[Book Review] Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

Synopsis (from Goodreads) :

Into the Crooked Place begins a gritty two-book YA fantasy series from Alexandra Christo, the author of To Kill a Kingdom.

The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive.

Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her.

Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him.

Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself.

And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge.

Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.

My rating :

3.5/5 stars

My review :

I received an arc from Pansing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, team!

Into The Crooked Place is an ambitious book. I am not a big fan of this book, but I must say the story isn’t exactly that bad at all. I almost dnf-ed this one due to boredom, but luckily I stayed until the very end. Here are my thoughts for this humble book.

I will start with the plot first. My journey with this book wasn’t that exciting. However, I loved how the plot turned out and how it grew in the end, though I must say it was slow paced and it took me quite some time to properly devour into the story enthusiastically. I liked the world buildings and the magic effects. I found them exceptionally powerful and magnificently splendid. I acknowledged them as a part of the story and I liked how it did get better and better as the story went.

However, there were times where I couldn’t properly digest the whole thing and led me to boredom. Thinking about something else while reading a book is not a good thing for me, and unfortunately, it happened when I was reading this book. I did wish to read something that is more enthusiastic and less boring. Forgive me, but the plot was a bit boring every now and then and I sincerely hope the next book will be more exciting than this one.

Next, I will be talking about the characters. The characters were great, as each of them had their own stories and powers that they held in them. I loved the friendship that the characters had, especially among the ladies. I loved that they were the highlight in this story, that’s for sure. The romance in this book was not the main highlight in this book, but yet again, the characters showed the hint themselves. There is a LGBTQ representation in this book, and you have to read this to find out the characters representing it.

However, I must say that I couldn’t relate to the characters well, to the point that I couldn’t have a connection with them as much as I wanted to. That is a bit disappointing as I wanted to love the characters with all my heart. Unfortunately, I was not able to do that, and this yet explains why I do not fancy this book as much as I wanted to.

Lastly, I will talk about the writing style. I solemnly found the dialogues entertaining and rhythmic along the way. There were lines where I could not help but laugh at them as they were seriously hilarious. I enjoyed the way this author showcased her writing skills. I must say her writing was beautiful, as if her words had agreed to rendezvous at their very places respectively, as they matched with each other perfectly well. Overall, I am positive that the writing style will not disappoint any readers in particular.

Overall, I liked this book, but I didn’t exactly enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Thank you Pansing @definitelybooks for sending this arc to me. This book will hit the bookstores in October 2019, so stay tuned for it!