Scan barcode
A review by chrissie_whitley
Death Sworn by Leah Cypess
4.0
Death Sworn was a unique and interesting beginning for a YA series. I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued. I'm enjoying this direction of YA books lately that do not succumb to the instal-love phenomenon. There's a hint of a romance, and I assume more will develop with that farther into the second book.
Here's a female main character I liked, she was troubled and multi-layered but not fully revealed in one big character info-dump. Speaking of, the world development in this book is light, to say the least. I find myself thoroughly enjoying that. I know a lot of people complain about it with other novels, and it's been said it's forgivable in this instance because the whole of this story takes place in a labyrinthine cave system, but I rather like learning about the world as it's necessary to be told over the course of the book/series. Not every story needs a Hermione or a Dumbledore to tell the unenlightened main character about the world, especially one where the main character is not new to this world. For instance, [b:Doomsday Book|18413376|Doomsday Book|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410771006s/18413376.jpg|2439628] is one that comes to mind where the mystery of the world in which we find the characters is slowly revealed through the story-telling. Good. To me, it would be like meeting someone from another country and immediately providing them with a history lesson of the United States. It could be a rather brief lesson, if I wanted, considering the country is young, but there's not reason to delve into every country-building aspect until the topic arises.
Not only were the characters enjoyable to read and learn about, but the action was well-written. I find some authors focus too much on making the action *descriptive and interesting* which can lead to a loss of understanding of the action - where you might say: Wait, when did she jump behind him? Not the case here - even for a fast reader like myself. I found this book, overall to be well-written and having well-formed characters and a richly layered world, which I look forward to finding more about in the sequel, [b:Death Marked|18803194|Death Marked (Death Sworn, #2)|Leah Cypess|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404496159s/18803194.jpg|26731281].
Here's a female main character I liked, she was troubled and multi-layered but not fully revealed in one big character info-dump. Speaking of, the world development in this book is light, to say the least. I find myself thoroughly enjoying that. I know a lot of people complain about it with other novels, and it's been said it's forgivable in this instance because the whole of this story takes place in a labyrinthine cave system, but I rather like learning about the world as it's necessary to be told over the course of the book/series. Not every story needs a Hermione or a Dumbledore to tell the unenlightened main character about the world, especially one where the main character is not new to this world. For instance, [b:Doomsday Book|18413376|Doomsday Book|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410771006s/18413376.jpg|2439628] is one that comes to mind where the mystery of the world in which we find the characters is slowly revealed through the story-telling. Good. To me, it would be like meeting someone from another country and immediately providing them with a history lesson of the United States. It could be a rather brief lesson, if I wanted, considering the country is young, but there's not reason to delve into every country-building aspect until the topic arises.
Not only were the characters enjoyable to read and learn about, but the action was well-written. I find some authors focus too much on making the action *descriptive and interesting* which can lead to a loss of understanding of the action - where you might say: Wait, when did she jump behind him? Not the case here - even for a fast reader like myself. I found this book, overall to be well-written and having well-formed characters and a richly layered world, which I look forward to finding more about in the sequel, [b:Death Marked|18803194|Death Marked (Death Sworn, #2)|Leah Cypess|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404496159s/18803194.jpg|26731281].