Furyborn Didn’t Stand Out Like I Had Hoped [Review]

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Format/Source: ebook/Netgalley

Series: Empirium #1
Published: 22 May 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Length: 512 pages
Genre:
★★★   

I think everyone in the book blogging world who would want to read this already has. I need to create a rule where I don’t request young adult fantasy – I have high hopes of enjoying it, but I rarely do and then I don’t have much to say in a review that I don’t feel has been better articulated elsewhere. Hence the brief thoughts post instead of a full review that I struggled to write for a week and then gave up on. (At least I feel like it’s been a long time since I read a book that was neither here nor there for me!)

• I would have skipped this book if it was by anyone else. I was willing to give it a shot because I adored the fantasy-esque scenes Legrand wrote in Some Kind of Happiness. Unfortunately for me, this book is totally different from that. I knew that Furyborn is YA, but it’s definitely on the older end of the YA spectrum and the style is typical YA fantasy – nothing particularly fancy.
• The prologue features a different tone than the rest of the book, however. It also features the most dramatic scene of the book. I liked the prologue better than most of the rest of the book.
• Usually alternating perspectives between chapters doesn’t work for me, but I found that the chapters in Furyborn are short enough that I didn’t get bored or forget what was happening in the other timeline. This also made skimming through Rielle’s trials quick.
• What sets this book apart from others in the same genre is the older age of the protagonists and the embracing of female desire. Another twist on a trope is that Eliana works and fights for the oppressive Empire, rather than the rebels. There’s also a role reversal that I feel I haven’t seen often. I like the exploration of fate and identity – can we choose to be who we want?
• I had this wishful thinking theory that the 1,000 years between Rielle and Eliana was actually propaganda by the Empire and Rielle’s storyline only happened like 20 years earlier, and Rielle is actually still around….but no, that’s not the case.

The Bottom Line

Recommended for fans of the genre, who may appreciate some of the twists on usual tropes. Have you read Furyborn? Did you enjoy it more than I did?