Charlotte Bentham-Clark

I was expecting a mature fantasy adventure story with varied and intelligent characters. Instead I got a YA adaptation that was trying to be edgy but missed the mark. I was expecting a complex magic system, that was wielded at different strengths by the different users. Instead I got an inconsistent and impractical light show. I was expecting strong female characters. Instead I got one with anger issues, one with puppy eyes who seemed to pine over all of the men around her, one with a surly and entitled temperament, and one whose patience seemed to be non-existent. I was expecting three best friends who looked out for eachother, with vastly different personalities and key traits. A gentle giant, a gangly lad, and a scamp. Instead I got three people who seemed to know eachother but didn't really care about eachother. One who's only character trait seemed to be that he killed his wife, one whose only interesting trait seemed to be the fact he was having a fling with the inkeepers daughter, and one who was just generally a thief and a bit of a prick. I had been expecting a complex world of hope on the cusp of demise, not a world defined by debauchery and sadism, with muted (or sometimes just downright dark) colours and whining characters. I mean even the gleeman gave me "Taken" vibes. Rather than being the multicoloured bringer of laughter and song I had been expecting, he was a brooding conman straight out of a gritty western. Ultimately, not what I was hoping for, and not an enjoyable watch even when putting those expectations aside. In fact, my dad described it best- "a medieval Coronation Street" Very disappointed. Oh and dont get me started on the snake NOT eating its own tail but spiraling down into darkness?! They completely missed the point.