"I don't know why there's so many low ratings on this book!"
same reviewer:
"I mean, sure, it took til page 300-something of the 400+ page book for me to actually care about the characters or even remember their names, but that last 100 pages, the pacing really picked up and I felt something for the characters!
"I can't wait for the sequel, because there was a LOT of things that didn't get any conclusion to at the end of the book!"
[this book was endlessly, deliberately advertised as a standalone to get people to read it in the first place, only to have the rug pulled out from under readers feet when they finish the book and nothing has any kind of satisfying conclusion, the main plot points have been completely glossed over, epic final battles have been skipped over completely with a time skip, and the book is one big hunk of shallow, poorly-executed tropes that got speedrunned by cardboard cutouts in the background]
It's literally hilarious how even the "positive" reviews trying to praise the book ends up pointing out its fatal flaws.
Hint: a book shouldn't be a slog to read until the final 50 pages-- that's just bad writing.
If it takes you suffering through 300 pages in a 400 page "standalone" to actually LIKE the characters, that's just bad writing.
If a book was deliberately, exclusively advertised as "An epic, standalone fantasy novel" only for it to
1) not be an epic fantasy by any definition, to the point "positive" reviewers warn people not to read it with that expectation
and
2) not able to stand on its own two feet with a well-built world or characters like a standalone novel REQUIRES
3) LITERALLY not be standalone because now its gonna be a fucking trilogy?
That's not only bad writing, that's predatory publishing tactics, straight up. literally falsely advertising a book as one thing, and then delivering a completely different product in the hopes that at least a few people will be willing to continue shelling out money for a series literally designed from the ground up to string the audience along for the sake of book sales, instead of actually having a cohesive, planned story arc for the series to accomplish.
