Andrée's Reviews > Five Broken Blades

First of all, this novel is physically GORGEOUS!!! The sprayed edges with stenciled artwork are sublime!

Second of all, the book is actually great! The plot itself is simple: five killers, for five different reasons, want to kill Yusan's God king Joon. But a god is immortal, no? Surprise: someone found a way to (probably) make him mortal. The author slowly guides us through our 6 companions’ tumultuous journey to the next god-king's public appearance... a journey throughout which they'll have to fight tooth and nail to survive, learn to trust each other, heal old wounds and maybe even find love. The intrigue was thrilling and enjoyable! I just had to survive the plot twists but the author sprinkled just the right amount of clues through the whole novel for everything to cohesively come together by the end!

What I truly enjoyed was the 6 POVs. I found it was a great way to slowly introduce the characters and their haunting backstories without overwhelming the reader. The heroes themselves were from different socio-economic status, had different skin tones, sexual orientations, different biases and flaws!

Yes, I love me some tragic heroes! Euyn, for example, was raised to be very sexist but seems to be learning from it: "She's very smart for a girl, but then again, she is an assassin. Maybe I should give her more credit."

I also found it beautiful that the power of love was a recurrent theme: "The odd thing is, I remember feeling taken care of by our parents. We were poor, like the rest of our village, but we were happy. I never doubted that we were loved..." The fact that our 5 blades (and Ty) begin to overcome their trauma and heal in this new found family of dangerous champions is heartwarming.

I am giving it 4 stars because I found some of the interpersonal connections and attractions too hastily made and some of the dialogue leading to it was a little on the nose.

This novel is well worth the read... I have already pre-ordered the sequel and will probably re-read Five Broken Blades in a few months to make sure I picked up on every little detail! Well done Mai Corland!