October 08, 2018

Review: Beneath The Citadel by Destiny Soria

Beneath The Citadel
Author: Destiny Soria
Publisher: Amulet
Publication Date: October 9, 2018
Pages: 480
Format: eARC/NetGalley

In the city of Eldra, people are ruled by ancient prophecies. For centuries, the high council has stayed in power by virtue of the prophecies of the elder seers. After the last infallible prophecy came to pass, growing unrest led to murders and an eventual rebellion that raged for more than a decade.


In the present day, Cassa, the orphaned daughter of rebels, is determined to fight back against the high council, which governs Eldra from behind the walls of the citadel. Her only allies are no-nonsense Alys, easygoing Evander, and perpetually underestimated Newt, and Cassa struggles to come to terms with the legacy of rebellion her dead parents have left her — and the fear that she may be inadequate to shoulder the burden. But by the time Cassa and her friends uncover the mystery of the final infallible prophecy, it may be too late to save the city — or themselves.

Review: Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was had a good story-line, great characters, and and incredibly rare thing. Being a standalone fantasy novel. Like it seems like almost every fantasy novel released lately is part of or a beginning to a series. So it was incredibly refreshing to read a standalone fantasy novel that told a solid story and wrapped things up nicely. I did have a few small issues with the book, but overall, it was good. 

So the first thing that really stood out to me was the actual story. We have a city ruled by a council and a chancellor who rely on prophecies to keep people in line and prevent uprisings. And we also have so many interesting people in Eldra. There are people blood bound the elements such as silver or iron. People who can see the future, people who can take memories, etc. We see how all these types of characters play into the story line. Our main characters are pretty much a ragtag group of teens with the last spark of rebellion in their blood trying to bring down the chancellor and his council. They end up instead unknowingly being a huge part of a infallible prophecy. And of course its a battle of who to trust. Someone who the chancellor and his council have kept locked up underground for years saying he can help bring them down, or the chancellor himself asking for their help to do the opposite and help him instead.

So pretty much the leader of the group is Cassa. Her parents were the leaders of the rebellion and were killed in the final battle against the citadel. She has pretty much taken it upon herself to take them down for her parents deaths. She fights the biggest battle in this book. She wants revenge so badly for her parents deaths, but also has to question what the right way to get that is. She is torn whether to believe Solan, the executioner, kept hidden underground saying she can kill the chancellor to create change, or to believe the chancellor himself, Ansel Dane, saying that being rid of Solan would create the change she desires. I think Cassa was also the one who grew the most. She starts off being dead set on her plans of revenge. But you see her slowly grow into someone who realizes that even though her parents are dead, she's created a new family of sorts with her friends now and she cares about them just as much, not just revenge anymore. She isn't just content to see one person die since it won't bring her parents back, she wants to protect her friends more. 

I think my favorite character was Alys. She can see the future, though not very well she claims. And she's also an apprentice of her parents, who are alchemists. She is with the little rebel group because the chancellor and the council destroyed her family's livelihood by punishing them for giving medicine to a rebel. We see Alys also grow a lot. She is incredibly unsure of herself and anything she does to try to help her friends succeed. She's constantly questioning if she told them the right things, made the right decisions, is strong enough to do anything. But as she goes through all these things happening to them, having conversations, seeing new things unfold, she slowly gains some confidence in herself. And by the end of the book, not only is she more sure of her skills and what she's seeing, but of her decisions as well. I loved the ending for her. She makes a decision about trying to help Vesper and the people in Eldra that I honestly don't think she would have made in the beginning. 

One of the big things I liked about this book was the bi-rep. Alys' brother Evander is bi and has kinda been hiding his interest in mutual friend Newt. Newt also has an interest in Evander, but doesn't even think Evander thought of him the same way. We see these two grow from individuals with their own agenda's, Evander to protect Alys and their parents, and Newt to prove he's not like his father, who betrayed the rebels to the citadel, to individuals fighting for the same goals. Newt starts to realize he's not his father and that he's earned his spot in this group and Evander starts to see that helping and protecting his family might also mean helping to fight for and save Eldra. I also loved that they finally tested the waters of attraction and realized they felt the same way. And realizing this even gave them both some strength later on in surviving. Neither wanted to see the other dead after just realizing their shared feelings and fought harder to ensure they survived. I also really liked that this wasn't a randomly thrown in romance. It had a base where it formed and feelings that had been there for a while. They just needed an event to bring them out. 

Wow. This whole web of prophecies, divination's, taking down the citadel, power. It was interesting. At first we are led to believe the infallible prophecies are ones that absolutely cannot be changed. But then find out that this final one that is playing out, was rigged from the start. It wasn't just a random prophecy, but one that was influenced by many smaller events over many years. That was definitely interesting. And the fact that the councilors in particular were so intent on holding on to power, that they couldn't see the danger posed to them and the entire city. They only wanted to keep their prophecies coming, putting to death anyone that even remotely stood in their way, even if they were trying to warn them of what could happen. Those are definitely not the type of people you want holding all the power. 

The only issues I had with this book were the 6 POV's. While they were all important, I was definitely having a hard time keeping up with them sometimes. I'd go right into a new chapter not realizing the character switch. A few voices definitely seemed similar. But it wasn't a huge distraction. Just took a little time to get used to the constantly switching POV's. The thing that bugged me more was the switching between present and flashbacks. I'd get a good rhythm going reading the present scenes, but then we'd get a flashback thrown in and it threw everything off because it had a different tone and pace. This was definitely more of an issue in the first half than the second half since there were a lot more flashbacks in the first 50%. The flashbacks were definitely integral parts of the story, just could have been better in how they were thrown in. But overall, I really liked this book.