Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Where do I start? After 572 pages of wandering storyline, unlikable characters, child abuse, psychological abuse, physical abuse, plotlines that don’t make sense, a prolonged death scene involving a deer and some hunting dogs, the murder of a pregnant woman by same hunting dogs, an abortion performed on an unconscious and nonconsenting woman, a caning, and an ending that threatens the probability of a sequel, I threw this book down and simply said, “No”. I had no other words. From the beginning we know that the adopted Judah, hated by everyone in Lord Elban’s castle and the upper nobility because she looks different and therefore is probably a witch, has a magical twin-like connection to the Lord’s heir, Gavin. Judah also has some sort of power, unknown to her or the reader, that an entire tribe has worked five generations to do…I have no idea what. Gavin is narcissistic, selfish and a total jerk. Elban is a cruel and manipulating creature that is written as psychotic to nth degree. Gavin’s brother, Theron, is a minor, very minor, character that builds things and hides from his father and is eventually used as a sympathetic tool with a couple of deus ex machina moments. Gavin’s betrothed, Elly, is probably the only character I liked but not until the last painful third of the book. While the first part is filled with overly long and drawn out palace intrigue in which no one has a spine or the guts to just stab Elban in the face, the reader is constantly reminded Judah is special. A magus with secrets that aren’t really secret is very interested in Judah because she is special but we still don’t know why. Part Two starts out with some teeth but quickly devolves into a what-the-hell-is-this kind of revolution nonsense that made me roll my eyes so far into the back of my head I injured myself. And after over 400 pages we finally learn why Judah is special but at that point I didn’t even care because I was in skim mode powering through to the end. I don’t think I ever learned how Gavin and Judah were magically connected; maybe I skipped over it. Now, I am not a squeamish reader when it comes to dark fiction and violence but this book made me flip through the five revolting pages the author wasted on a pack of dogs destroying a deer. The caning was completely unnecessary and not germane to the plot. The abortion was just another uncalled for way to remind us the book takes place in a male-dominated culture-WE ALREADY KNOW because it has been drilled into our heads over and over. There was probable incest abuse that was hinted at then dropped. Lord Elban’s cruelty was written so over the top I didn’t hate him, I hated the writer. And DO NOT tell me the long drawn-out descriptions of the child abuse Judah suffered through made her that much stronger. DO NOT. The Unwilling is depressing and angering and loaded with triggers. And if the author wants to write a book with violent scenes then she should study the works of Joe Abercrombie or Mark Lawrence, those authors are truly grimdark but also include a wicked sense of humor that gives the reader some respite. This book had absolutely no sense of humor. If there was an editor involved, at all, they dropped the ball on this one; over 200 pages could have been sliced from this thing along with several storylines that were useless filler. I hate slamming an author’s work but The Unwilling well and truly deserves a single star rating.