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A review by cece_rants_raves_reviews
Elysian by Rebecca Queen
4.0
**I was provided with an ARC for an honest review.**
I am actually embarrassed by how much I underestimated this book. I. Was. Wrong!
Within this one DEBUT book, the author creates 3 brilliantly beautiful plot developments of Human tier, Magic tier, and Gods tier.
Human Tier— this was some basic YA beginning. High school cliche girl discovering powers from defending herself and, of course, random hot guys showing up to help
Kary our MC starts as a pretty basic lili dumb birthday girl. But this book isn't about Kary the human
My favorite part of this book: Kary's life as a goddess wasn't just a random backstory to give reasons for her powers. I friggen adored all the insights into her past lives and how those past actions influence our problems now
Random memories of previous reincarnations *illuminate* the kind of goddess that Kary use to be…. And its friggen teRrIfYiNg
“There was power in names and knowing hers could change who she was in an instant.”
Magic Tier— this is where things really start to get interesting !!
Chaotic realm full of magical creatures, Olympians, oracles, world-altering decisions and heart pounding battles. And the ongoing mystery of figuring out who is which goddess: Kary, Lorelei, Caroline, and Serena.
spoiler... not all the goddess were exactly good in their past lives lmao
The action, humor, danger, and sisterly bonding kept this YA fantasy novel from being anything basic
I was cackling while reading the sisters badass dynamic — some classic sisterly fights of stealing clothes, sneaking off, and keeping secrets....wait what... GODDAMN IT LORELEI
Some of secondary character included Ryan, Sebastian, Seth, Regor, Aaron each with their own past experiences with the goddesses throughout their lifetimes
“You’re ridiculous.” He pinched his nose. “What am I saying.” He was talking to himself now, muttering under his breath. “You’ve always been ridiculous.”
“Hey —” Kary began to protest.”
And then. We finally get to
the God Tier. —
This aint just some random mythology added mad-lips style. I talkin' friggen Top Tier character reveals, plot twists, and foreshadowing FROM THE FIFTH CHAPTER HAVING hUgE RAMIFICATIONS !!
The book built-upon the already entertaining plot and identity discovery to have even bigger consequences than we thought !
For all intents and purposes
Think: —
being reincarnated over into several centuries, cultures, wars.
Only to be separated. And become harbingers of doom.
And then we find out that the whole time the
And ThEn WE REALIZE THAT
BUT THErE ALsO
These twists and developments just completely elevated this entire book to be really amazing to read and the mythology just so brilliant foreshadowed
I was worried that because this is a YA novel, our MC would act like a typical YA heroine circa 15 years old. This is a goddess who has lived for thousands of years so obviously, she needs to have the maturity to go with that. And Kary quickly embraced her inner powerful goddess that is definitely a morally grey badass muhaha
I’ve read a lot of reincarnation books. And mythology books. And young girls finding out powers books. And this book incorporated all those elements pretty great with interesting characters and learning more about the goddesses being reincarnated into different cultures-- being Greek Gods then Egyptian, etc WAS JUST SO FRIGGEN COOL
Now the critiques *sniffle sniffle*
My god, that was beginning was basic and almost kinda painful to read through.
It was just a basic cutesy start that honestly a lot of people might've stopped at — thinking that the whole book was gonna be like that. I mean a friggen high schooler birthday. And the age was just way 2 young. The entire time I was picturing our MC to be 18 at LEAST
And looking back i'm wondering, WHY!? I think the author tried to distinguish human Kary from her goddess awakening, but sadly it got to the point where the human had almost no personality and the goddess was a sudden adrenaline junkie that would wake up to destroy shit. And obviously, I wanted to get straight to the goddess badass part of the book.
Also I feel like the other sisters accepted that whole child murder thing a little 2 quickly.... Like they were raised human for a reason and that whole revelation was barely a page — they need to keep their unique personalities while having the same goddess awakening that Kary undergoing.
The writing style of ch 13 for an event. Then suddenly in ch 15 we went back to that scene from another person's POV without even knowing it was a time skip. That was just so random and different from the rest of the POVs that usually continued the linear progression that I was confused and thought I was re-reading the same scene again
Finally that the whole feeling incomplete without the. I would’ve loved for that to be more incorporated in the beginning human tier of Kary's character to hint towards it later
WARNING: there is some kinda taboo stuff on up in here that is pretty edgey for a friggen YA so it not for everyone but I like dark sexy fantasy psst... anime fans think "The Irregular at Magic High School"
Honestly, I just wanted this book to be NA the whole time instead of YA. Where the perfect additions of some curse words, sexy sexy fun times and darker actions would've made this book alllll the more delicious. It's already leaning towards dark fantasy but couldn't *quite* commit because of the limitations of YA genre.
Overall, Rebecca Queen did a great job of building such a fantasic world in this series with intricate relationships spanning back CENTURIES of character development. It started as a typical YA heroine with powers that was suddenly elevated by remembering her past Goddess self with some extra details to keep it from cliche. The plot was action-packed with the creative building. The author made the worldbuilding of god mythology work TO BUILD UP the important plot instead of paragraphs just describing where the characters are. AND I TOTALLY FIGURED OUT THE EARLIER CHARACTER REVEAL OF AEDAN AND I FRIGGEN LOST MY SHIT, PLEASE MESSAGE ME IMMEDIATELY AFTER READING THIS TO DISCUSS IN LENGTH
It made me laugh, smile, swoon, jump up and down in excitement, and cry. This book had it all! Definitely Recommend checking out this debut book and seeing what she does next!
I am actually embarrassed by how much I underestimated this book. I. Was. Wrong!
