Monday, March 29, 2021

Book Review: Prisoners by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire Winglets #1)

 


So I originally wrote some reviews for the Winglets way back when I was still doing only video reviews on YouTube. I'm doing these very low-key still, but my main review hub is and probably always will be on here. The reviews back then were also pretty negative and rushed, with me reading all the Winglets in succession and only writing the reviews thereafter, which caused them to somewhat bleed together in my head. So now I'll be taking a look at each of them separately and carefully. Spoilers ahead.

This Winglet shows the correspondence between Fierceteeth, Starflight's half-sister, and a SandWing guard as she and her partner Strongwings as both of them are being kept prisoner in the Sand palace. It shows Fierceteeth's backstory-how she always wanted to be a Dragonet of Destiny-and how she came to meet Strongwings and fell in love with him. In the end, both she and her partner are freed by the SandWing guard, and the ending is left open for the main arcs to fill in. 

I'm kind of neutral on this story. Fierceteeth was never a character I was particularly interested in, and Strongwings I especially never cared for. Does this story make me care about them? Not particularly. I get why Fierceteeth is jealous of Starflight's treatment and him getting to go to the main land, but honestly I just don't think she's a very interesting character, even with this backstory. Strongwings I still don't care for in the slightest. So if this novella set out to humanize them or make us care about these characters, it didn't work for me.

That said, it does give some intel into how these dragons escaped. I also liked the format of this book, with it being written letters between Saguaro and Fierceteeth. It obviously has some exaggerations from Fierceteeth's point of view, but that's what makes it fun. 

One scene that did touch me is when Strongwings took Fierceteeth away from the vulcano island for the briefest of moment so she could feel like what it was like to truly breathe. That was a sweet scene, I'll give it that.

Very short but overall not really winning me over, that's how I can best describe this Winglet. It does have an interesting format and sweet moment, but other than that it didn't do much for me.

Rating: 3.25/5

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