Bout of Books 7.0 Book Spine Poetry Challenge.Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects.Throwback Thursday (1): The Looking Glass Wars.The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle by Christo.Review: Written in Red (Others #1) by Anne Bishop.On Writing and Responding to Negative Reviews.Review: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch.Readers who are concerned with world building and a prefer more complex fantasy worlds, however, would be better off reading something by Juliet Marillier, Kristin Cashore, Alexandra Bracken, or Tamora Pierce. There are a couple characters that I really liked and was sad to see go, but I could see the necessity of their deaths.ĭefiance didn't work for me, but I've read multiple positive reviews, so, if you're intrigued by the premise and can overlook the gaps in the world building, I think it could be worth a read. Though I didn't particularly like Rachel's violent tendencies, I did appreciate that Redwine wasn't afraid to kill off characters when it benefited the plot. I wanted her to think with her head, not with her fists! Instead of coming across as headstrong and determined, she came across as rather daft. This was very odd to me, especially when I felt that there were definitely other options to explore. She seemed to have so much anger all the time and truly could not see any other solution to her problems other than aggression. I really didn't understand Rachel's willingness to kill anything and anyone that stood in her way. I'm not against violence in YA by any means because I find that it usually has a point, but the violence in Defiance sometimes bordered on gratuitous. technology that no body else seemed to have access to.Īdditionally, the characters seemed to get quite worked up things - everything was very dramatic - but I couldn't help but think they were overacting or feel that the solutions were a bit too simple for how dire things were supposed to be. The setting in Defiance seems pretty old-fashioned, perhaps bordering medieval, yet Rachel and James have access to some rather advanced technology. things that didn't seem to fit the other information I'd already been given or the world I thought was taking shape and I had no explanation as to why these things were possible.

Things simply happened with no explanation. There are plenty of fantasy books that have gotten away with successfully with avoiding much world building ( Poison by Bridget Zinn comes to mind), but I felt there were too many events and motivations in Defiance that didn't make sense due to the lack of world building.

Redwine.įor me, the lack of world building in Defiance was the leading cause of my negative feelings.

Though I really wanted to like Defiance - especially after falling in love with that gorgeous cover - I was ultimately disappointed by this debut offering from C.J.

Defiance by cj redwine