Christine Lee

SPOILERS I expected this book to completely enchant me and take me to a different realm at completely. Disappointingly, however, it left me feeling like I missed out on something. The plot was pretty predictable, the character development could have been improved, and it was not exactly the kind of book that left you staying up until 3am promising yourself "just one more chapter" for 6 hours. The court scenes really annoyed me every time, with almost each one giving away what was about to happen in the main plot in the next chapter. It was almost as if the court scenes were all a chapter ahead of where they should have been, and it thus took away from the sense of joy of letting the story evolve on its own. It was like a narrator saying, "okay in this chapter, a character will be kissed" and then the story proceeds and the character is kissed. It would have been better if the character was kissed, and then the narrator said, so, the character was kissed. That is, of course, if we need the court scenes at all, which honestly, I don't think we do. Not as many of them at least. I like the attempt here, to make the story flow from two different points in time, but the execution could have been handled better. The undertones of sexual harassment and rape makes the target audience of this book a bit confusing for me. It is a bit too dark to be considered an older teen / young adult (15-18) seem feasible, but the plot and action and story telling otherwise seem to indicate this target group. I also do not like that this is not resolved in the book. I understand that it is to create a deeper reasoning as to just how desperate the girls are to get their freedom, but I just feel like it is not developed enough and does not show its function enough to consider its worth for the story. There are other ways to develop the desire to escape, without bringing in rape and the questions of consent, especially in such a vague manner. All in all, I 100% would not recommend to people under at least 16, but at this point, they might have outgrown it. If you are considering it for your children, please read it yourself first and make up your mind from there. Overall, however, I genuinely think there are better things to read.