Disclaimer: New format time! I’m still not sure on a review format that works for me, or for this website. Eventually, I will decide on something that I like, but for now, I’m still experimenting. I’m sure that this shows that I’m an indecisive person, but I must say that I like change. I may be consistent with my writing, but my environment always changes and while I may be satisfied with a layout or format one day, a few days or weeks down the road, I may change it. Please go into this blog like I went into Avengers: Infinity War: expect nothing and everything. With that being said, let’s get on to the review!
So this review took me a long time to write because I didn’t know how to write it. Seriously. I don’t know how I felt about this book, because I’ve heard so much hype from it.
The Smoke Thieves is about five young people from different walks of life that are all connected by one thing: an illegal bottle of demon smoke, which is what is left from demons once they’ve died. One is a princess, one is a young demon hunter, one is a thief, one is a rogue soldier, and one is a servant that wants revenge.
To be completely honest, I didn’t think that the book was worth the hype.
Sure, it was a good book, but I can’t call it fantastic or revolutionary. The concept was different–being all connected by one thing–but I was only interested in one person’s story, and that happened to be the thief’s.
The princess’s side of things was intriguing, yes, but I wasn’t endeared to her. I wasn’t curious about her, because I’ve seen it before: a tyrant father, brothers who believe that they know what’s best for her, all that jazz.
The young demon hunter, while feisty, felt like she was only there to move the plot along.
The servant was being used by someone else and was manipulated into his actions because of his thirst for revenge, and he, like the demon hunter, moved the plot along as well.
I felt like the soldier didn’t even need to be in this story. He had no true personality to me, and I thought he was in just for expository information.
The thief was someone who came in out of nowhere. With the servant, there was a bit of a leadup to his identity, but he wasn’t introduced in the beginning the way that everyone else was, and that’s probably why I wanted to know more about him.
I wanted to see more of the demons that everyone was so worried about. I wanted a little bit more romance (I’m a sucker for a good romance) and not just a hint of some. Although, if there is romance and a second book, I hope something more develops there.
There’s a lot that I wanted to see more of, but I generally thought that this book was okay. It was a pretty big book, all things considering, and the cover was pretty, but I was left unsatisfied. If and when the sequel comes out, I might be interested enough to read it, but who knows at this point. Maybe this book will be the Captain America: The First Avenger of this series.
kannaree.com 