Rating: 4 stars
Mia Corvere has a burdensome task: avenging the deaths of her mother, father, and brother. Deaths that haunt her dreams, asleep and awake. Her best chance at killing the men who are responsible for her loss is by finding and attending the Red Church, an infamous school for aspiring assassins that is hidden from and sought out by the corrupted Republic that rules Mia's country. Mia has to not only prove her worth as a deadly assassin, but also decide if revenge is worth sacrificing her humanity.
I am so conflicted about this book! I almost feel too generous giving it four stars because of how boring the first 70% of the book is. A book that is boring for literally more than half of it should not get to be 4 stars!! But then I'd feel guilty giving this only 3 stars for how good the last 30% was... Like I said, I'm conflicted.
The wolf does not pity the lamb. The storm begs no forgiveness of the drowned. We are killers one, killers all.
I think I'm outside the norm on this one. Most people either love or hate this book, no in-between. I just couldn't care about the characters or plot or story throughout the beginning-middle. Contrary to popular opinion, I did not think that the world-building was good at all. I had no idea what was going on. The best part of the first half of the book was learning Mia's backstory (the part in italics). Other than that, I was bored to death with the Whitherwastes part, the entry to the school, the training; all of it was just so dry. I didn't even think Mia was a super compelling character, despite her backstory, until 80% of the way through. Because of the nature of the story, I can't help but compare it to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. The worlds are just very similar. And this one was so much worse than Six of Crows, but admittedly that one is really good so it's hard to measure up to it.
After I got to the part where the competitions (that determine who gets to be a Blade and thus continue studying assassination at the Red Church) are two weeks away, I finally got into the story. There were plot twists and betrayals, emotions running high, deaths; it was really great. I was very enraptured, and I just had to keep reading. I wish the entire book had been like that. Because of the thrill, the emotion, and the shock that I felt in the ending (last ~25%), I bumped this rating up to 4 stars. Beware those who want to start this novel though: the beginning (like half!) is both BORING and CONFUSING.
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