Review: Metal Slinger

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Raised among the seafaring Alaha - exiles of a war the world forgot - Brynn has trained her entire life to protect her people and uphold a fragile peace. She knows her place, her purpose, and the stories she's been told. But everything begins to fracture the moment she meets him.

A Kenta soldier. An enemy. And the first person to really see her. He claims Brynn was never meant to live at sea, that her blood holds magic the Alaha swore to forget, that a rebellion is coming - and she's at the heart of it.

He's the threat she was trained to kill. She's the secret he was sent to find.

And together, they might just break the world . . .

Genre: fantasy

Publication date: June 2022

Mature content: yes

Review: I went into Metal Slinger with high expectations because of all the hype surrounding it, but unfortunately it didn't quite work all that well for me.

I was enjoying it at first, but then things started to fall apart the first time Brynn/Jovie used her magic without even stopping to question what was happening. From that point on, the story became increasingly confusing. The plot felt inconsistent, with contradictions here and there, and several scenes than seem to exist for no clear reason. Suddenly you have shifters thrown in the mix and the mention of dragons (on a book, but even then...), and no one bats an eye. 

The major twist at the end does explain some of those moments, but not nearly all of them. It left me feeling more puzzled than intrigued. The cliffhanger ending is also confusing in its own right, making it hard to tell exactly what had happened.

I can understand why so many readers love this book, especially if they're looking for a fantasy with big twists and a shocking ending. For me, though, the story became too muddled to stay fully invested, leaving it as an average read rather than a memorable one.

I will try to read the sequel to see if I can get to the end of Jovie and Acker's story, and I'm hoping the plot improves from here onwards, but I'm keeping my expectations low...

Beautiful cover, though.

 

Happy readings otherwise!

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