User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
ARC gifted to me by Olivia! Thank you! “When the dead find words, the goddess and the Devoted son will meet atop a fish not a fish, on a sea not a sea. It is she who travels to the endless Abyss, and it is he who guides her.”
It’s no secret that Rin Chuepco is one of my favorite authors of all time. I have supported and loved every book I’ve picked up by them, but I was still apprehensive how they were going to top
The Bone Witch Trilogy, which is one of my favorite series of all time, but friends,
The Never Tilting World might be my new favorite Rin Chupeco book. And this was such a perfect start to this duology.
This book was originally pitched to me as
Mad Max meets
Frozen, and even though that sounds like the wildest of comparisons, it totally is true. The world of Aeon is separated into two cities after “the breaking”. Two goddesses have raised these two girls, while keeping secrets and never allowing them to know that they are twins and that their sibling is alive. Yet, monsters are breaching both shores
Two Dying Cities:
➽
Aranth - Never ending night, cold, and frozen everything.
➽
The Golden City Never ending day, heat, and chaos.
Two Powerful Girls:
➽
Haidee - Has a love for mechanical engineering and is expected to marry soon.
➽
Odessa - Lesbian, chronically ill, and I will protect at all costs.
Two Traveling Companions:
➽
Arjun - Disabled (missing a hand), a rogue rebel, and likes Haidee.
➽
Lan - Bi, has PTSD, healer and bodyguard for Odessa. (Also, best library meet-cute ever!)
Honestly, Lan is probably my favorite character and seeing their journey to love and heal was really so beautiful that it makes me cry just thinking about it. Truly one of the best fictional characters I’ve had the pleasure to read about in a really long while. Rin also always gives their readers the best romances, and this book was no different. I was in love with both romantic subplots in this book, but Lan and Odessa’s f/f relationship meant everything to me (who is surprised?). Also, Rin confirmed they are Gryffindor and Slytherin and
*chef kiss* you all know that’s the best pairing. But Haidee and Arjun are the best Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw m/f to probably ever exist, too.
But both of these two pairings go off on separate journeys, trying to uncover secrets that have been hidden from them their whole lives, while also willing to do anything to save their people.
This book is for sure a metaphor for how the time is truly ticking until our own world becomes uninhabitable, while we all live in opposite ends of the spectrum of constant day and night. There are monsters in this book, but the most terrifying aspect is the waters rising too fast and the ice coming in too quickly, which threaten to erase an entire city. While another city cannot provide for their people because nothing will grow, therefore they have to be sealed away hoping to gain more time before everything dies. Rin also always celebrates the Filipino culture in all of their books with all their themes. Also, I always view all of Rin’s characters as Asian, unless stated otherwise.
“We’re chasing a dying sea under an endless sun that kills us with a thousand little cuts every day. There’ll be nothing left soon. Nothing but sand and bone.”
This story also is truly a love letter to womanhood, motherhood, and sisterhood, and how those powerful bonds can scare men. The feminist undertone is constant in this story, and the parallels to our world is also impossible to not see. Again, the world doesn’t deserve Rin Chupeco and their stories, and please protect them at all costs.
“A demoness is what they call a goddess that men cannot control.”
I will say that I know this magic system, world, and world building isn’t going to be for everyone. Just like Rin’s other works, people are going to say that it is too complex and the learning curve is too steep, and that’s valid. I will be the first to say that I always just feel instantly connected to Rin’s work and their stories, but I know that is not the case for everyone, so here is your warning.
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The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.Content and Trigger Warnings: PTSD depiction, violence, gore, mention of sexual assault, talk of death, and war themes.
Buddy read with Alexa! ❤ (This buddy read meant so very much to me and I just really love Alexa so much and I’m so thankful for her friendship and her voice!)
And thank you so much Shealea for putting this amazing blog tour together! (You’re the best, bb!) ❤
Rating: really liked it
A demoness is what men call a goddess they cannot control.
Twin goddesses have always ruled Aeon but seventeen years ago, one of the twins
refused a prophecy and the Breaking happened.
When the Breaking occurred, the world ground to a halt.
Half of it became a fiery desert and the other half is a frozen city- each ruled by a different Goddess and divided by the Great Abyss.
And each goddess has raised one of the next generation of twin goddesses (Haidee in the desert, Odessa in the frozen city).
Neither Haidee nor Odessa know of each other's existence but both of them
feel a pull towards the site of the Breaking.
The mirage stared down at me...Its face was still swathed in shadows - until I realized it wasn't.
