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Shadow Frost
Jan. 8th, 2024 03:48 pmI got hold of a copy of Shadow Frost by Coco Ma because I thought it might make a good comparison book for one of my novels, once I'm ready to send it out to agents.
It's about a princess who is tasked with hunting down and killing a demon that's ravaging the countryside in her realm.
I liked it initially. The worldbuilding and magic system are interesting and well developed, there's a good range of characters, and plenty of intrigue and excitement.
But the teenage melodrama of it all wore me down over time.
The antagonistic triangle that's set up between the princess, her guardian and a new, slightly mysterious envoy from a different realm made no sense because it was made clear the guardian had no romantic feelings towards the princess. Plus, the posturing between the two boys happened at several very inappropriate moments in terms of what else was going on (eg during and after a fight where several of the group nearly died).
I had a similar issue when something very traumatic happened that upset a lot of the characters and brought up very powerful, emotive memories for several of them (and the flashbacks were very well written) - but then they were laughing and joking and flirting with each other almost immediately afterwards.
Now, I don't mind a bit of banter in books and I expect some teen angst and silliness in YA books - and initially I thought the interactions between the characters were really good. And if it had been clearly presented as a reaction to what had happened, it might have worked - but it wasn't. So it just came across as very jarring and made me dislike the characters and lost interest in their developing relationships.
So, I gave up just over a third of the way through (especially since I discovered it's the first in a trilogy) - which is a shame because there was a lot to like about it.
It's about a princess who is tasked with hunting down and killing a demon that's ravaging the countryside in her realm.
I liked it initially. The worldbuilding and magic system are interesting and well developed, there's a good range of characters, and plenty of intrigue and excitement.
But the teenage melodrama of it all wore me down over time.
The antagonistic triangle that's set up between the princess, her guardian and a new, slightly mysterious envoy from a different realm made no sense because it was made clear the guardian had no romantic feelings towards the princess. Plus, the posturing between the two boys happened at several very inappropriate moments in terms of what else was going on (eg during and after a fight where several of the group nearly died).
I had a similar issue when something very traumatic happened that upset a lot of the characters and brought up very powerful, emotive memories for several of them (and the flashbacks were very well written) - but then they were laughing and joking and flirting with each other almost immediately afterwards.
Now, I don't mind a bit of banter in books and I expect some teen angst and silliness in YA books - and initially I thought the interactions between the characters were really good. And if it had been clearly presented as a reaction to what had happened, it might have worked - but it wasn't. So it just came across as very jarring and made me dislike the characters and lost interest in their developing relationships.
So, I gave up just over a third of the way through (especially since I discovered it's the first in a trilogy) - which is a shame because there was a lot to like about it.
