Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I completely expected to love this book. Then, after a few chapters, I wanted to like this book, but, ultimately, my reaction is kinda... Somewhere between "meh" and annoyance. The characters were a bit flat. They started out promising but were never lived up to their own promise. In fact they declined, steadily mostly because they mostly stayed the same and had the same inner dialogue the ENTIRE book. Even the character that seems to "change" the most is so wishy-washy in his "change" that I found myself rolling my eyes more than anything. And the magic seems mostly arbitrary and flimsy and used to the plot's convenience to be rendered wholly uninteresting and arguably annoying. The pacing is weird. Is this supposed to be action-packed or cerebral? It tried to be both, but I found myself skimming through action scenes and mentally tuning out most of the time. I'm so bummed because the premise was so interesting and intriguing. But for me, this was wholly disappointing.