It’s been a month since I last mentioned my reading slump… and yeah it’s still here. It seems to only be getting worse, which is making me wonder- at what point is it no longer a slump and instead just your life? I don’t know. These are questions I don’t want answered. Let me live in denial and think that this will one day end.
Despite my awful slump, I have been reading! I’ve currently been working on my ARC of The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I’m halfway through (about 320 pages in) so I thought I would spend some time today discussing my thoughts so far!
Stats
Title: The Burning Shadow
Series: Origin (#2)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: YA Sci-Fi, Romance
Publisher: Tor Teen
Page Count: 649 pages (based on ARC)
Release Date: 10/8/2019
[ Related: The Darkest Star (Origin #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – Review ]
Thoughts
The Bad:
My only complaint with this book is that wow, it is long. This isn’t really a complaint on it’s own- long books give me life- but there are definitely some moments that feel a little unnecessary and slow down the pacing a bit.
The Good:
I love these characters so much. This book has only cemented how great they are. I especially love Evie’s inner turmoil after the major revelation of the first book.
This world is expanding even more, ever so slightly, and I love where it’s going. I wouldn’t have predicted it after reading The Darkest Star, but it makes a lot of sense.
So. Many. Cameos. There are plenty of familiar faces in this book, and the best part is that none of them feel unnecessary. While yeah, I get excited when I see them, it’s definitely not fan service and they actually have a purpose for being there on the page.
The political themes are even stronger in this book. Some people may not like the more obvious themes and messages, but I still enjoy reading it. The message is too important to leave vague.
[ Related: Currently Reading: We Hunt the Flame (The Sands of Arawiya #1) by Hafsah Faizal ]
Predictions
Since this is a sequel, and pretty far from release day as well, I’ll be very careful with what I’m saying here. I don’t want any spoilers for anyone. That said, here’s what I predict:
- I genuinely don’t know how many books there are in this series (I doubt it will be over after this one, and I’m too lazy to google and fact check that), so I’m going to guess we’ll be getting a 5 book series like Lux, and will probably be similar in plot structure.
- The political themes will only grow, and get even more extreme (which will be interesting)
- There will be some turmoil in the romance plotline
Is The Burning Shadow on your TBR? What are you currently reading?
Cait Jacobs 
5 responses to “Currently Reading: The Burning Shadow (Origin #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – Fun, but Long”
How is Evie’s relationship like with Sylvia in this book? Sylvia basically used Evie as a replacement for her dead stepdaughter. As much as Sylvia claims to love Evie, what she did to her was messed up. Nadia has no choice but to think of herself as Evie now due to the lies Sylvia told her for 4 years. I hope that Evie does not completely forgive Sylvia. I would be surprised if Evie ever completely trusted Sylvia ever again.
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You said in your predictions that you think that their will be some turmoil in Evie and Luc’s romance. What kind of turmoil do you think it will be? I wasn’t really a big fan of the romance in the first book, so I hope that I develops more (especially since Evie got romantic feelings for Luc just over a few weeks). I also hope that Evie becomes a more active protagonist in this book. In the first book, she was mostly a bystander and didn’t make a lot of decisions for herself.
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Does anything interesting happen with April in this book? She seemed pretty suspicious sometimes and even started all of the anti-Luxen protests at Evie’s school. She was in a picture Evie took at that park in the first book and she had a shadow type effect behind her. She was also always in the area when all of those dead students were found. Zoe even said that April worried her sometimes. It got me thinking that April was either an Arum (she had light blue eyes like all Arum do) or working with the Arum to get rid of the Luxen. Overall, I think that April knows more than we think she does and has an ulterior motive for her actions.
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[…] Rating: 4 Stars […]
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[…] Related: Currently Reading: The Burning Shadow ARC by Jennifer L. Armentrout […]
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