Scars of Cereba

** spoiler alert ** This book is difficult for me to rate, partly because I quite loved the first book and partly because I felt this one would be a solid four stars from me, up until the last third, when the book took a darker turn that left me a bit unsettled. I am not the type of person who dislikes certain types of endings, but I’m not really sure how to process the ending of this one, nor what purpose it is meant to serve. This review will be pretty critical, but I want to point out that I really did enjoy this book overall, especially the first two-thirds of it, it just left me feeling unsatisfied with the story in the end, like several things were missing. First, I feel as though much of the charm of the first book, with the quick banter, quest-like plot, and subtle romance was completely missing in this one, which was unfortunate because it’s what I loved most about the first book. That said, it is also understandable that much of those aspects would certainly be gone for at least the beginning of this book, considering the situation our characters are in. However, that charm never returned and I felt like already established characters were overshadowed by new ones who were certainly fascinating, but whose arc seemed to fall short and completely stop during the latter third of the book. And boy was that latter third a lot. It left me pretty unsettled and the actions of one character in particular not only shocked me, but I feel as though they were never made to actually atone for what they did. Rather, it felt as though that aspect of the story was incomplete. Craft-wise, the jumping between perspectives and memories was quite jarring at times, and it was difficult to grasp whose perspective we’re in. I certainly believe the story would have been better served if the moments in the “present” were in present tense, and the memories were in past tense, rather than past tense throughout. And that just leaves me with a conundrum on how to rate this. Despite being a little confused at times, I came to really enjoy the exploration of Falon’s “split” mind and seeing him come to reconcile that, however I don’t feel that reconciliation was given enough time to breathe once it did come. I was completely fascinated by Pharah and Lucan’s characters, but I had the impression they would play a much larger role than they do, only for their arc to seem to stutter out and die. I also loved learning more about the inherita ans the history of the memoria, but I feel as though that wasn’t explored as thoroughly as it should have been, either. And for all of the comments on how you’re still “you” even if you don’t remember, I don’t know how to process that with Sari’s actions, which felt very un-Sarilla like. In fact, this and the ending are what left me most unsettled and caused me to drop a star rating. Finally, the ending gave me some unsettling “bury your gays” vibes and I just am not sure how to feel about that, especially as it’s lacking closure on top of everything. I wanted to love this so much and I hate being so critical of it – partly because I loved the first book and partly because I know this author is capable of writing great fantasy – unfortunately this seemed to fall short in several areas for me. Nonetheless, thank you to the author for providing me an early copy to read in exchange for an honest review! I will certainly be reading more of Rachel Emma Shaw’s future works, no matter how I feel about this one!

Disclaimer: I received the e-arc from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own. Book: Scars of Cereba Author: Rachel Emma Shaw Book Series: Memoria Duology (Book 2) Rating: 4/5 Recommended For...: fantasy readers, ya readers Publication Date: May 10, 2021 Genre: YA Fantasy Recommended Age: 16+ (grief, kidnapping, TW suicide/suicidal thoughts, miscarriage TW, violence, gore) Publisher: Indie Published Pages: 300 (not an official number) Synopsis: Falon’s mind is broken. By returning his memories, Sarilla fractured him into the man he was and the man he became after his memories were stolen. Now, he’s fighting to rejoin his two halves, but he’s locked up in the prison below the palace, his neck already fitted for the hangman’s noose. Time is quickly running out. And it’s not just his memories that are fighting for control of his mind. He’s stuck with those of the memory thief who caused all his problems in the first place. The woman half of him loves, but the other half loathes. Her memories have stained his eyes black, making the people of Dranta and its new queen fear him. It’s up to Falon to find a way out of this mess, but it’s not going to be easy. Especially since all three of the people in his head have very different plans for how to go about it. Review: For the most part I really liked this book. The character development improved from the first book and the world building was well done as well. The writing is easily one of my favorite parts of the book and I really felt like it greatly improved from the first book. The only thing that I didn’t really like was that the pacing was pretty slow in a lot of places and I thought that some of the inner monologue parts, while great, went on a bit longer than necessary. Verdict: Highly recommend for fantasy lovers!