The God Of Lost Words by A.J. Hackwith

TW: Panic attacks/disorder

Rating

Review

This book wasn’t for me, and from the beginning, as I struggled to get back to it. I still don’t understand why; I was happy to be back with those characters (except for Claire), and I remembered how this universe works. Still, something didn’t make it and made me struggle. Also, the fact that the book starts nearly days after the previous one is a little disconcerting. I know that we have the same in book 2, but it didn’t bother me as much as in this one.

You have a lot of info-dumping from the first book; it’s like everything they do is related to book 1. At some point, it starts to be annoying as sometimes it feels even forced. Also, some of the scenes are rushed, even if they are essential. I know the book would be too long if they were included, and maybe they will be too similar to be interesting, but even the writing for these is rushed. This is strange as you have lyrical writing most of the book, which sometimes makes the scene lengthy, and from nowhere, everything is rushed. This strange pace and the relation with the first book made this story confusing, lengthy and sometimes boring.

Let’s talk about the characters. I was happy to be back with this cast. I like most of them, and I couldn’t wait to see how things would evolve between them. However, I didn’t have much of Brevity, and I was surprised by the relationship at the end. But, let’s talk about Claire. She didn’t change at all, which made her choice at the end surprising as her behaviour didn’t change from the beginning to the end of the book. After three books and no change in her, even Hero, a villain, evolves a little; I was bored by her part as they feel forced. Like I NEED to be a grey/villain character.
Also, as this book is significantly linked to the first book of the series, you have a lot of characters that are coming back. I was happy to have them back as I liked them, but one okay why not but nearly all of them, no. Too much! And as I said a ton of times in this review, at some point, it feels forced, again.
Nothing changes until the end for the relationship, and I would have liked to not have any romance in this book. It’s so unbelievable, like at all. It comes from nowhere, and even if I like the representation, there is no chemistry between them.

The ending is slow and long, but I like how it’s written. Also, I’m satisfied by it; for me, it’s the logical thing that can happen and conclude the series.

Overall, a good end to a series, but many elements feel forced, making the story a little dull.

Liz.