Really disappointing. Great writing style, but I hate every single character. An incredible feat, but probably not the one the author was hoping for.
The main character is irritating, and she lives with an abusive “father” monster and a monster family who “tries really hard.” The heroine’s got blue hair (cause she wished for it) and she’s an artist who lives wherever she feels like. At the start she’s in Prague, and she made he ex-boyfriend’s asshole itch with petty wishes because he “stole her virginity” and she doesn’t like him anymore. She has spare petty wishes because her adopted “dad” is a monster, the ONLY monster in existence who makes wishes come true. Demon dad sends the heroine all over the world like a lapdog hunting squirrels, except her task is collecting teeth. This is not good work, and the story tells me that the heroine was once shot. I’m told Demon-dad really cares, even though he treats the heroine like shit. That’s nice. I sure don’t care about either character. Or any of the bit characters either.
Once I got to the point of establishing why there was going to be a huge conflict, I decided to skip to read the last few chapters, and I still hated everyone. I’m sure this kind of story will appeal to many fantasy fans, because it explores the same tired tropes that fantasy’s been wallowing in for the last few decades. But from the start, this story’s characters rubbed me the wrong way.
More than the characters, I hate the scale. Couldn’t just tell a story about a few magical people who work in a larger wish industry. No, this is a story about the ONLY place to get wishes anywhere. With the wishmaster’s portals being invaded and closed, the fate of the whole world is threatened in this conflict. I don’t care that the story here is following “the bad guys,” because I’ve got no desire to read yet another story where the fate of the whole world rests on the actions of just a few bratty people. Why do we continually worship this idea in our fantasy, that “the chosen one” will come along and trigger some fate of the world plot? Would it kill fantasy authors to try exploring the idea that even with powers, sometimes characters can have smaller scale conflicts and crises? And why do we always have to have romantic subplots that suck added to these fate of the world conflicts? I don’t care if any of these people find true love. Maybe I might, if they weren’t also fighting to change the fate of the whole world.
The final product is kind of pathetic. Giving Giving Daughter of Sulk and Bore…Daughter of Smoke and Bone, one star. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, and I wish the upcoming sequel would die a quiet remaindered death.