There was no face underneath that hood.
Perhaps they feel drawn to correct a great wrong? Or perhaps the broken prophecy is drawing them into something far more sinister...
...the shadows gathered to a spot above her heart, pulsing with an unknown ichor.
Whew. This one was a WILD ride!
Though, as a fair warning -
this book really hits the ground running. There is a LOT of lore thrown at you in the very beginning - how the worlds work, the lies between the goddesses and a magic system - but once I got the hang of that,
I really sunk into this story.I loved Haidee and her Arjun - they were such a natural pair of characters that I adored every time they took up the page. Her mechanic's eye and his practical nature made their storyline easy and enjoyable.
Odessa and Lan had such
an interesting dynamic - especially with the way magic was affecting Odesssa's personality towards the healer.
The world's magic was enchanting and it was fascinating watch it grow and develop.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book! It was a fun adventure and I cannot WAIT for the next one!
A huge thank you to HarperTeen and Rin Chupeco for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads
Rating: really liked it
EDIT [3/28/19]: cover reveal! https://t.co/r1pRsQ06GC
Hello, what you should know about THE NEVER TILTING WORLD:
1. Four POVs:
+ Haidee, goddess-mechanic with free-spirited Moana vibes
+ Odessa, bookish chaotic lesbian goddess energy
+ Arjun, sarcastic fire-wielding amputee and secret cinnaman
+ Lan, healer/ranger and fierce bodyguard in love with her charge
2. Twin goddesses scrambling to fix a world slowly dying of horrific man-made (goddess-made?) and destructive climate change. Yes, climate change deniers are my villains now.
3. A world torn between night and day, and an endless abyss in the middle of the world where Horrible Things Climb Out Of
4. Sandworms! A sea-desert! Ships sailing on winds! Shadow demons and corrupted creatures! Sand dolphins! Two-tiered elemental magic system! Did I mention SAND DOLPHINS
5. Maybe some kissing?
(While it's been pitched as Frozen meets Mad Max, I like to think that it's more of a Mad Max meets Avatar the Last Airbender aesthetic)
Enjoy! <3
Rating: really liked it
This Is why I shouldn't judge books by their covers. I expected it to be as good as it looked. I was wrong!Don't get me wrong, the book didn't totally suck, despite my sucky rating. It was just meh, which is probably worse.
My first issue is that I, quite frankly, didn't care about any single one of the characters. Whether they lived or died was not my concern. One of them could have gotten hit by a magical bus and I wouldn't have batted an eye.
The characters didn't seem original to me. There was nothing about them that made them interesting. Nothing that made them stand out. By the time the year ends in two months I probably won't remember any of their names. The only thing I might remember is the fact that the 'goddesses' had rainbow hair, if only because it gets drilled into our heads repeatedly.
My main problem with this book is that no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get invested in the story!
The POVs all started to blend together after a while and despite having such an awesome premise, I was bored while reading. I kept putting this book down and not feeling any desire to pick it back up. I actually thought about not finishing because my mind wasn't in it.
All of that said, this book is not actually horrible. The premise is super interesting. The writing is decent. The characters are pretty meh, but there was nothing that was necessarily wrong with them.
It's like all the pieces were there but the puzzle just wasn't put together in the most effective or appealing way for me.
Overall, It was OK. But life is too short to read books that are just 'OK'. With so many amazing books out there waiting to be read, I cannot in good conscience recommend this one.That said, if you do decide to give this one a shot, I really do hope you enjoy it!
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Rating: really liked it
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DNF @ p. 66Oh man, this is another review that is probably going to get me hate, but you know what, I thought this book was bad and I'm not sorry about being honest. I'd be a pretty crappy book blogger if I lied to you and said this was amazing when I kept zoning out while reading this and thinking about all the other books I'd rather be reading instead. It was boring and 100% not for me.
On the surface, THE NEVER TILTING WORLD sounded amazing. LGBT+ fantasy set in a broken world where one half is always cold and dark and the other half is sunny and light. It reminded me of this planet I watched in this documentary called "Exoplanets from Hell" (which is totally amazing and you should track it down and watch it), and I believe the planet that I'm thinking of was Upsilon Andromeda b, a planet that is literally half-fire and half-ice. Obviously my nerdy heart started palpitating and I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book.
