Seraphina | Rachel Hartman | Review

Seraphina | Rachel Hartman | Review

• Wednesday, 14 August 2013

“Sometimes the truth has difficulty breaching the city walls of our beliefs. A lie, dressed in the correct livery, passes through more easily.” - Rachel Hartman, Seraphina

There's been peace between dragons and humans for forty years in the Kingdom of Goredd. But when a member of the royal family is murdered by something that seems to be a dragon questions and doubts awakes among many of the humans. Seraphina Dombegh is a musician working for the royal family who gets drawn into the investigation about the murder. She starts to unfold a secret plot that's supposed to destroy the forty year old peace. In the meanwhile she's also struggling with keeping her own dangerous secret from everyone around her...

I had read quite a few excellent reviews about Seraphina by Rachel Hartman when I decided to pick it up. So I have to admit that I had pretty high hopes regarding this novel. I was kind of hoping that Seraphina would be everything that I hoped Daugher of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor to be before I read it. Because I happen to be on of those few people who was a bit disappointed with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. But enough about that, this review is supposed to be about Seraphina.

First of all I would like to say that Seraphina is a well-written book and that Rachel Hartman is a really good story-teller. I enjoyed the story-line in Seraphina and thought that many of the ideas and aspects in this story were really original. I especially liked the characters. I usually don’t care for the main characters in novels but I have to say that there was something about Seraphina that I really liked. She felt believable and complex and she was never too much. I liked that she wasn’t a person who only saw the world in black and white which is usually the case with main characters. There’s always something evil to fight but no one never seem to see the complexity of the situation or be able to see something from someone else’s perspective. But this is not the case with Seraphina. I also really liked many of the side characters. They were original, fun and believable.

So I do think that Seraphina is young adult fantasy of high quality and I thought that it was an enjoyable reading experience (my favorite thing to say in my reviews..) It’s a well-written book that touches a lot of important subjects that could be transferred to our modern and real world. The characters are believable and relatable and the world-building is intelligent and original...But...There’s always a but isn’t there?

I really struggled with the pacing in this book. To be totally honest, I felt like some parts were really slow. I felt like there were many parts in the book were nothing important was happening. I know, a book can't be action filled from start to finish and I'm not asking for that, but I kind of want something to happen...At least most of the time.

I do recommend Seraphina to people who enjoy this genre because I'm pretty sure many of you are going to love it and there's many reviews out there to prove it. But I just can't love a book that makes me feel a bit bored from time to time. It's a good book, it's well-written and pretty original and I understand why so many people love it but it just didn't work for me. I guess that happens sometimes. I'm sorry Seraphina but I can't give you more than 3/5 stars (which isn't that bad anyway...)

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.