Review: Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
I received an ARC through NetGalley.
This was the second time I have tried to read Where Dreams Descend. The first time I only got to about chapter two, and then I just couldn't continue. This time around, I actually found the beginning really engaging and didn't start having issues until slightly further into this book. I am not even sure I can pinpoint what about this book made it such a weird read for me, only that if I hadn't been committed to finally finishing this book, I would probably have put this book down at various points. So thank you, audiobooks for making this easier to finish.
I will start out by saying that Angeles writes description beautifully. She can absolutely pull you into a setting with really lovely and lush descriptions of wherever the characters are at the time. It is truly the strongest element of her storytelling. She can absolutely captivate in this area.
Unfortunately for me, almost everything else in her book I have a much more mixed feeling on.
Starting with the way Angeles introduces new mysteries into her plot. I was really interested in where the story was going at the beginning, but as you continue reading, Angeles keeps introducing more and more questions for the reader. This would be fine, great even, if this was in a world I felt grounded in or if I really felt like I understood the character. But neither was true for me. I was so unclear on so many aspects of this book that I wasn't sure what was purposeful mystery and what was the author just not working for me. I felt like I had so many questions about this world, more so than what the author intended, I assume. I just needed more information about this world and these characters, but specifically the main character, Kallia, in order to be properly immersed in this world.
Kallia was a weird character for me. She is a really strong, competent character, almost to the point where she becomes flat. She is really magically powerful; we find out throughout the book that generally, women aren't allowed to perform the kind of magic that Kallia performs and that historically, women were known to be the most powerful at this magic. We hear about another female magician who might have had a similar power level to Kallia, but none of the women we actually meet on the page have anywhere near her magic level. The female empowerment angel of this book didn't work super well for me for this reason. Every woman we meet is specifically noted to be much less powerful; it feels almost condescending to have to be told over and over how incredibly powerful Kallia is at the expense of the other women we meet. I don't mind Kallia being the most powerful person; I just find the way the book discusses it to be confusing.
Speaking of Kallia's power, the magic in this book has rules, but I do not understand them. We are told that there is physical consequence to magic, we Kallia being tired after she uses magic, and we hear other magicians say the same thing but aside from that very vague limitation, I have zero conception of what the magic can do and who can do it and what the cost is. I don't like a soft magic system, but I do still want to understand what different people are capable of when I am reading a story with magic in it. I just felt like I was lacking context around the magic system.
I also just felt like I didn't have nearly enough information about the whole world. The more worldbuilding elements that were added, the more I was confused about how this world actually works. I needed more practical world information, and I did not have that. I am not sure exactly what technology the people in this world have; I am not sure how their political or economic systems work; I am just generally not sure how this world functions.
This book has one of my very favorite tropes ever, a magic competition. I do not think this was utilized to the extent I wanted it to be. I did not feel tension over the competition, Kallia is repeatedly told to be much more powerful than all the other competitors and we almost never really get to see her competition working. We are told that they don't take the competition nearly as seriously as she does, which I think is meant to make us like her more, but what it actually does is make the competition seem unimportant. If Kallia is the only person who values the competition, then how much value does winning it hold? Also, I do sort of agree that she cheated in the first round, and I didn't think it was a very compelling show. That could be just because I hate it when people dance in the isles when I go to the theater; I can literally only think of one time I have felt like a show used the area around the audience in a way I felt was compelling.
Immediately upon coming into town, Kallia meets Aaros, a thief who she befriends and hires to be her assistant. I do really like their relationship, and I like him as a character. But I do not think we got anywhere near enough reason as to why he would so quickly become so incredibly loyal to her. I just felt like this relationship deserved so much more page time than it got.
This book also has a romance. It, along with the pacing of the general plot, suffered greatly from the author constantly keeping characters separate from each other. The way people were so distant from each other did not lead to developing engaging character relationships. I wanted people on the page together so much more often than they were. It felt like the author was trying to elongate the book by making sure no one could share information until the last fifty pages; I found this very frustrating to read.
The couple in this book are not alone together all that often, and much of the time they are together, it is off-page or in silence. Which is not the most excellent way to make people care about a romantic relationship. I did like the man generally, though I have no idea how old he was meant to be; I assumed Kallia was 16-18 because this is YA, but the love interest seems significantly older in a way that made me think this should have been an adult novel and Kallia should have been a touch older. I think that would have made more narrative sense. There is also a love triangle brewing, and I kind of hate it. This is Phantom of the Opera inspired; the other love interest seems like he is meant to be the phantom equivalent, and I am not that compelled by the phantom as a romantic hero, and I am equally not that compelled by Jack.
This book felt like it was a weird length. I do think this is because of the aforementioned pacing issues I had. There was so much that I wanted more information about this world and these characters, but I also felt like Angeles really elongated what she did take the time to tell the reader. I would have loved for the pace to have moved a bit quicker and to have filled in that extra space with the world and character information I craved. I feel like I am caught between wanting this book to be longer and wanting it to be shorter. I don't know what would have been better, but I do know I didn't like it the way it was in the final draft.
This does seem like I hated this book, but I really don't think I did. I felt like this book had so much potential to be so interesting and fresh, and I was just underwhelmed and lightly frustrated while reading. I am still not sure what I am going to rate this book. I also am really unsure if I am going to read the next book. I was kind of disappointed when I realized about 3/4 of the way through this book that this must be a series; I will have to see if I am still thinking about this book in a few days and decide then.
I gave this book two stars.
