BOOK REVIEW: THE RUPTURED SKY BY JESSICA McMINN
The Ruptured Sky was an fast paced, unputdownable fantasy romp and I loved every minute of it!
Princess Amikharlia has fled the castle on the eve of her wedding. She only wants one thing in life, control of her own fate. For years following that night she has lived under the radar, as a demon hunter and a good one at that, keeping quite the magic that has been with her since childhood. A secret that is about to blow her world wide open.
Amika is sought out to retrieve some precious stones, stones which could shift the balance of power, but while under threat, releases an attack on a demon too big for their party ripping both man and beast to shreds. Shunned and wounded she has nowhere to turn, until she falls into a madman’s prophecy.
Amika has two choices, become a pawn in a game of the Gods, or fight her destiny. As the powers around her begin to rise, she must make her choice. Either way, the world as she knows it, will be laid to waste.
I really liked a lot of The Ruptured Sky, from the multi POV characters interwove into the plot beautifully, the pacing was superb and the queer normativity in the world was refreshing.
Let’s start with the characters. In the prologue we are introduced to three children who are obviously very close. From the get go, we as the reader see their interactions and relationship dynamics, getting a feel for how they would grow up or grow apart. Flashing forward to the first chapter, we see one of those characters as an adult, with a life vastly different than what was depicted in the first 20 pages. Straight away I was invested in the back story of Amika, her brother and their friend Rei. They were obviously all still connected but I had to wait and listen to those characters voices as the story unfolded to find out where those connections were. This was a really fun way of building relationships with the crew as more and more pieces of their lives fell in to place. By doing this, the author has a natural avenue for worldbuilding through the eyes of each POV. Sometimes when this happens, I can feel gipped on the worldbuilding aspect, but it felt so natural within this story that I just wanted more. Another thing that Mcminn has done is introduced more POV’s as they show up along the way, which kept me invested in each person as they came into the story.
The next praise I have is pacing, for a debut author, pacing can make or break the success of the book IMO and Mcminn has nailed the short, sharp chapters to grip me, followed by longer (but not too long) chapters to keep me interested in what has been introduced. The multi POV aspect also helped in the way this book was spread out. I was always thinking about what character A was doing by the time that chapter came up. This book flowed well and had me staying up way past my bedtime to find out what has happened next. None of the chapters felt too long, or too short, the language was accessible and light/dark where it needed to be and it was very easy to get completely lost in what was happening on the page.
The last thing I will say is I love how the queer characters were treated in this world. In a real world that is getting more and more scary for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, having queer normative representation is wonderful. I don’t want to spoil anything so I will keep this part rather vague, but the relationships were never questioned, mocked, seen as, as lesser in any way shape or form and it was rather refreshing.
While I have some small criticisms in continuity for The Ruptured Sky, I think the author has done a wonderful job of bringing a dark, new world to life in an accessible way for new and old readers of the genre. This is indie fantasy done well. I am already highly anticipating book two!
