"Don't judge a book by the cover", they say. Well, true, but I sometimes pick up a book just because the cover looks cool, anyways. It is a big factor in drawing me in. So let's have a look at this one. Spoilers ahead.
Twelve is a young girl training to be a Hunter, a protector of the people against supernatural creatures. But one day during a raid by the monsters, a fellow Hunter named Seven is kidnapped. Twelve teams up with a dog made out of stone and two of her bullies in order to get Seven back.
This wasn't really a bad fantasy book at all, I personally just wish it kind of drew me in more. Don't get me wrong, it has a lot going for it. A cool prehistoric-based setting in a realm of ice and snow. The culture of the human tribes and the Hunters. Several concepts for fantasy creatures, as well as some really good characters and character development. Despite them being one-note bullies at first, both of the bully characters who ended up joining Twelve actually got really solid development into three-dimensional characters and good friends of Twelve. Twelve herself is not a bad protagonist, either. She can be mean and gruff but she has a lot of emotional baggage she's carrying, making her a flawed but rounded protagonist.
But the book just didn't click that much with me personally. I didn't have a bad time reading it, but something about it just didn't do it for me. It's still objectively good, but just not as much as a favorite as I'd hoped. Maybe it's the author's writing voice, or me not being fully immersed into the journey the characters are taking, or the fact that most supernatural creatures are simply seen as irredeemable villains which is just a really common trope in YA fantasy that I'd like to see turned on its head more.
Maybe this is just a personal gripe but it's so often in fantasy that the human (or human-esque) race are always the good guys and the "ugly" races such as trolls, orcs and goblins area almost always the one-note villains and it just feels boring to me nowadays. And a bit lacking in nuance. Give me some evil humans (granted, there's one of those in this book, but still only one) or good trolls and goblins, please. Because I'm growing really tired of this trope where the non-human races are constantly considered grotesque villains with little to not nuance to it. It's boring and it's been done to death, and so far this book doesn't really do anything unique with it.
I was glad to see that there were a few supernatural creatures in this that weren't considered antagonists or villains, including the stone guardian dog (who is a major supportive character) and one or two other minor characters, but overall it's pretty black-and-white. I do appreciate the fact that not all humans in this are good, however, including there being one human traitor.
Overall this was a good book and I will give it an appropriate rating, it just didn't do it for me personally that much. I feel that most YA fantasy fans will probably enjoy this a lot, however, it just wasn't my cup of tea. May check out the second book, may not.
Rating: 4/5
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