I have been seeing so many glowing reviews for this book for a couple years now I feel, so I finally gave it a listen. I gotta say, I am pretty disappointed. the first half of the book was overall very boring and slow. I was tempted to stop listening on multiple occasions due to just getting into the story nor the characters. At the halfway point, the waiting pays off and you are treated to some great action and memorable moments. and the thought was “here we go, now the real story is beginning!” and wanted to see where the action was leading us… only to have the second half of the book be a depressing, slow trudging through a wind down and conclusion. I have never listened to a book before that I constantly was checking to see how much longer before it was over so I could move on.
spoilers below:
off the top of my head everything just irked me about this book. The world they live in is just odd, like the author was just trying hard to make a hodge podge of fantasy, asian, and sci-fi. it constantly took me out of the story when we would spend all our time in what amounts to a feudal Japanese village of sword fighters, blacksmiths, and fishermen and then have random things like airplanes, guns, bombs, cars, televisions, cell phone towers, and characters using tablets for no reason, they added nothing to the story and just made it all feel out of place.
The only character I really cared about by the time you get to the battle in the middle of the book was Mamoru. He was likeable and strong but had flaws he was working through, then they killed him. I’m not against killing a main character, but when it’s the only one worth following I was not thrilled. Misaki was OK, but I felt she as a person was just shameful and I just can’t enjoy being in the head of someone that has so many things I find unpleasant. She is a horrible mom, a horrible wife (and I’m not giving Takeru a pass, he’s a bad husband and father as well, but he’s not a main character for the majority of the book). Her background was interesting but a little humorous in that she was an actual (check notes) crime fighting superhero on a super team for a part time job while in high school haha, But the woe is me character she is the rest of the book was something I wanted to skip through. I also didn’t like that Takeru was given a redemption arc at the end to go from being nothing but a vacant, ice cold husband who doesn’t care about his wife and kids, to suddenly being a misunderstood man who’s frail and needs his wife to fix him and be his rock, and boom! he’s now prince charming, has all the answers, a born leader, and an active father who is helping raise his kids. oh and they are now in love and life is becoming great! but who’s this that randomly shows up for the final hour of the book! why it’s Robin! her high school boyfriend! oh man, the chemistry is still there… she can feel the heat coming from him and is longing to touch him! and that’s basically the end… that whole thing with Robin at the end was so utterly pointless and resolved nothing in the story and a very strange way to end a book lol. like I said, this book was overall just not good in my opinion. I have lost faith in my fellow readers that have put this on a pillar.