THE NEVER TILTING WORLD turned out to be not my thing, though. The world-building is kind of a mess. I loved the premise, but it was so convoluted and confusing that I couldn't get into it. I had a similar problem with another book, THE TENTH GIRL, where I could not figure out if the author was doing a bad job explaining the story to me, or if I was just too stupid and uninterested to figure out what was going on. There are goddesses in this world, and they're at odds, and it has something to do with what caused the planet to "break" in the first place, and that's as far as I got.
There's also some "this is my original character" fanfic vibes going on here. Two of the characters have LITERAL RAINBOW HAIR and one of the characters has two colored eyes (I think one is gold and one is violet/blue). Everyone in this book has a POV chapter of their own and unfortunately they all have very similar narratives, so it was impossible to keep track of who was who, which was another thing that made it difficult to keep track of what was going on. I shouldn't have to keep flipping back to the chapter heading to look at who's narrating. They should be distinct.
I'm sorry to give up on this but I'm not going to waste my time on something I'm not enjoying, either. You might very well like this, and if you do, more power to you.
Disclaimer: I am reviewing an ARC copy of this work and my copy may be different from yours.
1 star
Rating: really liked it
October Faecrate Unboxing! Click the link to see the GOODIES
GOODIES LINK
Another damn book that I hated!! I loved the authors Bone Trilogy BUT not this one. I’m getting so tired of these kinds of books!!
I also think the cover is ugly, where many others love it. I thought her Bone Witch covers were better.
Anyway, I only like two of the items in the book box so I’m seriously thinking of dropping all book boxes at the beginning and of the year. I wish they did boxes with just the goodies so we didn’t have to waste money on books that go straight to the trade in box!
Anyhoo, Happy Reading Peeps!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Rating: really liked it
HOLY FUCK BALLS I LOVED THIS. I have so many questions that need answering, but my GOD this was so good. My faith in YA fantasy may have just been restored.
Rating: really liked it
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ARC provided by the Publisher through Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review “A demoness is what men call a goddess they cannot control.” 🌟 I have always wanted to read something by this author and when I saw this awesome cover on Edelweiss (Thanks for them for providing an ARC in exchange of an honest review) I did not think twice and requested it. I have been reading less YA recently and changing into adult fantasy and maybe I am not being fair to this book because of that.
🌟 I decided to give this a chance as I thought it was a standalone but obviously it is a part of a series. That being said, this is not a bad book, I gave it a good rating which is 3 stars. but in a world full of good books, I am looking for something very good, extraordinary, something that stands out between all those books out there.
🌟 The Never Tilting world was good in all aspects but I felt it could have been better, some of the potential was lost somehow. The writing was good but I was bored every now and then.
🌟 The characters were okay, I would have preferred 2 instead of 4 POVs, I rooted for 2 of them and did not care about the other two. Their voices were not the same but it was not so distinctive either. I always say that writing multiple POV is very hard and it could make or break the book. In this case, it was more of the later for me!
🌟 The world building was unique and I liked the magic system but I also wanted more. I think there will be more in the next book but I won’t probably continue this!
The pacing was inconsistent, I felt it was slow sometimes and fast sometimes. The plot was kind of predictable for me.
🌟 Summary: I think The Never Tilting World was a good book that could have done better. I may have picked it with different expectations so you can take this review with a grain of salt! I just thought that all the elements of the story were constricted and had more potential.
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Rating: really liked it
Me:*casually trying to look cool while reading the latest trendy YA book*
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
∗ It was a
climate fiction fantasy novel about a world called
Aeon split between permanent day and permanent night with
extreme weather and dangerous magical creatures.
∗ I absolutely loved it- it was so
imaginative and
action-packed!
∗ The
world building was really well fleshed out. I liked learning how both the day and night sides coped with their situations.
∗ I loved the
backstory. It was inspired by
Assyrian mythology and was really intriguing.
∗ The plot was full of
surprises and I never had a bored moment! I liked watching the two story lines
converge.
∗
Odessa was a
goddess who lived on the night side of Aeon ruling a city called
Aranth. She became braver and more sure of herself as the story progressed. Her character arc was all about fighting the allure of
power and how it nearly corrupted her.
∗
Lan was Odessa's
bodyguard. She was
fierce, strong and disciplined and she had
PTSD after a traumatic experience. I liked how she started to come to terms with what happened to her and open up her heart.
∗
Haidee (my favourite character) was also a goddess who lived on the day side of Aeon and ruled the
Golden City. Her and Odessa were
twins but neither of them knew. She was really
smart as a mechanic, extremely
caring and definitely reminded me of myself at times.
