunger Games,The Selection, Divergent and Red Queen, Did I mention The Hunger Games It's like MJ copied the entire Hunger Games,tweaked it a little and sprinkled in some DivergentThe Choosing, The Selection Competing with other girls who are much richer than the protagonist for the hand of the prince, Red Queen The "plot twist".
The extreme lack of originality made me want to obliviate this book from it's very existence, The Walmart Caesar Flickerman The Dollar Tree Prim/Rue Not to mention the terrible characters, The "I'm not like other girls" protagonist, the first main love interest with the personality of a wet cabbage and only attractive qualities about him is that he's the prince and has a pretty face, the second main love interest who is literally ayearold that falls in love with ayear old withinseconds of meeting her.
The love triangle between the protagonist and herlove interests hurts my soul, I will go so far as to say that the love triangle between Korra,Asami and Mako in Legend of Korra was wayyyy better than whatever the fck MJ has going on here.
Like please enlighten me on why almost every male character falls in love or wants to be friends with Electa and every female character hates her, Are you seriously gonna tell me it's because she's pretty Is that really how deep we're gonna go Also what happened between the firstchapters I thought I had accidentally skipped a few chapters.
Like Electa went from getting beaten up to meeting Asher withinpages, On top of that she justifies being extremely rude for absolutely no reason by constantly saying she's not like other girlssomething she actually says in the book.
Lysander's character was okay I guess except for the falling in love with a minor who is significantly younger than him part, Let me also reiterate that the author advertised this book as an enemiestolover, All I can say,as Khloe Kardashian would,"LIAR!", All in all, this book was trying to be too many things at the same time and failed miserably, There is a potent lack of originality, terribly written characters characters, and poor worldbuildingI could write a whole essay on this smh, Honestly wish I didn't spendon this monstrosity of a book, I've read this book twice and i still don't know what a grey or the ore is, Wow, wow, WOW holy gods, THAT ENDING,
Okay where do I begin, . Roman world Check. Latin Check. Death Check. Betrayal Check. Secret agent Check.
First of all, I LOVE Electa, I love her character a hell of a lot, Shes put in such a bad position and really does try to make the most of it despite all her many hardships, You can see her clearly struggle on who the real enemy is, and at this point, it seems like both sides are the enemy,
This book was very well written and I cant wait for MJ to release the sequel to it, because Ive got lots and lots of questions!
Is Electa okay Is Lysander divine as well When will we met Castel IS ATLAS OKAY!
I loved the use of Latin throughout the book, it made it a better reading experience for me at least.
For a debut novel, MJ has done an incredible job and I hope she feels nothing but pride for this book, Shes done a wonderful job with it and I cant wait for the sequel and her next series, .