Kira Kovi

Honestly the first book in the series was good, but gave me doubts with the writing. I decided to read the second before coming to any conclusions. Mare is an incredibly unlikeable protagonist and over half of her dialogue is either reminding herself of how special and different she is "I'm the lightning girl." Or self pitying "I have to hide who I am. I can't smile or make friends. I can never trust anyone" the other half is her shallow and removed narrative about events around her. Because it's written in first person, much of the other characters are not fleshed out or feel real. It's a very face value relationship colored by Mare's view, which unfortunately is rather limited. She cannot see outside of her own agendas and when stressful situations occur we are swallowed into her spiralling thoughts with no insight or narrative into whatever else is happening in the scene, which makes following the story rather difficult as the author tries to portray the trauma of the situation but inadvertently causes us as the reader to feel disconnected to the story. Mare's motivations also seem disconnected and without reason, almost as a way to incite drama or even as a plot device. (She wants to create a revolution but also refuses to do anything that might put her "people" at risk. Like stopping a slaughter of children. But in the same breath she will risk her brother and others "for the cause".) Overall I will not be continuing with this series, it feels better geared to a much younger audience than myself. Someone looking for a simple narrative and who doesn't care about character development or relationships.