#yafantasy

A VERY Straightforward Book Review of Phantasma by Kaylie Smith

HEYYY writer friends! ✨ i have NOT been active for a very very long time (about 3-4 months) i am SOOO sorry about that. i've been trying to decide what to do with my blog, and i really want to work on REBRANDING it. but, i decided to crawl back into tumblr and bless you all with a short book review of this "romantasy."

alright, so... I just emerged from the depths of Phantasma by Kaylie Smith, and to be completely honest? My brain is a literal puddle of conflicting emotions. I wanted to LOVE this. I wanted to be consumed by it. I wanted to be so haunted that I’d have to leave the lights on while I worked on my own manuscript. But instead, I’m sitting here at 2 AM, three coffees deep, feeling… well, a little bit GUTTED.

We’re giving this one a solid 3 stars. It wasn’t a disaster, but it definitely didn’t set my soul on fire the way I hoped a Southern Gothic YA fantasy would. 🕯️💀

Let’s break down the "why" behind the rating, because there are some MASSIVE lessons here for us as writers. If you’re working on a fantasy romance or a high-stakes "game" plot, pay attention!

The Atmosphere (Or, Where is the Humidity??)

When I hear "Southern Gothic," I expect to feel the dampness in the air. I want to smell the decay, feel the oppressive heat, and sense the weight of a thousand family secrets pressing down on my chest. I want that GRIT. for "Mirror Girls" by Kelly McWilliams. let me tell you. it hit EVERY SINGLE POINT AND ELEMENT a southern gothic novel needs. LOVEDDDD the atmosphere. highly recommend it.

But with Phantasma, the vibe felt… thin? It lacked that heavy, atmospheric "chokehold" that makes the Southern Gothic subgenre so iconic. As writers, we have to remember that setting is not ONLY a backdrop, it's a CHARACTER. Especially in horror-adjacent fantasy!

• The Lesson: If you tell your readers a story is "Gothic," you have to deliver on the sensory overload. Don't just tell us the house is old; make us hear the wood screaming under the weight of the ghosts. Make us feel the dust in our lungs. Phantasma felt a bit too "clean" for a world that was supposed to be terrifyingly haunted.

The Romance: Lust vs. Connection 🥀

Okay, let’s talk about Ophelia and Blackwell. Sigh.

I wanted to ship them. I really did. But, the chemistry felt… artificial. It felt like "insta-lust" disguised as "fated soulmates," and it just didn't hit the mark for me.

• The Problem: Their connection felt purely physical. Every time they were on page together, it was all about the tension of touching, but I didn't feel the tension of their souls colliding.

• The Fix for Your WIP: When you’re writing a romance, especially a dark one, you NEED emotional stakes. Why do they NEED each other? Not just "why do they want to kiss?" but "how does this person fill a hole in the other's identity?" If the romance is only built on "he’s dark and mysterious" and "she’s the only one who seessss him," it starts to feel like a trope-by-numbers exercise. We want the MESS. We want the emotional devastation!

In Phantasma, I felt like Blackwell was there because the plot demanded a Love Interest™, not because he and Ophelia actually had a foundation of shared vulnerability. It felt performative rather than earned. (and the smut scenes gave me a headache and actually made me want to skip.)

The "Saving Grace": The Game Levels 🎮✨

Now, it wasn't all gloom and doom! The actual Phantasma game? That was the highlight. The different levels of the game were inventive, creepy, and honestly the only thing that kept me turning the pages past midnight.

• Why it Worked: This is a masterclass in "High Concept" execution. The game provided a clear structure, escalating stakes, and a sense of momentum. Each level felt like a new challenge for Ophelia’s character development (even if the development itself felt a bit shaky at times).

• The Takeaway: If your plot is dragging, look at your "trials." Are the obstacles your characters face actually INTERESTING? Are they visually distinct? The levels in Phantasma were vibrant and weird, and that’s exactly what saved the book from being a DNF (Did Not Finish) for me.

The Plot Twist (Or, The Case of the Missing Surprise) 🔍

okay, we need to talk about the "predictable twist."

I knew the "big reveal" from the very beginning. Like, page fifty. And there is nothing—and I mean NOTHING—more frustrating than waiting 300 pages for a character to realize something the reader already knows.

• The Tension Killer: When the reader is miles ahead of the protagonist, the protagonist starts to look… well, a bit dim. It kills the tension. You want your reader to be guessing, or at the very least, you want the reveal to recontextualize EVERYTHING they’ve read so far.