Within this one DEBUT book, the author creates 3 brilliantly beautiful plot developments of Human tier, Magic tier, and Gods tier.
Human Tier— this was some basic YA beginning. High school cliche girl discovering powers from defending herself and, of course, random hot guys showing up to help
Kary our MC starts as a pretty basic lili dumb birthday girl. But this book isn't about Kary the human
My favorite part of this book: Kary's life as a goddess wasn't just a random backstory to give reasons for her powers. I friggen adored all the insights into her past lives and how those past actions influence our problems now
Random memories of previous reincarnations *illuminate* the kind of goddess that Kary use to be…. And its friggen teRrIfYiNg
“There was power in names and knowing hers could change who she was in an instant.”
Magic Tier— this is where things really start to get interesting !!
Chaotic realm full of magical creatures, Olympians, oracles, world-altering decisions and heart pounding battles. And the ongoing mystery of figuring out who is which goddess: Kary, Lorelei, Caroline, and Serena.
spoiler... not all the goddess were exactly good in their past lives lmao
The action, humor, danger, and sisterly bonding kept this YA fantasy novel from being anything basic
I was cackling while reading the sisters badass dynamic — some classic sisterly fights of stealing clothes, sneaking off, and keeping secrets....wait what... GODDAMN IT LORELEI
Some of secondary character included Ryan, Sebastian, Seth, Regor, Aaron each with their own past experiences with the goddesses throughout their lifetimes
“You’re ridiculous.” He pinched his nose. “What am I saying.” He was talking to himself now, muttering under his breath. “You’ve always been ridiculous.”
“Hey —” Kary began to protest.”
And then. We finally get to
the God Tier. —
This aint just some random mythology added mad-lips style. I talkin' friggen Top Tier character reveals, plot twists, and foreshadowing FROM THE FIFTH CHAPTER HAVING hUgE RAMIFICATIONS !!
The book built-upon the already entertaining plot and identity discovery to have even bigger consequences than we thought !
For all intents and purposes
Think: —
Spoiler
Only to be separated. And become harbingers of doom.
And then we find out that the whole time the
Spoiler
twins WERE being born in the same lifetimes, BUT those fuckers would KILL OnE oF ThEm SO THEN ONLY ONE COULD EXIST IN WORLD AT A TIMEAnd ThEn WE REALIZE THAT
Spoiler
AEDAN'S HUMAN CHARACTER HAS ALREADY APPEARED IN THE BOOK AND WE JUST DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS HIMBUT THErE ALsO
Spoiler
SOME OLYMPIAN GOD TWINCEST GOING ONThese twists and developments just completely elevated this entire book to be really amazing to read and the mythology just so brilliant foreshadowed
I was worried that because this is a YA novel, our MC would act like a typical YA heroine circa 15 years old. This is a goddess who has lived for thousands of years so obviously, she needs to have the maturity to go with that. And Kary quickly embraced her inner powerful goddess that is definitely a morally grey badass muhaha
I’ve read a lot of reincarnation books. And mythology books. And young girls finding out powers books. And this book incorporated all those elements pretty great with interesting characters and learning more about the goddesses being reincarnated into different cultures-- being Greek Gods then Egyptian, etc WAS JUST SO FRIGGEN COOL
Now the critiques *sniffle sniffle*
My god, that was beginning was basic and almost kinda painful to read through.
It was just a basic cutesy start that honestly a lot of people might've stopped at — thinking that the whole book was gonna be like that. I mean a friggen high schooler birthday. And the age was just way 2 young. The entire time I was picturing our MC to be 18 at LEAST
And looking back i'm wondering, WHY!? I think the author tried to distinguish human Kary from her goddess awakening, but sadly it got to the point where the human had almost no personality and the goddess was a sudden adrenaline junkie that would wake up to destroy shit. And obviously, I wanted to get straight to the goddess badass part of the book.
Also I feel like the other sisters accepted that whole child murder thing a little 2 quickly.... Like they were raised human for a reason and that whole revelation was barely a page — they need to keep their unique personalities while having the same goddess awakening that Kary undergoing.
The writing style of ch 13 for an event. Then suddenly in ch 15 we went back to that scene from another person's POV without even knowing it was a time skip. That was just so random and different from the rest of the POVs that usually continued the linear progression that I was confused and thought I was re-reading the same scene again
Finally that the whole feeling incomplete without the
Spoiler
twinWARNING: there is some kinda taboo stuff on up in here that is pretty edgey for a friggen YA so it not for everyone but I like dark sexy fantasy psst... anime fans think "The Irregular at Magic High School"
Honestly, I just wanted this book to be NA the whole time instead of YA. Where the perfect additions of some curse words, sexy sexy fun times and darker actions would've made this book alllll the more delicious. It's already leaning towards dark fantasy but couldn't *quite* commit because of the limitations of YA genre.
Overall, Rebecca Queen did a great job of building such a fantasic world in this series with intricate relationships spanning back CENTURIES of character development. It started as a typical YA heroine with powers that was suddenly elevated by remembering her past Goddess self with some extra details to keep it from cliche. The plot was action-packed with the creative building. The author made the worldbuilding of god mythology work TO BUILD UP the important plot instead of paragraphs just describing where the characters are. AND I TOTALLY FIGURED OUT THE EARLIER CHARACTER REVEAL OF AEDAN AND I FRIGGEN LOST MY SHIT, PLEASE MESSAGE ME IMMEDIATELY AFTER READING THIS TO DISCUSS IN LENGTH
It made me laugh, smile, swoon, jump up and down in excitement, and cry. This book had it all! Definitely Recommend checking out this debut book and seeing what she does next!