Author: beautifulgoddes

Genre: 'Historical Fiction'

What I liked about this book:

The author picked good source material and made prose that wasn't so boring I couldn't stand reading it. 

What I did NOT like about this book:

The author took a beloved biblical tale and butchered it. The book is the book of Esther, which is the basis for Purim, a Jewish holiday that is vaguely similar to Halloween. For those unfamiliar, the story goes something like this:

King executes wife for refusing to dance naked in front of strangers. King gets lonely and summons girls for new wife. Girl comes with cousin, hides that she is Hebrew. Uncle foils plot to murder king. King's advisor decides to slaughter Hebrews. Advisor decides to hang cousin. Girl finds out and outs advisor to king. Advisor is hanged. Hebrews defeat advisor's men. Everyone parties. (sidenote: everyone should pm stpolishook and ask for her version it's way funnier than mine)

This is a very well known story. I am not sure at all how the author managed to get so much of it wrong. Points included are:

-The part about Queen Vashti being executed for refusing to dance naked in front of the king's party was just omitted, instead she is the king's son's wife for some reason

-Esther (or Astra) just straight up tells everyone who she is and where she's from

-Mordecai does not go with

-There is some kind of bullshit love triangle between Astra and the king's sons

The rest of it is just trite nonsense that has nothing to do with the original story. It's nonsense.

The prose is very poorly written. It does a lot of telling me things and shows me nothing. The book has horrible white room syndrome throughout, I never have any idea where I am or what anything looks like. It's just not well written. It might have--MIGHT HAVE--gotten a pass if it was and had minor deviations. And the original source material would have made a great book!

Instead, the author managed to take an important and well known story and turn it into a teenage romance with a love triangle and a bunch of characters with the personality of limp cardboard. 

Overall:

Bad.

Rating: 

2/10 because reading it was tolerable. 1/10 on literally any other measure.