∗
Arjun lived in the desert on the day side of Aeon and he went with Haidee on her journey. He was an
amputee and also really smart and
resourceful. My favourite thing about him was how he pretended to be all gruff but his
softer side gradually emerged as the novel progressed.
∗ Both the
romances were
adorable and flawlessly done.
∗ Even though the climate change was caused by a magical disaster the message of being
responsible for the damage we cause to our world applies to us all.
∗ It's a
brilliant,
creative novel- I'd definitely recommend it!
Thank you to HarperTeen for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.To find out more about the book, check out this interview I did with the author, Rin Chupeco.
Rating: really liked it
rep: poc cast, lesbian mc, sapphic mc with ptsd, amputee mc
MAKE LOVE NOT WAR, also climate change is real
Rating: really liked it
Many thanks to Wunderkind PR for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest reviewBuddy read with Miranda Reads!! <3
SO...
I wasn't a fan of this one but I didn't hate it.
As is the case with most fantasies, I became very bored very quickly. I have ADHD and my brain simply can't wait out the explanations and jargon dumps. I need action and I need it fast. And this book did not deliver.
But I persisted because I didn't want to quit. I'm glad I didn't because things got better. Like, two-star-to-three-star better.
I kept running into the same problem over and over. There was a lot of jargon. This on top of the four POVs kept me constantly confused until the halfway mark. After that point, I finally got a handle on all the craziness that was going on.
But that still wasn't enough to redeem the confusion in the beginning.
Overall, I found this book to be a little to confuzzling and overwhelming but for those who have a longer attention span than I do, I recommend giving this one a try!
--------
This book was 10 hours of meh. Review to come
————-
this cover and title are absolutely gorgeous
i just want to stare at them for hours
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Rating: really liked it
CW: physical assault, PTSD, physical abuse, allusion to sexual assault and predatory behavior, violence, deathI absolutely LOVED this book but I don't have the brainpower to write a full length review so here are some bullet points. Good AND bad. But let's start with the bad since it's honestly not THAT bad.
The bad:- The book has a bit of a learning curve. I was a bit lost in the first 60/70 pages because of how much world-building and focus it requires. So this won't be for everyone, especially if you're not into world-building heavy fantasies that kind of throw you in the trenches and you figure things out as you go. But honestly, once I stuck it out it was SO worth it.
- The multiple POV, first person narrative can get confusing at times, especially in the beginning when you still don't have a feel of who the characters are. I sometimes forgot who was speaking and had to read back a little to figure that out.
The good:- The strong female leads, and matriarchal society. This book is genuinely a love letter not only to women but to the strong bonds between them, no matter their nature and no matter how messy, complex and complicated they get.
- The unique take on goddesses and godliness. I loved seeing them as very...human, powerful yes but also fully immersed with their people and serving them. Or at least, they're supposed to. *coughs* I interviewed the author about this and LOVED hearing what they had to say, which you can read here.
- The parallels with our world's state, especially when it comes to climate change. The Never Tilting World is set in a world ravaged by climate change, where half of it is always in the sun and thus dealing with drought and the other half is always plunged in darkness and dealing with water related disasters. This book really delves deep into the consequences of climate change and you really can see what's ahead of us if we don't get a grip soon.
- The world-building. Yes, it is a pro and con, fite me. But like I said, once I got over that steep learning curve, I LOVED IT. It's so intricate and complex and well done, there are no loose ends left and any questions left unanswered are left that way on purpose. I particularly loved Chupeco's take on elemental magic and how it's influenced by the state of the climate around, that is truly a brilliant thing to add to the book.
- The characters. LOVED every single one of them. They all had their own characteristics and things they were passionate about, and not only did the twin goddesses compliment each other, but each pair (couple) also complimented each other in a different way.
- The romances. I rooted for them so hard for them, ESPECIALLY since the tropes used are ones that I eat up. We have a f/f princess(or goddess)/bodyguard romance and a f/m kind of enemies to lovers romance, and both are in turns tender and angsty. I lived for them.
All in all, this book and I got off to a rough start but once I got over the slow beginning, I read over 300 pages of it in two sitting and if you know me, you know that that's something I rarely do.
Rating: really liked it
I have waited obscenely long to read this book. Multiple requests for the ARC got rejected and while sometimes I lose interest in a book when that happens, it wasn’t the case here. Rin Chupeco has become a favorite author of mine this year and there was no way I wasn’t gonna read this book immediately after its release. And I can’t tell you how happy I am that I wasn’t let down.
