Name: Emily B's review of She Who Rides the Storm by Caitlin Sangster
Item: She Who Rides the Storm
Author: Emily B

Caitlin Sangster

In this atmospheric YA fantasy that is Wicked Saints meets There Will Come a Darkness, four teens are drawn into a high-stakes heist in the perilous tomb of an ancient shapeshifter king. Long ago, shapeshifting monsters ruled the Commonwealth using blasphemous magic that fed on the souls of their subjects. Now, hundreds of years later, a new tomb has been uncovered, and despite the legends that disturbing a shapeshifter’s final resting place will wake them once again, the Warlord is determined to dig it up. But it isn’t just the Warlord who means to brave the traps and pitfalls guarding the crypt. A healer obsessed with tracking down the man who murdered her twin brother. A runaway member of the Warlord’s Devoted order, haunted by his sister’s ghost. A snotty archaeologist bent on finding the cure to his magical wasting disease. A girl desperate to escape the cloistered life she didn’t choose. All four are out to steal the same cursed sword rumored to be at the very bottom of the tomb. But of course, some treasures should never see the light of day, and some secrets are best left buried…

She Who Rides the Storm

Hannah Hoskins

Unfortunately, I just do not feel inclined to continue this. Other than Lia, I did not really connect to the characters, and I felt that the plot was not offering me enough of a hook. I know a lot of people say in reviews of this book to "wait until the end" because of the last hundred pages. But in my opinion, if your book only gets good in the last little bit instead of having a good time through the whole story, then I don't think it's worth it. I can tell that this is written well, but I just felt a huge disconnect, and right now, I don't have the patience for such a slow-moving plot. This was just not for me.

Emily B

DNF Page 130

Unfortunately, I just do not feel inclined to continue this. Other than Lia, I did not really connect to the characters, and I felt that the plot was not offering me enough of a hook. I know a lot of people say in reviews of this book to "wait until the end" because of the last hundred pages. But in my opinion, if your book only gets good in the last little bit instead of having a good time through the whole story, then I don't think it's worth it. I can tell that this is written well, but I just felt a huge disconnect, and right now, I don't have the patience for such a slow-moving plot. This was just not for me.

Julie Janis

This was a high 4 star for me. An incredible, true epic fantasy that took turns I wasn't expecting! Loved the characters, the world was unique, the romance was just enough (and I look forward for more in the sequel) and the magic reminded me of a Brandon Sanderson magic system. It's also written very well. Highly recommend!

Deborah Kerr

Unpopular opinion time.

This book is to me, as I am to my parents: a giant disappointment.

It is blurbed by The Man Himself, Brandon Sanderson, as "A tightly woven fantasy heist with memorable characters and a killer premise." Other than having a killer premise, none of these things were true.

"A tightly woven fantasy heist"-- More like a meandering walk through the most boring park of all time.

This book is peddled as having a plot where our main characters are racing to enter a dangerous, recently uncovered tomb and try to steal a sword of potentially unlimited power. That is a plot I am here for. Unfortunately, that is literally the opposite of what happened. The tomb is being excavated on page 87, but the "race" for the sword doesn't start until the last 40ish pages? And at that point, is it even a race? We just spent 500 pages on side-quests and talking (oh my god, so much expositional talking) about who we are and what we want and blah, blah, blah--how is that a "tightly woven heist?"

At 595 pages, this book could've lost 150-200 pages and still functioned comprehensively--in fact, cutting down the extraneous detail, subplots, and absolute nonsense backstories/world-building (can it be called world-building if it doesn't add to the world?) would have made this book significantly easier to digest and more exciting to read.

"Memorable characters"-- The characters were pretty "meh" all the way around.

They weren't terrible, but they weren't standouts either. I didn't hate Anwei, Knox, Lia, or Mateo... I didn't feel attached to them either. They all had their thing that made them special: Anwei and her sense of smell, Knox and his connection to Casta and Willow, Mateo and his sickness, and Lia's thing is a spoiler--but unfortunately, all of the main four except Lia, lose their thing along the way. Anwei's sense of smell is HEAVILY used in the first chapter and then only mentioned at times of plot convenience the rest of the book. Knox and his connection to Casta and Willow--once again, only when convenient to the plot. Mateo's sickness is more prominent, but for a dying character, we get maybe a line or two about how terrible he feels when we are in his perspective. Let me repeat: he is dying, and in 595p, we only get a line or two about how he physically feels. WHAT?

Lia's "thing" is the only one that wasn't lost along the way, and honestly, at this point, I think that was just a happy accident.

Again: the characters and their relationships weren't terrible. Unfortunately, there was nothing original or exciting to them either. Anwei is your typical "special snowflake, not like other girls, powerful" female protag. Knox is every "in love with my female best friend, but can't act on it for reasons" male protag. Lia is down to her red hair and small stature every "don't underestimate me, I can kill you with just a look" badass female protag. And Mateo was every single "Sarcasm and smarts are my only defining attributes" male character. 

Every interaction in this book went exactly the way I anticipated it would, which is... not great. 

"With a killer premise"-- the premise was dope, it was executed poorly, though.
 
I appreciate the world-building tactic Sangster took--write the book like the reader lives in the world and let them figure everything out with context clues. The problem was... there weren't enough context clues? From explaining who aukincers and khonins are to auras and how they work to getting a better grasp on the Devoted and what they do/the fact that there are different types of Devoted, we aren't given any of that--and those facts are central to the story. As a fantasy reader, if I don't understand the rules of your world, how am I supposed to be blown away when you bend and break them?

Ultimately everything in this book was either murky or was derivative of every YA fantasy I've read before. If this book came out in 2012, I probably would've felt differently about it, but YA fantasy is a juggernaut genre full of excellent series with original plots, compelling characters, and mind-bending world-building.

This book didn't do it for me at all.

Hannah Hoskins &
She Who Rides the Storm by Caitlin Sangster

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Hannah Hoskins &She Who Rides the Storm by Caitlin Sangster

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Hannah Hoskins &
She Who Rides the Storm by Caitlin Sangster