The Waking Land by Callie Bates

The Before:

OOO pretty cover. Looks a little like Alice in Wonderland. I'm borrowing this one from the library as an audiobook. 

The Feels:
The world building in this novel is fantastic! Highly diverse, racially, culturally, and linguistically. Love that! I really wanted to spend more time in this world. The narrator was also great; she really read into the world well.

A bonus is that this fantasy world is LGBT+ friendly. El mentions that men could be attracted to the male lead and it is even implied that he might be sleeping with a prince.

The Concerns:
The world building was a little too confusing. I thought El's father for the longest time was the "pretender" king. But then he wasn't? I guess he's just a lesser king?

El... is stupid. She focuses on the small picture as opposed to the big picture. She complains that her father is a pretend king, because he's lazy and lives off other people. What about the king that she lived with? She finds out pretty early on that he was crazy corrupt and kept stealing from the poor. All she thinks is, "Well that sucks... I'm going to go be a healer." She lacks self-awareness of her privileged and I honestly can't tell if the reader is supposed to pick up on this or not. Bates really hits you over the head with the fact that  El is sort of a dingus. She complains about how her family "abandoned her"... EL.... YOU ARE BEING HELD HOSTAGE. That's sort of the point... They CANT get you back. She also wonders if she still has her powers as a child. This wouldn't be stupid, if she hadn't just used her powers.

The term "regicide". That's ducking stupid. It's called assassination.

I really think this book could have used a more critical eye in the editing process. There were just so many bad things that were distracting to the reader. This could have been such a great book! DNF😭

Plot: 9/10
Writing Style: 2/10
Meaningfullness: 9/10