Castor Starr reviewed Havenfall by Sara Holland
Review of 'Havenfall' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
3.3
The summers are for Havenfall- for learning the family trade, and experiencing all the joys of magic and magical worlds second hand. It's the only time she doesn't have to think about all the tragedy following her, the brutal and gossip-worthy disaster of her family. But this summer things are not easy or carefree like she's expecting. With a monster on the loose, a leadership position she isn't ready for, and no certainty in who she can trust anymore, Maddie is about to find herself in the middle of decisions that could throw at least one world in chaos.
I'll be completely honest- I mostly fell for the cover of this book. Also, I love summer cabin/summer camp stories and magical family secrets. However, this book did too little, and took too long to do it.
What I found myself legitimately interested in was the actual world building. I …
3.3
The summers are for Havenfall- for learning the family trade, and experiencing all the joys of magic and magical worlds second hand. It's the only time she doesn't have to think about all the tragedy following her, the brutal and gossip-worthy disaster of her family. But this summer things are not easy or carefree like she's expecting. With a monster on the loose, a leadership position she isn't ready for, and no certainty in who she can trust anymore, Maddie is about to find herself in the middle of decisions that could throw at least one world in chaos.
I'll be completely honest- I mostly fell for the cover of this book. Also, I love summer cabin/summer camp stories and magical family secrets. However, this book did too little, and took too long to do it.
What I found myself legitimately interested in was the actual world building. I think the doors and their respective worlds are interesting, and the thread of discord and mystery was definitely compelling. I loved the politics and the thread of conspiracy about the Solarians. There is a lot that could happen with all of this, which is why I'm probably going to pick up the next book- I'm dying for my exploration!
The characters are generally pretty interesting too. There are a lot of flat, more stock character types, but they give you the feeling of the Inn at large, so that's not entirely something I'd call a failure. I wish Maddie was more sure of herself so we could see more personality and less nerves and folding, but looking at the situation, it definitely does make sense.
In general, this book was just okay. Out of the five (ish) big twists three of them were immediately obvious, and felt dragged out. Most of the book was pretty slow moving and lacked compelling tension. It's not exactly that nothing happened, it's just a problem with pacing and the stakes.
Apparently this is going to be a Prime Original show, and it'll probably look super cool. I'm planning on picking up the sequel with hopes of seeing even more of the world, and more drama.