• VERY VERY RIN-ESQUE Advice: If you’re going to have a "predictable" twist, you have to make the journey to that twist so emotionally taxing that the reader doesn't care they guessed it. Or, better yet, use a "Double-Blind" twist. Give them the obvious one early, so they let their guard down, and then hit them with the REAL one at the 90% mark.

Phantasma played it a bit too safe here. It followed the YA fantasy blueprint a little too closely, and because of that, the "shock" moments landed with a bit of a thud.

Final Thoughts for the Writing Soul

So, why a 3 star? Because it was "fine." It was a fun, quick read with some cool imagery, but it lacked the SOUL and the UNIQUE VOICE that makes a book stay with you for years.

As writers, we should aim to be the book that makes someone stay up until 4 AM because they CANNOT look away. (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia, DID that for me. AND made me a bit creeped out) We want to write the romance that makes people ache, and the twists that make people throw the book across the room (in a good way!).

Don't be afraid to be "too much."

• Be TOO atmospheric.

• Be TOO emotional.

• Be TOO weird.

Don't settle for the "artificial" feel. Dig deep into your characters' shadows and find the stuff that actually hurts to write. That’s where the magic is.

I’m going to go drink my fourth coffee and try to fix my own "predictable" subplot. Wish me luck! ☕✨

(let me know if you guys wanna see my wips i'm working on, i missed you all!!!)

-rin ✨

🌌 Book Riot went looking for YA fantasy where the worldbuilding actually holds up. Akata Witch and Iron Cast both made the cut.

Akata Witch by @nnediokorafor drops you into a Nigeria running on its own rules. Sunny is albino, American born, and only just learning she belongs to the Leopard People. Giant red grasshoppers. Masquerades. A script that shifts meaning depending on who reads it. None of that magic was invented for the page. It comes out of West African cosmology people actually live inside.

Iron Cast by @thedestinysoria puts you in Boston, 1919, weeks before Prohibition. Hemopaths pull illusions out of poetry and music, and the city has made that a crime. They perform anyway, in an underground club, one raid away from an asylum built to hold them.

Worldbuilding usually gets talked about like set dressing. These two build from something real. One from a cosmology that was never fiction to begin with. One from a stretch of Boston history the postcards leave out.

👉🏾 Read the full list from Book Riot here: https://bookriot.com/ya-fantasy-with-exceptional-worldbuilding/

📚 Both are on the shelf at www.sistahscifi.com, or request them from your favorite library.

Two books I knew I wanted to read in February were Bemused by Farrah Rochon and Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis. Here are my mini reviews:

Bemused by Farrah Rochon

This is such a sweet book! The muses were definitely my favorite part of the Hercules movie so I loved this take on their backstory. It’s pretty fast-paced and adventurous which made it an entertaining book to listen to while I did chores.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis

It is with great pleasure that I announce that my young adult novel is up for pre-orders right now on Amazon! The story of The Departing Tale of Christopher and The Hereafter follows the a young boy mourning the loss of his mother. To his father he appears numb and speaks very little. Christopher world changes when one night a grim reaper named David explains that his mother’s death was a…

(If they lived above the ocean.)

Nikolaus: You never took me to an amusement park as a kid.

Leander (reading): That’s correct.

Nikolaus (upset): 'That’s correct?' That’s all you have to say?

Leander (still reading): That’s correct, Sire.

Nikolaus (scoffs): I don’t accept that. 

Leander: Denial is unhealthy, Your Majesty.

(Nikolaus grabs Leander’s arm)

Leander (annoyed): Where are we going?

Nikolaus: To make up for lost time.

(30 minutes later, they arrive at an amusement park)

Nikolaus: 😄

Leander: 😑

Nikolaus (excitedly): What do you want to get on first?

Leander: The limo back.

Nikolaus: I feel like you’re not a merry-go-round guy. What about the big swings?

Leander: I feel like I don’t want to be here.

Nikolaus (pouts, then his eyes light up): Oooh! I wanna check that rollercoaster out. Let’s go!

Leander (groans and reluctantly goes)

(Five coasters later, there’s a malfunction and someone falls out)

Nikolaus:...

Leander: You know what, amusement parks ARE fun. I regret not going sooner.

Nikolaus: No, that wasn’t supposed to be the fun par—

Leander: We should do this every week.

Nikolaus: That actually does sound kinda ni—

Leander: And sabotage the rides, so more people fall out.

Nikolaus:...I’m just gonna count this as a win for me.

[Continuation of me putting my Changing Waters cast in goofy situations! For the actual novel, here's the link to its Amazon page. Story description below!)