Book Review: Bright Ruins

Bright Ruin by Vic James

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rating of 3.5(ish)
I know this is not one of the beloved YA series of the last few years. It lacks certain author names associated with it, crazy romantic love triangles (there's almost one...) and other things that seem to sell YA books these days. All that to say, for a first time out, I think Vic James wrote a solid series. The characters were involved and easily relatable, the politics were elaborate without being difficult to follow, and the overall dystopian set-up was interesting.

Magic and the Setting
It's hard to create new magic. Especially one that people will accept or believe when your setting is a version of Earth. This is the single biggest mistake I think James makes in the whole series is keeping it on Earth and involved in a similar format to our society today. Even location names remain the same in some cases. This bugged me. There was no reason to keep this story on Earth. It wasn't a global reckoning. Perhaps James thought it would be easier to stay inside our society (to a degree). I think it was a huge pitfall and I never really liked it being on Earth. A different fantasy world with it's own rules and society would have worked much better.

Characters
How can you not love a book with multiple POV that include children?! Yeah, the one GRR Martin thing that will likely stick with me my whole life is a love of chapter perspectives from kids. You can tell so much more about a story, and put unique thoughts forward, when you use the mind of a child. James does a decent job of incorporating her five family members, plus a few other perspectives together. Although I think this book focused too much on the POV of the two older children. I'd have liked to see the parents thoughts and we only got (I think) one, maybe two, chapters with our youngest girl Daisy. This disappointed me I think there was a relationship built there with the Equals that would have been interesting to explore. Daisy would not have seen everything so black and white near the end.

The Romance(s)
In an unusual step for a YA romance, James takes our lead gal and breaks her heart (not a spoiler, happens at end of book 2). I gotta say this was really interesting! I kind of liked it. However, there needed to be a lot more interaction and tension between the two in question in order for full impact to have been achieved. Heart break from far away is not near as difficult as heart break that happens and that person remains in your life to a certain degree. Another missed opportunity in my mind.
The other side romances or interests that happen were all fine. None felt as strong. I was really disappointed we didn't get to see more of Silken and his romantic interests. It's clear coming into this book that he is not entirely heterosexual and I would have liked more to have happened for him.

Plot
Yep there's plot. Yep it's good enough.
I liked the plot, there was nothing wrong with it. But it wasn't spectacular either. What really kept me going was James' writing and characters. And that's okay with me. Besides it wasn't because of a lack of plot that is for sure. When you have family members betraying one another and vying for power there is never a lack of complexity. Could it have been better? Sure. But not everyone has to be Brandon Sanderson and I accept that.

Overall
I think I would revisit this trilogy and world again. I liked it enough. Certainly since book one it has stuck with me better than some of the other YA fantasy I've read in the last two years. That really says something. When you read approx. 100 books a year the characters or books that standout are really noticeable and certainly that happened for me here. I may not be able to put my finger on exactly what it was that made this standout but I'll give the credit where it's due that James had me placing a library hold while the book was on pre-order and I read it as soon as my library got it in. I don't do that with too many books and so I'd say there was more than enough here to warrant a possible spot on my print bookshelves.
Therefore I have rounded up to 4 stars because there are some special things about this series and final book of the trilogy. Even if it's not all perfect.

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