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Hayley ☾ (TheVillainousReader)'s Reviews > To Kill a Kingdom
To Kill a Kingdom
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by
Ugh, my poor unfortunate soul. I do not understand how people are giving this 4+ stars. This book is garbage. I was super excited about it because 1. A lot of my friends love it and 2. Sirens - HELLO! I thought was I going to get a super dark tale about a badass siren who was morally ambiguous (at best) and her quest to conquer the sea, literally stealing hearts along the way.
What a letdown.
What I liked about this book can be summed up in two points: Lira and Sirens. I will admit that Lira was pretty badass in the beginning. She was vicious and cunning and fun to read when she was stealing hearts and drowning princes. After that she was meh. She wasn’t the worst but also wasn’t the best. I loved reading about the Sirens because, Sirens. The lore will never get old. So, one star for Lira and one for the sirens.
Now, let’s move onto what I didn’t like. This list is much longer. Let’s start with the fact that this book is 300+ pages of the author telling us everything instead of showing it. Maybe it was because it’s in first person which honestly rarely turns out well? I read a whole book in the minds of Elian and Lira and I still barely knew anything about them.
Lira: siren, has a cousin and evil mom, wants to be queen
Elian: Prince who doesn’t want to be a prince (or does he because this is confusing as fuck), siren hunter, pirate
That’s seriously it. What’s their favorite color? Do they have hobbies (besides killing princes and sirens)? What things do they like? What vegetable do they hate? Did they pee the bed when they were kids? These are the things I want to know! A perfect example of telling and not showing is when Lira tells us that Elian told her (god this is ridiculous) that he makes stories out of the stars. This could have been a super cute bonding friendship moment but nopeeee. Oh and the first time they kiss? THE READER DOESN’T EXPERIENCE THIS! I know this is YA but WHAT THE FUCK. Almost all the important developments, relationship and plot wise, go down like this and I am not amused.
Let’s move onto our Prince Charming: Elian. Well, to make it short he was boring AF. He was just a carbon copy of all the other YA love interests, and not the good ones might I add. Obviously, he is supposed to be the bad boy with a sweet gooey middle, but he was so flat and unimpressive. He also came across way too nice. He is supposed to be a freaking badass siren hunter which I 100% would not believe. He felt like a little boy playing dress up.
Next issue: WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL THE SIREN HUNTING?! Elian is the biggest, baddest Siren hunter around and they kill one Siren. ONE.
The romance sucked. There is absolutely no chemistry between Lira and Elian. As the reader you don’t get to swoon over their love affair. One second they hate each other and the next they are in love. Like, what?! They seriously have no moments. Do they become friends before? Fuck if I know. I think I was supposed to think they were, but I didn’t because once again as the reader I experienced nothing.
God, I’m getting angrier and angrier the more I write this.
The biggest issue I had were the plot holes. They were massive. Proceed with caution because there 100% will be spoilers.
(view spoiler)
The whole ending is seriously one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. Everything is solved so easily and hugely important issues are skipped over. But the cherry on top is the battle. The final battle was so confusing and so ridiculous. I had no idea what was going on the whole time. Are they on land? Are they in the water? How are these powers working? Why are we fighting with the elements?! Since when did that become a thing?! Also, I’M sorry but these are Sirens. They are SEA CREATURES. Therefore, any fighting done on land is straight ridiculous. No matter how badass they were supposed to be all I pictured was:
And I could not stop laughing.
So yeah, this was definitely not the badass and dark Little Mermaid retelling I thought it was going to be. This was laughable at best.
_____________________________________________________________
Um, so.. Fran and I were buddy reading this together and we both completely ignored our BR schedule, which is typical. Then not wanting to tell the other that we said "fuck it" to the schedule for the 100th time we pretended that we were still following it, posting fake GR updates and discussing chapters we had read days before. This is why we are a buddy read match made in heaven XD. RTC.
What a letdown.
What I liked about this book can be summed up in two points: Lira and Sirens. I will admit that Lira was pretty badass in the beginning. She was vicious and cunning and fun to read when she was stealing hearts and drowning princes. After that she was meh. She wasn’t the worst but also wasn’t the best. I loved reading about the Sirens because, Sirens. The lore will never get old. So, one star for Lira and one for the sirens.
Now, let’s move onto what I didn’t like. This list is much longer. Let’s start with the fact that this book is 300+ pages of the author telling us everything instead of showing it. Maybe it was because it’s in first person which honestly rarely turns out well? I read a whole book in the minds of Elian and Lira and I still barely knew anything about them.
