Mini Audio Reviews: Blood Scion, Rolling in the Deep

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on February 10, 2023 | 0 Comments

Mini Audio Reviews: Blood Scion, Rolling in the Deep

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
Series: Blood Scion #1
Published by HarperTeen (3.8.2022)
Genres: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Format: Audiobook, 432 pages
Length: 15 hours, 27 minutes
Narrator: Liz Femi
Source: Library

This is what they deserve. They wanted me to be a monster. I will be the worst monster they ever created.

Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will—she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods.

Under the Lucis’ brutal rule, her identity means her death if her powers are discovered. But when she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army on her fifteenth birthday, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training, and destroy them from within.

Sloane rises through the ranks and gains strength but, in doing so, risks something greater: losing herself entirely, and becoming the very monster that she ahbors.

Following one girl’s journey of magic, injustice, power, and revenge, this deeply felt and emotionally charged debut from Deborah Falaye, inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, is a magnetic combination of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin and Daughter of Smoke and Bone that will utterly thrill and capture readers.

My thoughts

WHY DOES HYPE ALWAYS GET ME?! I wanted to love this one SO bad. Sadly, I did not. I was extremely underwhelmed with this book and expected much more. My book twin Christy loved it, so I was sure I would too. *sobs*

I loved the audio narrator, her accent was fantastic! I think she was the only reason I didn’t DNF this book. I liked how brutal the book was, but otherwise I was pretty bored. I have already forgotten most of the book – in fact, I couldn’t tell you one single thing that happened in the whole story. It just didn’t make any impression on me whatsoever.

Trust me, no one is more sad about this than me.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 2/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
World building: 3/5
Pace: 1/5
Feels: 0/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 2/5

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
Series: Rolling in the Deep #0.5
Published by Subterranean Press (4.6.2015)
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy, Horror
Format: Audiobook, 128 pages
Length: 3 hours, 6 minutes
Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt
Source: Library

When the Imagine Network commissioned a documentary on mermaids, to be filmed from the cruise ship Atargatis, they expected what they had always received before: an assortment of eyewitness reports that proved nothing, some footage that proved even less, and the kind of ratings that only came from peddling imaginary creatures to the masses.

They didn't expect actual mermaids. They certainly didn't expect those mermaids to have teeth.

This is the story of the Atargatis, lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy. Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the bathypelagic zone in the Mariana Trench…and the depths are very good at keeping secrets.

My thoughts

For being so short, the pacing in this book is TERRIBLE. Nothing actually happens until halfway through the book! There was lots of focus on mundane stuff that frankly had zero importance whatsoever. With the slow pacing and long building there should have been plenty of time to focus on characterization, yet somehow the characters were still flat and lacking any personality to speak of. I cared about exactly none of them. It’s pretty pitiful when you want to DNF a novella. It didn’t help that the narration was bland.

The prose is dry and I felt like I was reading the documentary that this book was about. I was bored, and like I said this book is short so that’s a bit sad. There’s 100+ pages of mundane nothing and cardboard characters, then ALL of the action and murdery mermaid bits I was expecting (and looking forward to) are crammed into the very last dozen pages or so. Which is also sad, because I loved how brutal that part was. I wish there had been more of it.

I feel gypped.