#and that made me even madder about this book bc there were multiple spots

[justthatspiffy]

so anyway here's a near incoherent book review

so i was an arc reader and i really thought it would be bad but it wasn't bad and that was a good surprise

the gifted heart by tiffany davis if you're interested

i would recommend it kind of if only because it couldn't hold my attention and i stopped reading about halfway through but i kind of want to know what happens

cool cool worldbuilding, very setting-immersive, magic system i haven't seen before (tbh one reason i cannot pay attention this little brain does not want to hold new magic systems)

its biggest flaw was i could not connect to the characters at all. i think the writing ended up more descriptive than experiential, like we did get narration on what our protag was feeling but it was so surface that either she's the flattest character in the world or we didn't get enough info. thus the romance comes off as severe internalized heteronormativity ("wow the only boy i've met who's my age, we get along" and narratively i think he was framed as a love interest but she's. literally not into him. the other guy initially is older than her which can be like exciting enticing, but it's all flat flat flat. then the other other guy is the king i guess but at that point i was too tired)

i think there's something also with the pacing, like with that lack of digging into relationality things just keep happening. event event event with little protag commentary sprinkled in give us some time show us she is wringing her hands she is sweating she is having nightmares because her whole community got slaughtered while she was away gathering herbs idk man it's. oop the knights came gotta go.

the other thing that kills me is this sort of interesting spiritscape and she's talking to the dead and controlling the pseudo-damned dead, but what could be a really unique expanse just gets hard shoved into a christian framework of "good people go to the blessed, bad people become lost" and the lost float around like shell ghosties or whatever. i love shell ghosties but i feel like i missed some lore or there's a weird thing happening here. what a way to be damned. and the way the characters talk about their fantasy religion is just. light christian "jesusfigure gives us gifts and he's guiding our paths"

i mentioned the protag feels very flat, and we're not getting deep gritty inner conflict from her (she's warranted a little more external interpersonal conflict too) and i'm like. is she a mary sue? but then her little friend learns he has the controlling planets and elements magic so whammo. surprise subtle misogyny. she's like helping him but it's weird that you're like "is the protag op" and then the author swoops in like "watch her male friend be so much more op"