But that's coming from me who is sitting here
at 9:30 in the evening, hoping to eat a stick
of pepperoni after this and have not written
a single book in my life.
intro music
Guys, I want you to know that I try like,
I try to strive to be cute and then my motivation
kinda just goes out the window.
So, ya get what ya get.
I'm here reviewing my May Owl Crate box book
in july, so look at me go.
it is incendiary by zoraida cordova.
i annotated for the first time, i feel, i
feel professional.
I'm just gonna start by saying fantasy is
not my genre and this is a fantasy book so
take this with a grain of salt because it
wasn't a bad book.
Fantasy and I just aren't on the same page
so much of the time so yea just take this
review lightly.
You can make your own decision about it because
if you really like fantasy, then I'm sure
you're really gonna love this book.
So Incendiary is essentially, I'm going to
give you the best synopsis that i can because
listen, there was a lot that happened and
i kinda blacked out for a good chunk of it.
so, i'm gonna do my best.
so this basically is about a girl named renata
who is what is called a moria, i believe that's
how you say it.
a moria is just a magic wielder and there
are i believe four different types of moria's
in the world.
And essentially the king is trying to wipe
them all out because he doesn't want them
to like turn against him.
so, renata was taken as a child to live in
the palace and work as like a weapon for the
king. and she ended up getting rescued from
the palace by this group called the whispers
and i think she was like nine years old? and
she ended up going to live with this rebel
group.
And for the past like eight years she was
just consistently training to be a rebel and
falling in love and then Dez ends up getting
kidnapped by the palace so renata ends up
going back to the palace to like save him,
and that's the plot, that's what you're getting.
i gave this 3/5 stars.
i struggled between going from 2.5 to 3 because
i just really didn't love this book and if
i was just being a complete jerk, i probably
would have given this just a 2 on goodreads.
but i don't want to give cordova a really
bad rating because this wasn't a bad book,
i just don't love fantasy as much as i love
other genres.
So, I decided to go for a very average three.
The average rating is a 4.01.
That is out of 1,612 ratings and 528 reviews
at the time of me filming this video.
So, I'm gonna talk about representation, there
really wasn't any.
In terms of content warnings, there is a lot
of violence.
This is kind of like a war story at times
so it does get a little violent, a little
bit gory.
And there is also bullying within the whisper
group.
so let's talk about the plot.
the plot was interesting enough.
like, there were a few little goals that were
happening here and there and it made it flow
pretty well.
I was able to keep up with what the characters
were doing, for the most part. and all of
the plot twists that happened were very predictable
at least for me as the reader.
i kinda predicted everything, like i think
50% of the way in, i knew what the big like
twist at the end was gonna be which made it
kind of a bummer to read because obviously
it wasn't a big deal anymore cause i already
knew what it was.
too many plot twists in a story leave me feeling
a little bit cheated out of a story because
it almost feels like the author is relying
too heavily on the element of surprise as
opposed to actually honing in on their plot
and making it really really interesting and
then adding a few twists here and there to
keep the readers engaged and excited to read
it.
It got to the point where i was like oh my
god why is this so messy like why is everything
just so backwards from what we were told and
all this jazzy jazz like it didn't need to
be that.
in terms of pacing, i think the pacing was
very uneven. for the first half of the story,
reading it i was so bored.
if i hadn't been reviewing it, i probably
would have dnf'd it.
actually no, the boxes are expensive, i wouldn't
have dnf'd it, but i thought about it.
because the first half was just so, i wasn't
here for it.
i was very bored. and then the second half
i felt like i couldn't catch my breath because
like i said things just kept happening and
twists kept happening and i was just like
what is going on?
so, yea it was a little uneven, didn't love
that aspect of it.
Now, let's talk about characters.
So, I didn't like anybody in this story, uh
awkward, yea. all of the characters just sucked,
like they just weren't good.
Renata the main character was boring.
She was whiny. she had no priorities other
than dez's dick and i was just honestly over
it because her sole motivation was for dez.
and i understand she wanted to get him back
after being kidnapped but like calm down because
your plan is putting a lot of people in danger
including yourself.
like i hate when people are like "i just i
have to go.
i have to do it.
i have to get my man."
but it's just like, or you could take a couple
of minutes and think about a cohesive plan
that everybody can be in on and then everyone
can help you, but no.
that's cool, i just... whenever anything happened
to any of the characters i was just like,
that sucks.
i didn't feel a single thing toward them like
when dez got kidnapped, i was like good for
him, like he's having an adventure.
i literally didn't care at all and i feel
like i was supposed to but i just didn't give
a shit. like all of the characters, there
were so many different injuries and things
that happened to every character and i would
just be like oh that sucks.
maybe that means i'm a bitch but honestly
i think it was a lack of fleshed out characters.
also renata had my least favourite thing for
main character women which i didn't realize
was my least favourite thing until when i
read it and that is the clumsy girl trope.
so she was trying to curtsy in front of people
at the palace and she fell flat on her face
and she was like sorry i'm clumsy.
i need a female character who can walk without
falling flat on their mediocre face and then
we'll call it a day.
honestly side characters from the palace were
more interesting than the main characters
in the story, like we had a couple Lady Nuria
and Leo. i'm not gonna tell you like who they
are or what they are to the story, but they
are a lot more interesting than the actual
characters that you're supposed to be interested
in.