Lira: siren, has a cousin and evil mom, wants to be queen
Elian: Prince who doesn’t want to be a prince (or does he because this is confusing as fuck), siren hunter, pirate
That’s seriously it. What’s their favorite color? Do they have hobbies (besides killing princes and sirens)? What things do they like? What vegetable do they hate? Did they pee the bed when they were kids? These are the things I want to know! A perfect example of telling and not showing is when Lira tells us that Elian told her (god this is ridiculous) that he makes stories out of the stars. This could have been a super cute bonding friendship moment but nopeeee. Oh and the first time they kiss? THE READER DOESN’T EXPERIENCE THIS! I know this is YA but WHAT THE FUCK. Almost all the important developments, relationship and plot wise, go down like this and I am not amused.
Let’s move onto our Prince Charming: Elian. Well, to make it short he was boring AF. He was just a carbon copy of all the other YA love interests, and not the good ones might I add. Obviously, he is supposed to be the bad boy with a sweet gooey middle, but he was so flat and unimpressive. He also came across way too nice. He is supposed to be a freaking badass siren hunter which I 100% would not believe. He felt like a little boy playing dress up.
Next issue: WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL THE SIREN HUNTING?! Elian is the biggest, baddest Siren hunter around and they kill one Siren. ONE.
The romance sucked. There is absolutely no chemistry between Lira and Elian. As the reader you don’t get to swoon over their love affair. One second they hate each other and the next they are in love. Like, what?! They seriously have no moments. Do they become friends before? Fuck if I know. I think I was supposed to think they were, but I didn’t because once again as the reader I experienced nothing.
God, I’m getting angrier and angrier the more I write this.
The biggest issue I had were the plot holes. They were massive. Proceed with caution because there 100% will be spoilers.
(view spoiler)
The whole ending is seriously one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. Everything is solved so easily and hugely important issues are skipped over. But the cherry on top is the battle. The final battle was so confusing and so ridiculous. I had no idea what was going on the whole time. Are they on land? Are they in the water? How are these powers working? Why are we fighting with the elements?! Since when did that become a thing?! Also, I’M sorry but these are Sirens. They are SEA CREATURES. Therefore, any fighting done on land is straight ridiculous. No matter how badass they were supposed to be all I pictured was:
And I could not stop laughing.
So yeah, this was definitely not the badass and dark Little Mermaid retelling I thought it was going to be. This was laughable at best.
_____________________________________________________________
Um, so.. Fran and I were buddy reading this together and we both completely ignored our BR schedule, which is typical. Then not wanting to tell the other that we said "fuck it" to the schedule for the 100th time we pretended that we were still following it, posting fake GR updates and discussing chapters we had read days before. This is why we are a buddy read match made in heaven XD. RTC.
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Reading Progress
March 12, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 12, 2018
– Shelved
May 1, 2018
–
Started Reading
May 3, 2018
–
50.0%
"I’m enjoying this so why do I feel like I’m not being dazzled!? It’s like something is missing but I don’t know what.."
May 5, 2018
– Shelved as:
fantasy
May 5, 2018
– Shelved as:
young-adult
May 5, 2018
– Shelved as:
mermaids
May 5, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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Francesca ❆
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rated it 2 stars
May 05, 2018 08:30PM
🤣🤣🤣 that’s right! We’re a couple of geniuses!! Still haven’t stopped chuckling btw
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I wish I could read your review but since I still want to read this myself...
You can. I put a spoiler tag and also wrote where they start in case they don't pop up. Dude, just scroll down to the gif of Ursula. That's all you need to see. hahaaha
Hahaha, ok. 😄Well great. I’ve read the non-spoilery part and now I don’t feel like reading this anymore 😂 Also, lmao. That gif is golden. Now I won’t be able to read this without imagining the fighting scenes exactly like that 😂 And your BR story still cracks me up 😄 Awesome review as always <3
Wow you ripped it to shreds and then put a match to it
Honestly though.. who cares about what a characters favorite color is? How is that at all relevant? I do understand the show vs tell issue though, so I know what you mean. 1st person is only necessary when it is vital to conveying the personality of the character or when it is important to the story. Just mentioned it in my reviews of Ruthless Magic (which is written in 1st person and alternates between two characters--got confusing) and The Darkest Minds (1st person, but important to the plot)
Yes it sucked. Also I thought it was going to be really good at first too.
This review is P U R E P E R F E C T I O N.*slow clapping* I stand by everything you’ve said. Fuck this book.
I do. I just said that. I’m a super character driven reader so yeah, I like to know more than just the basics. That way I feel like we can be BFFs.
@Barbara it wasn’t hard. There were already so many holes I just had to pull a little 😹
@Alice same!!! I thought it was going to blow my mind
@Jessica Thanks my love! Yeah, it’s not worth it. I would skip it. But then again a lot of people loved it?
Your buddy read sounds a lot more fun than this book!! I am in the second half fof this and i can’t see the four/five-star materials either...
@lainey Yeah, I really don’t get it... Everything is so flat.
@Ophelia it’s so bad. The more I think about it the worse it is. I don’t get why people are giving it five stars. Everything is so meh. The secondary characters don’t even have a point. They literally do nothing but stand there.
