I could have sworn that this would be a new favorite, but unfortunately it goes to the notable reads of 2020 (according to my youtube video, I was only able to put 2 notable reads so I'll be doing a full blog post for my notable reads of 2020 — books that are great, but weren't my favorites). I would still recommend this book though, to other people who haven't read it yet, because it's a book that you either would love or would not.
BITCH, just look at that cover!! THAT COVER!!!
Yep, it's GORGEOUS!✨
Title: Where Dreams DescendSeries: Kingdom of Cards Book 1
Author: Janella Angeles
Published by: Wednesday Books
Published on: 25 August 2020
Format: Hardcover (won from a giveaway by Gavin) Trigger/Content Warnings: Misogyny, mind manipulation, possessive behaviour, trauma
Rating: 3.5✨ (3 on Goodreads)
Where Dreams Descend is about a female born magician, Kallia, who is trying to break free from the cage she was imprisoned into her whole life. She feels that she is destined for something grand and she knows that the whole world must know of her name because of the magical prowess she possesses.
Kallia is a showgirl from the Hellfire House run by Jack, who is also a born magician. Once Kallia turned her back from Hellfire, she joined a grand contest for magicians called Spectaculore, but the thing is, women were never meant to be contestants. Women are meant to be accessories to male magicians — assistants with sexy outfits to entice audience for the boring and repetitive acts of mediocre magicians — that "graces" all stages every time. But magic is in Kallia's veins and she's about to wipe these other male contestants' asses off, yet everytime Kallia is on stage, something bad happens and contestants go missing. Why? It's about time you find that out yourselves, people. Pick up the book!
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Before I go into anything, I just want to say that what I loved mostly about this book is how it mirrored the society that is still present up to this day — even when we're well way past that patriarchal bullsh. Women are just as capable, not just objects to men's fancies, and it was all well portrayed in Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles.
I mean, how could I be annoyed at our main character for being confident when in reality, men act just the same. Men strut their confidence and arrogance like an armor that is meant to glorify them, but when women wore that very same armor, it's arrogance that is worthy of being stripped off of them. I know that some people may get irritated by Kallia's over confidence, but what I saw was a struggling woman in a man's world. She knows she is capable and she's going to let the whole world know about it.
When you really look at it, Kallia wears a mask as a result of her trauma, and being in a man's world without a suit of armor, she would be left trampled upon by the mysogynists who think women can never do what they do. So Kallia, ya go gurl!
So over all I enjoyed the last 20% of the book and I had problems with the execution of the story in general. It felt longer than it needed to be because it goes in circles and it's repetitive without a chance of being resolved at all. It was like, Kallia performs, chaos ensues, she rests because the performance is exhausting, practice for the next act then repeat.
I wasn't rooting for Kallia to be honest, because we don't see much of the competitors and they were all written off as bunch of mumbling idiots who think dicks are better than vaginas. Anyway, it left me with a lot of questions rather than be satisfied at the ending. The book felt like a complete prequel, a complete back story to the true story, which is the second book, and that left a bad impression on me. I don't mind a cliff hanger, honestly, but if it left me feeling dissatisfied with how it ended and initial questions weren't answered, that would just irritate me.
Lastly, before I go to my spoilery bullets where I might be ranting about the book (or not?), I just want to say that despite my initial indifference to this first book, I would love to dive into the next book because I can't go on with my life without knowing how Kallia's story would end! Reading the synopsis of When Night Breaks, I felt like I got even more confused but I hope it would get better so I'm looking forward to 2021 for this book.
* SPOILERS ON TO THE NEXT PAGE *
VAGUE WORLD BUILDING AND AN EVEN VAGUER MAGIC SYSTEM
Well, Glorian is ... icy anddd gray.... That's it.
Just leave me inside the Conqueror's circus tent and I'll just play a game of cards and gamble there all day.
The magic is just there. It exists.
What's bugging me is that its source or how to hone and harness it is unclear. We know that mind manipulation is possible and Jack warned Kallia against it but we did not see firsthand how to use it. It takes a toll on them, okay. It's exhausting to use that much power and it defies consent, it depletes their energy and they need to recuperate. That's the only clear thing about the magic system.
Then there's also element bending, where Kallia can manipulate air, fire, water and earth, and this can only be done by born magicians, I am assuming. Am I right?
How about the acquired magicians? Can they learn these abilities or are they just all party tricks and mirror tricks or illusionists?
Actually, I know nothing. Please enlighten me.
CHARACTERS & LOVE INTEREST
I don't even care for the romance!
I am intrigued with Jack and want to know more about him. There's also so much air of mystery around the houses that were now non-existent in Glorian.
In the end, we all knew that Jack was Alastor, the house of fire (??). shit im so bad at this. hahaha. I gathered that Jack was one of them, so I would love to know more about him and the history of Glorian.
Aaros is the best character for me because he's like a loyal puppy calling Kallia 'boss' and Demarco, 'judge'. It's funny but I found him adorable that I would be more interested to read about his romance (which is non-existent) than Kallia's! But as much as I loooove Aaros, I can't help but be skeptical. He is too good to be true!! Please let Aaros be the Aaros of WDD until the end because I would be crushed if he suddenly turn out to be a bad guy in disguise ☹
Conquerors were FIRE! I mean, we only saw snippets of them but I loved them instantly. They feel like the Cirque du Soleil which I LOOOVE so much!
Demarco felt like ughh? I feel like I like Jack even when I don't even know enough about him as compared to Demarco. There were no fireworks when Demarco and Kallia kissed for the first time! I even kinda cringed when it happened.
KALLIA'S PERFORMANCES
I didn't feel anything. It didn't feel magical at all.
I just wanted to smack everyone from Glorian. I mean, duh, everything feels repetitive yet people still acted dumb about everything! The performances weren't talked about and I'm left with thinking that in contrast to Kallia's "wonderful" performances, the men competitors' performances were probably meh, right? Maybe their performances included rabbits in top hats, flower-turning baton of fire, aassistant slicing or whatever? It didn't give me enough. I have nothing to compare Kallia to and I was left utterly disappointed with her supposedly wonderful magical performances.
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Something about book 1 felt off for me, though. This book is a whole chunk of unanswered questions. This book is a whole jigsaw puzzle that was thrown in your lap without the copy of the original picture. This book is obviously made for you to pick up the next book. It was like a prequel story because everything will start happening on the second book anyway.
Honestly, for me, everything picked up only on the 70% mark, I guess.
Lastly, just an honest question, in the end, the mirror was supposed to "eat" (hahahaha eat?) one soul, which is Kallia, but wouldn't there be a technicality? it's not One Soul, because both Jack and Kallia went through the mirror. So there were two souls??? unless Jack doesn't have one??
