I was seriously captivated by book one even though it was very clearly written by a amateur author. I was excited when this one came out, but when I finally finished the book series I was on, this reviews for this book had exploded.
Warnings of “woke agendas” and “barely any” ryun screen time, had me keeping my distance.
But one day I couldn’t find anything new and this was at the top of my wishlist, so I grabbed it.
In the end I was very confused by the terrible reviews:
– is there a non binary person? yes.
they get introduced and are in a dungeon crawl where “they/them” wording confused me who is being rendered to. thats it.
– was it necessary? sorta.
it helps portray who Zach is leading to the next part.
– does Zach have a Trans girlfriend? this is a solid no. But he does get a girlfriend that can change bodies and genders. it is a weird concept, but again no agenda being pushed.
-does Zach have more screen time then Ryan? yes.
He gets MAYBE two chapters more. Book one had us fall in love with Ryun and hate Zach, book two worked more to flesh Zach out and show the reader his growth. By the end of this book, I still didn’t like Zach but I certainly understood him a lot more.
-are there a lot of stat sheets? sadly, yes.
This is one thing reviews definitely had right. there are several places where a new character is introduced in a side story, they get a 5 to 10 minute story, followed by 15 minutes of full stat reading. Very painful.
I unashamedly fast forwarded through most of those parts, and didn’t really miss anything
Review:
This is a very solid 4 star book. Could easily be a 5 star with a bit of editing, and (for the love of god) fewer full stat sheets.
the portrayal of the characters and world is amazing! this whole story does an excellent telling of psychological pain, struggle, and growth. It is surprisingly well done for such an amateur author.