From the Bookshelf of crestfallen pages…

The Betrayals

Bridget Collins

Start date: February 1, 2021

Finish date: February 28, 2021

Why we're reading this: February 2021 book.
[close] February 2021 book.

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Nov 30, 2021 Janina (whatjaninareads) rated it it was ok

Shelves: netgalley, read-in-2021

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I received an advanced reader copy of The Betrayals in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this opportunity.

After reading The Binding last year, I immediately put The Betrayals on my wishlist and was so happy to be granted an eARC for this book by NetGalley. I was hoping to immerse myself into another adult historical fantasy with great writing style and a powerful love story.

Sadly, after forcing myself through this book, I feel rather…betrayed, f I received an advanced reader copy of The Betrayals in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this opportunity.

After reading The Binding last year, I immediately put The Betrayals on my wishlist and was so happy to be granted an eARC for this book by NetGalley. I was hoping to immerse myself into another adult historical fantasy with great writing style and a powerful love story.

Sadly, after forcing myself through this book, I feel rather…betrayed, for lack of a better word (and the pun is kinda intended, too, obviously). There were just so things that were wrong with this book.

Firstly, why is it that when looking for an impactful historical setting, writers resort to a totalitarian N*zi-like regime 9 times out of 10? What Jews were then are Christians here and one of them is saved by the main character, but it doesn’t have one bit of an impact on the plot at all. The story has little to do with the political situation, so why choose it in the first place?

Secondly, why have a female character that comes off as asexual (feeling sick at the thought of intimate touch), and then make her have meaningless sex with your other main character? I would have loved an ace character! I’m actually really glad that they didn’t get a “happy ending”, but that doesn’t mean I understand the need for that second love story at all.

Thirdly, I absolutely hated how pretentious and stuck up and arrogant Léo was. Who in the world would think it’s okay to think so lowly of women (and only make exceptions for individuals) and to even think about hitting them? What??? And the whole grand jeu made absolutely zero sense at all. It was pretentious and there were big, difficult words being thrown around with no explanation which frankly made the whole thing seem like the ridiculous day-dream fantasy of a toddler. Of course the grand jeu wasn’t explained, because there isn’t anything to explain. There were allusions to perfection and harmony, but that’s all.

Furthermore, I did not understand the need for four POVs. In my opinion, it would have been more than enough to switch between Léo’s and Claire’s POV with Claire reading Léo’s diary from time to time. But then again, I think that the whole book is rather unnecessary and the story is pointless, so take that opinion with a grain of salt maybe. But seriously, what benefit did the reader have from reading the Rat’s POV?

And why did his book perpetuate the stigma around mental illnesses? Ugh! I could have thrown it at the wall for that reason alone.

Lastly, although the writing style was immersive and I liked the academia setting, I wanted to DNF this book over and over again because of how little was happening. The ending was so anticlimatic that I wished I had, but I don’t make a habit of DNFing ARCs, so there’s that. All in all, I feel like having been presented with Carfax’s Red game - some people apparently love it (although I strongly disagree that this could be brilliant in any way) and I’m one of the Magisters who hates it.

1.5/5 stars.

TW: major (?) character death, minor character death, suicide, violence ...more

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