Sirens of Greek Mythology actually were on land with the greeks, partying until they caught them of guard and turned them into pigs, all except Ulysses who she , the Siren Queen/ leader wanted as her companion and lover Love your passionate review though
Barbara wrote: "Sirens of Greek Mythology actually were on land with the greeks, partying until they caught them of guard and turned them into pigs, all except Ulysses who she , the Siren Queen/ leader wanted as h..."You’re mixing the encounter between Odysseus and Circe with the the one he had with Sirens (which by the way in Greek mythology were described as sentient birds with human heads).
I hate how they have ‘talking points’ that they just go over and over whatever/whenever and we got to read again about her cousin, cousin’s mom, her own mom, his not wanting to be a prince, his bad ass hunt..... They need to think about something else!! Seriously it was a long book why didn’t I ‘know’ the two main characters already? It’s more than 300 pages! Just urg.I won’t go into the Lira is prince’s bane reveal coz wth it’s just not possible for him to handle it like that urg.
Oh you mean the part where (view spoiler) You’re right! So many talking points! And what were the point of the secondary characters? Oh right, there weren’t any. I thought Khalia was going to have something cool to contribute to the plot because she was talked about so much but nopeeeee
Yessss it was so boringgg *imagine me dragging the word out for 3 miles* There were basically just 2 main characters and everyone else was just ‘there’... urgI hope new ya fantasy wouldn’t continue in this vein because i’mma lose patience!
Books like this (and that I’m way older than all the characters) are way I try to stir clear of YA now. So much of it is trashhhhhhh!
Sorry it didn't work for you, babe! I hope you find a 4/5 star read next. xx
Thanks Boo! I’ve had some pretty good ones after this 🖤
I was generous with 3 stars and then read your review and now I’m mad about things I hadn’t even considered 😂😂 But I’d also like to add:-What’s with the flotsam and jetsam mermaid eels? How do they tell the future and drive the whole plot of the book and then never make another appearance?
-What was the point of adding a fake lesbian marriage? Half-assed attempt at diversity?
-how old is the ice princess? I swear to god she seemed 70 when he described her as own the bar for as long as he could remember, and then he just flat out proposes.
-why didn’t Elian’s boat detect the skin eater and ursula on the radar when like two chapters before alarm bells were going off because a siren was nearby?
-WHY ARE THE SIRENS GETTING RAPED BY FISH MONSTERS TO REPRODUCE. EW.
@Abbi:-are you talking about the two mermaids who convince Lira to bring Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen despite the fact she’s forbidden from hunting a prince because she disobeyed?
-maybe? Th reason behind the marriage made sense: Galina is “cursed”, that curse only affects males so by marrying a lady she can have intimacy without having to deal with a zombie.
-Yukiko/Sakura should be around 35? She said she left Pagòs ar 25 and Elian says in 10 years he hasn’t heard of a missing princess so...
-if I remember correctly the Sea Queen uses Lira’s Song against the humans so they stay asleep (but also as a taunt for Lira)....as for why the radar didn’t detect them, maybe they were out of range? Or maybe the magic of the Song frizzled the equipment...
-according to the Sea Queen’s “rational” logic they make the best parter for birthing vicious sirens. As for why they’re so brutal:
“In the ocean, there are only mermen. Most serve as guards to my mother, protecting the sea kingdom of Keto. They are the strongest warriors of us all. Vicious and deadly creatures, more vile than their mermaid counterparts. More brutal than me.
Unlike sirens, mermen have no connection to humanity. Sirens look like humans, and so there’s part of us that’s connected to them. Or perhaps, they look like us. We’re born half of sea and half of them, and sometimes I wonder if that’s where our hatred really comes from.
Mermen don’t have this problem. They’re crafted more from the ocean than any of us, made from the most deadly mixes of fish, with tails of sharks and sea monsters. They have no desire to interact with land, even for the purpose of war. They exist, always, under the sea, where they are either solitary and disciplined soldiers of the guard, or rampant creatures who live wild on the outskirts of the ocean.
“Under order of the Sea Queen, these are the creatures we mate with. Before I was thrown into this curse, I was promised to the Flesh-Eater. Mermen have no time for names and other nonsenses and so we call them as they are: Phantom, Skinner, Flesh-Eater. While mermaids are fish through and through, laying eggs to be fertilized outside of their bodies, sirens are not as lucky. We must mate. And it’s the brutality and savagery of the mermen that make them a worthy combination to create more of our murderous race. At least, that’s what my mother says.”
@Abbi omg your questions are so valid!
you summed up everything i felt about this book so eloquently.
I was so fucking confused by the ending as well lol. I first gave this book 4 stars, but the more I think about the worse it actually is..
@Trish thank you! This book is a clusterfuck@Kayla it was so weird and came out of nowhere! Elemental magic all the sudden, like what?!
Omg your review 😂 I’m not quite sure how I feel about this book so far, but I think I’ll agree with you by the end 😒🙄
