[Review] Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Series: Reign of the Fallen #1

Rating: 3.5 stars (Buddy Read)

Format: ARC Paperback

Release Date: January 23rd 2018

Goodreads Synopsis:

Odessa is one of Karthia's master necromancers, catering to the kingdom's ruling Dead. Whenever a noble dies, it's Odessa's job to raise them by retrieving their souls from a dreamy and dangerous shadow world called the Deadlands. But there is a cost to being raised--the Dead must remain shrouded, or risk transforming into zombie-like monsters known as Shades. If even a hint of flesh is exposed, the grotesque transformation will begin.
A dramatic uptick in Shade attacks raises suspicions and fears among Odessa's necromancer community. Soon a crushing loss of one of their own reveals a disturbing conspiracy: someone is intentionally creating Shades by tearing shrouds from the Dead--and training them to attack. Odessa is faced with a terrifying question: What if her necromancer's magic is the weapon that brings Karthia to its knees?

Yiling

      Reign of Fallen was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018- Cool concept (necromancers!!) and LGBT+ rep!! (a bi MAIN character yayy). So when me and Raisa both got an arc, I suggested that we do a buddy read.
      But as soon as I got into the book, I felt that Reign of the Fallen was very underwhelming. Not much was going on through out the story that captured my attention. It was a lot of buildup, especially throughout the first half. There were so many details that were essential to understanding the world that were just casually mentioned once. When me and Raisa got together the first time to discuss the first 100 pages, we both had sooo many questions for each other regarding certain details of the book that we couldn't remember. (Raisa says that this is due to us both being "lazy readers".)         The plot overall was ok- it started to pick up in the last hundred pages, which made me bump up the rating a half star. I was a lot more engaged in the story and Odessa than I was in the beginning, since the action started to pick up and more happened plot-wise.

The Characters-
       One of the biggest reasons why I'm so disappointed is due to the lack of character connection that I felt. I somewhat connected to Odessa during the pivotal moments. However, for most of the book, I felt that she could have been any other protagonist- nothing about her really stood out and made her that exceptional of a character. The supporting characters were not given enough page time so I had very little understanding of who they were. (I kept forgetting the character's names because some of them would just show up for one line of dialogue and then come back a hundred pages later.) After reading the book I looked up the character's profile cards on Penguin Teen (found here) because I wanted to learn more about the characters. An example of how little the characters were developed, is that Simeon is described on the cards as being "like a brother" to the Odessa. In the book I didn't get that sense at all- he's barely mentioned by himself, let alone demonstrating having any strong connection to Odessa.

Final Thoughts-
I wish I lowered my expectations of this book. Overall it turned out to be an average read for me.

Raisa

I wanted to love Reign of the Fallen because of its unique sounding premise. After all, dead people coexisting amongst the living with cool, badass necromancers occasionally bringing back the dead sounds awesome. Also, on a societal level, women and men are treated as equals (also awesome)! Plus, there's gay and bi characters, making this all the more a very inclusive story.

But for me, I just couldn't connect to it. Yiling mostly explains it above, as we shared similar sentiments. We were confused at some parts, and others just dragged with very little action. The characters didn't have much backstory or dimension to them, and were popping in and out at intervals. They were just... there. It was only until the second half of the book where I felt like the story was picking up. The action was fast-paced and well-developed, making any fight scenes Odessa had my favorite.

On a more positive note, the world itself was really cool - the eye color you had determined your powers. Blue eyes are necromancers, grey eyes control the weather, brown eyed people are healers, and so forth. Dead people had to cover themselves, lest they turn into monstrous Shades that lacked control of their body and mind.

So given that I liked the latter half of the book, although admittedly the ending was very abrupt, I'd stick around for the sequel.