Trust your younger self. That is the lesson I got after reading this novel – and trying to read it – for the second time.
Oh, I didn’t get that lesson from the actual book itself. In fact, when I first tried to read the sequel to the cozy and pure urban fantasy Knife I did not finish it because it lost my interest. I thought that was a product of my age. It wasn’t. I should’ve taken that as a warning to never try book 2 in this series again.
Timothy doesn’t know that his older cousin and his wife are protecting a fairy’s home. Not until he runs away with one desperately needing his help. With the magic from the oak where she resides fading away, Linden seeks Timothy’s help to find anything to restore the magic in London or beyond. But new histories of fairies meet Linden’s ears as she learns the true story of her people, and now she has more than she own home to save.
The plot kept fluctuating between interesting and dull. Well, more so dull. Because when I thought it could be interesting the direction taken was such a bad and predictable cliche that made this novel’s plotline feel like a copy of every existing novel ever, even outside of the genre. It was left with such disappointment on this emotional rollercoaster.
All the character and magic that the first book had was lost. And I don’t even mean that in terms of plot! The predecessor had such rich worldbuilding in such a small location with such a great fairy aesthetic that felt super raw. This one felt like every generic fish out of water object quest I have ever seen in the media. I do not know how all of the character from the previous novel got so drastically drained from what was once magical! And the irony is there were buttloads more magics in the sequel.
As for the characters themselves, they lost their personality the longer the novel went on. That was such a shame for lead character Tim because he had such a promising start as a lead – prone to fights, music lover, struggling with his faith and fitting in after moving from South Africa… all that was lost the minute a bland ass do-gooder fairy named Linden (clear Mary Sue material against all but the BBEG) entered his life.
I’ll just say read Knife as a standalone. You don’t need to know about the rest of the world at all. The bigger the world gets, the duller it becomes.
Rebel gets a score of 1.5//5. Not the lowest rated, but easily the most disappointing read in a very long time.
Yours in writing
Amy