Damsel by Elana K. Arnold [Book Review] 5
Summary
“The rite has existed for as long as anyone can remember: When the king dies, his son the prince must venture out into the gray lands, slay a fierce dragon, and rescue a damsel to be his bride. This is the way things have always been.
When Ama wakes in the arms of Prince Emory, she knows none of this. She has no memory of what came before she was captured by the dragon or what horrors she faced in its lair. She knows only this handsome young man, the story he tells of her rescue, and her destiny of sitting on a throne beside him. It’s all like a dream, like something from a fairy tale.
As Ama follows Emory to the kingdom of Harding, however, she discovers that not all is as it seems. There is more to the legends of the dragons and the damsels than anyone knows, and the greatest threats may not be behind her, but around her, now, and closing in.”
-From Amazon.com
Review
So, I’m actually going to start my review of this book with the rating of it, because it may save you some time from even bothering to read this review and this book.
I give this book 2/5 teacups.
Now we can get into why I thought the book was just so bad.
This book was definitely not YA!
This book is classified as YA Fantasy, but holy crap was it not. First off, there were some seriously messed up undertones of rape, sexual assault, the injury of animals and even some subtle bestiality undertones (with dragons, but that doesn’t matter). I honestly hated the fact that the Prince/King in the book was so controlling and kept making it seem like he saved this female constantly saying, “I saved you” over and over. Like shut up, we get it.
Then he comes into her room at night and pretty much almost rapes her. And she’s like “Oh, it’s okay, he’s going to be my husband, he saved me” which kind of gave me some Stockholm Syndrome vibes or something.
And then when they are talking about how to tame a dragon, I was like “WHAT THE F^*& IS GOING ON HERE?!” I had to read it a few times to make sure I read it right. Like, what the hell was the author thinking?!
The writing was so simple and…well, crappy.
For me, the writing was just so poor! It felt so jumpy, the style was too plain and I felt like this was some book that had been self-published. For a author who was a National Book Award Finalist, this book was so just nothing. For a younger YA read maybe, but due to the themes, this was not for younger YA at all, if any YA in general.
Feminist book? More like ‘women should know their place’ book.
For the ‘reviews’ on the cover talking about how this was a story of feminine power, I’d like to know what they were drinking! Until the last like….15 pages, nothing remotely feminist happened and then it was just like “here, take this, the end.” Honestly, I don’t even know what was going on with that ending. It was like there should have been so much more but the author just ended it.
Had potential but just delivered so poorly.
This was one of those books that the idea was fantastic and it could have been an amazing book! Like, it really had the potential for that, but because the author just did such a poor job in writing the story and developing it, it was just…so bad. I’m sorry. I don’t generally really dislike books but I do. When I finished it I was mixed, then I read other peoples interpretations of the book and reanalyzed my reading of it – I also did read it fast because I just had to get through it and be done. So, no, just no.
Only plus, has a gorgeous cover.
As you can see, the cover was my draw in. It caught my attention on the stand which is why I grabbed it and I also thought, from the summary, it would be good. But, sadly the story disappointed. However, the cover is really quite beautiful. So that’s one of the only reasons I gave it a 2 star and not 1 (also because I rarely give 1, but this came really close).
Overall, this is a miss.
Honestly, I don’t generally say to avoid books, but this one is one to just…not. I don’t know how these people who wrote the reviews inside the book actually enjoyed it as it was so poor…I feel like I wasted my time reading it, I’m sorry to say. And I really hate when that happens.
Happy Reading (other books)!
