Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Review: A Mortal Song by Megan Crewe

Title: A Mortal Song
Author: Megan Crewe

Publication: September 13th 2016 by Another World Press
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 2/5

Sora's life was full of magic—until she discovered it was all a lie.

Heir to Mt. Fuji's spirit kingdom, Sora yearns to finally take on the sacred kami duties. But just as she confronts her parents to make a plea, a ghostly army invades the mountain. Barely escaping with her life, Sora follows her mother's last instructions to a heart-wrenching discovery: she is a human changeling, raised as a decoy while her parents' true daughter remained safe but unaware in modern-day Tokyo. Her powers were only borrowed, never her own. Now, with the world's natural cycles falling into chaos and the ghosts plotting an even more deadly assault, it falls on her to train the unprepared kami princess.

As Sora struggles with her emerging human weaknesses and the draw of an unanticipated ally with secrets of his own, she vows to keep fighting for her loved ones and the world they once protected. But for one mortal girl to make a difference in this desperate war between the spirits, she may have to give up the only home she's ever known.

"Megan Crewe's A Mortal Song is engrossing from the first chapter. The world of the kami is beautifully fantastic and delicately drawn, and the switched-at-birth scenario made me instantly feel for both of these resilient, brave girls. A Mortal Song has lots of magic, lots of heart, and lots to love." -Kendare Blake, author of Three Dark Crowns


A Mortal Song by Megan Crewe was original, there's no denying that. I also loved that it was set in Japan because I haven't read a lot of books that are set there. But in the end I just didn't like the story enough for me to give a higher rating. The beginning was good, I thought but I started getting a little bit bored after that. Maybe this story wasn't just for me. I don't know. 

Like I said, the book was original. it does get some bonus points for that. I thought it was original because of the main character Sora. She finds out after seventeen years that she isn't a Kami, but a regular human and has been switched with another girl. Most stories I read were about someone finding out she's magical, not to other way around. So I really liked that about this story.

I'm also pretty particular about the romances I read about. And I really didn't care for this one at all. I didn't like that Sora going back and forth between the two guys in the book. Anyway, this is what I disliked the most about the story, unfortunately.

The writing was okay, but not it didn't amaze me or anything. I also thought the story went too slowly. Maybe because I was kind of bored through out it. But I gotta say that although I don't know a lot about it all,  I think all the Japanese stuff, the legends about the Kami and everything else was well researched.

I wish I had liked this book more because it has a great concept and originality. There need to be more books like this with Japanese characters. I just had some issues with it, but I think other readers will like it more.




       About the Author:

Like many authors, Megan Crewe finds writing about herself much more difficult than making things up. A few definite facts: she lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and son (and does on occasion say “eh”), she’s always planning some new trip around the world, and she’s spent the last six years studying kung fu, so you should probably be nice to her. She has been making up stories about magic and spirits and other what ifs since before she knew how to write words on paper. These days the stories are just a lot longer.

Megan’s first novel, Give Up the Ghost, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. The Way We Fall was nominated for the White Pine Award and made the International Literacy Association Young Adults’ Choices List, and Earth & Sky was an OLA Best Bet for 2015. She is also the author of the rest of the Fallen World series (The Lives We Lost, The Worlds We Make, and Those Who Lived), the rest of the Earth & Sky trilogy (The Clouded Sky and A Sky Unbroken), and the standalone contemporary fantasy A Mortal Song.


1 comment:

  1. I was interested in this one because of the cover but I don't think I will be able to enjoy this one at all. Which is a shame really :/ It seems like the originality makes it promising but then the love triangle being kind of unnecessary ruins it.

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