but i was like nah girl give me some more
nuria.
give me some more leo. like i needed better
people and they were better but they weren't
there that often.
i was disappointed.
in terms of authenticity, is it the same as
the back of the book? did the synopsis do
it justice?
yea it was pretty much the exact same as the
back of the book for 50% of the story, meaning
that we got no other information than what
the synopsis gave us.
so that's the tea.
let's talk about the world.
let's talk about her worldbuilding because
obviously this is a fantasy and this is a
very intricate magical system.
so, let's talk about how it fleshed out.
i found it to be very info-dumpey which happens
with a lot of fantasies.
a lot of fantasies in the first 200 pages,
they just like info dump the shit onto you.
they're like ok "this is everything you need
to know for the whole series" and you're like
"wow this is a lot but ok." that was definitely
this.
obviously, it's a fantasy and that shit happens
so don't be too discouraged because that's
just how it goes, but i honestly had to read
the prologue twice to figure out what was
going on and that's the prologue, not when
you're supposed to get all this info dumpey
shit on you.
I was reading this and i was like what is
going on?
i need to read this again.
it was just messy, so i didn't love that aspect.
once i did wrap my head around the magic system
and the different types of morias and all
that stuff, don't ask me what they are cause
your girl doesn't remember, they were actually
very interesting and i thought the way that
she did this was well done.
i will say though that the time period confused
me cause it's supposed to take place in 317
AC and they talked like they were in modern
times.
so, like the setting definitely was reminiscent
of the time period but they talked like they
were in the 21st century and there was kind
of this disconnect of the story versus how
they're talking versus where they're supposed
to be and all that stuff so that kinda felt
a little disconnected to me. and also the
prologue took place like 3 minutes before
the story started so i was like, you can't
really call this a prologue.
a prologue is supposed to take place a little
in advance to give you some information but
it just took you it was like, i don't wanna
say three minutes but it was like ten minutes
before, like what are you doing? in terms
of writing style, she does write with a sophistication
that i really did like.
you can tell that this isn't her first story.
this is her 13th published story.
so, obviously she had a bit of sophistication
to her and i really did like her writing.
i do think at times there were paragraphs
that didn't need to be there because they
weren't really adding anything to the story
and there was a lot of inner monologue within
renata where i was just kinda like bitch get
over yourself, so that was kind of iffy for
me, but that's ok. it's fine.
i really did like her writing style.
i think it was the perfect type of writing
style for a fantasy if that makes sense, like
it just worked really well for the story.
Did it ended up going where i wanted it? yea,
because it ended.
*air horns*
i didn't really have any goals for the end
of the story like i didn't have any sort of
like oh i hope this happens, i hope this is
the ending.
i didn't care enough about the story to want
an ending so i do think the ending was satisfying.
do i?
yea. i do think the ending was satisfying
even though i did guess the ultimate plot
twist like it was a satisfying ending and
it did set up a sequel in a really good way,
without like just adding something for the
necessity of a sequel.
so, this was definitely interesting and it
was definitely well done but like i didn't
care about the ending so i didn't really have
an answer for this one.
then, i'm just gonna give you my last final
general thoughts.
this story gave me throne of glass vibes so
i feel like if you liked the throne of glass,
you would like this book because the whole
kingdom setup was very very similar, like
having an evil king.
Not necessarily the rebel groups, but like
kind of? just like everything reminded me
of the throne of glass.
i don't know if she got a little bit of inspiration
from it or not but i feel like if you're a
really big fan of sarah j. maas and the throne
of glass series, because i'm not gonna say
it like reminded me of the first book so much
as the series as a whole so i would definitely
recommend this if you liked those.
last thing i wanna say is it did feel like
the second book in the story as opposed to
the first book and it felt like i was picking
up in a story that had already started.
and, unfortunately that just didn't work for
me.
like this book felt like it suffered from
middle book syndrome but it was only the first
book in the series and that's what makes me
apprehensive to pick up the second book when
it comes out in 2021 because i don't have
a reason to if i believe that the first book
felt like it was suffering from middle book
syndrome.
so i will just say that much.
it was a good fantasy story.
and if i was super into fantasy like i used
to be i probably would have loved this story.
i just i think it was too long and i don't
necessarily love everything that happened.
i do recommend this book to people who like
fantasy and people who are looking for a quick
and easy fantasy.
not quick, this took me four days to read
and i've been averaging a book every two days
so... if you're looking for an easy fantasy
than i think this would work for you because
it wasn't overly complex and once you got
your mind around the magic system it was really
easy to understand so i definitely will say
that.
but yea that is all i have to say today.
thank you for tuning into this video.
i, idk, i just didn't love it.
so, let me know in the comments below if,
oh my god, let me know in the comments below
if you've read incendiary, if you plan on
it, and if you have, what are your thoughts?
do you agree or disagree with me?
obviously a lot of people disagree so like
i said just take this review very lightly.
this is just my own personal opinion.
but, as always, please like, comment, and
subscribe for more content.
I've decided to only post twice a week now
instead of three times a week because i really
wanna explore my province now that it is opened
up and i can't do that if i'm constantly on
booktube and constantly making content.
so, i'll do twice a week now so you'll get
two times a week content and until next time,
bye readers.