This world is brilliantly conceived. As a land that has stopped turning and has literally been cleaved into two, the effect this has on the world itself as well as the people is described with stark detail. The half with perpetual sun is basically a desert with even the strong rays of the sun too dangerous for people to be exposed to, the waters drying up in a way that leads to unprecedented droughts and deaths of creatures leaving very few sources of food remaining. The other half is endless night, with unbearable cold and oceans and ice encroaching on the remaining land that is left. There are also acid rains, sand seas, rivers and seas changing course and various other disasters, which make survival the only thing important in this world.
The origin and basis of the magic system is pretty unique, even though the powers that each person possesses are pretty standard for a fantasy novel. I can’t go much into detail because I don’t think I can really explain it properly and maybe you should find it out yourself. However, the myriad of creatures, some sweet, some motivated and some hostile are all wonderfully described and I really dreaded every time a new one showed up. There really were some very monstrous creatures and I think the author captured the horror of them very well.
The writing style of the author is definitely something that you need to get a bit used to. Just like The Bone Witch trilogy, you are either going to completely fall in love or not like it much at all - and you can obviously guess which side I fall on. The author definitely doesn’t believe in info dumps at all, so while we get to know the issues faced by the people in the world right from the beginning, the reason for the breaking of world and the mythology behind the story of the goddesses is revealed very slowly. The only thing that slightly miffed me was that we really didn’t get answers even by the end of the book, and while I’ll surely read the sequel, I just wish we had gotten some more revelations.
The pacing of the story is steady but mostly on the slower side, with some interesting action sequences in between which thrilled me a lot. This book has one of my favorite tropes - a quest - and I really enjoyed the journeys the characters took across the two vastly different but consistently dangerous landscapes. We get 4 different POVs and the author does a wonderful job giving each of them very distinct voices and making me fall in love with all of them. The audiobook also has a full cast production, which made for a great listening experience. I actually read and listened to this book alternately and I loved both ways of enjoying it.
The characters are another strong point of the story and it always gives me immense pleasure when I end up liking all of them. Odessa is the young goddess of the darker side of the world, while Haidee is from the desert side. They both have been brought up very differently but by very similar strict mothers, with Odessa isolated most of her life due to her chronic illness and Haidee a very talented mechanika (despite her mother’s distaste for it). But they both are inherently compassionate human beings who decide to do something to save their world and set out on very similar and perilous journeys. Odessa is also a romance novel lover and it was adorable to see her try to understand the mechanics of seduction by applying whatever she read in her books. Haidee on the other hand is very competent and practical, but jumps into things headlong without worrying too much about what might happen next.
Lan is a former ranger who suffers from ptsd and is tasked with being Odessa’s bodyguard. They have a kind of established relationship from before the book starts, so it was nice to see it grow and change based on circumstances and also the push and pull due to the power imbalance. Lan is very honorable and her struggle to accept the trauma of her past and realize that it’s okay to sometimes ask for help is very painfully but realistically depicted, and I thought it was amazing to see some kind of therapy sessions happening in a fantasy world.
Arjun on the other hand is a desert nomad who is very skilled at doing whatever it takes to survive and wants to kill Haidee because he assumes she is responsible for the breaking of the world and all his people’s troubles. But it’s obvious from the start that they are destined to be together and it was especially their banter that made for some lighthearted moments in an otherwise intense book. They also make for great partners when fighting off creatures hell bent on murdering them and I lived for those scenes. Arjun seems like a grumpy dude in the beginning but he really is a softie and there are some adorable heartwarming moments in the story between him, Haidee and a group of golugongs and I just wanted to give them all a hug.
Right from the cover to the premise, it’s obvious that this book’s main theme is a direct parallel to the climate change emergency of our world. It really showcases how an entire world can be devastated just because a few in power get greedy for more of it. And how in such catastrophic conditions, those with more resources will essentially shut off relief for anyone they deem unworthy. The author’s note about her own experiences with climate disasters in Philippines really makes for a chilling read and gives the book a whole different perspective. It’s mostly a call to action to everyone to do their part in preventing this devastation from proceeding any further.
There is also a whole subplot about verbal/physical abuse by superiors over their subordinates and I think the author gives us a lot to think about with the way she handled this part of the story - if we get to punish our abusers in the same way they abused us, is it really justice and are we really any different from them? Where is the line really between justice and retribution and what is it that prevents us from becoming abusers too?
If you love books with excellent ensemble of diverse characters, a very complex world and some adorable romances, then you should pick this up. If you have previously enjoyed the Bone Witch trilogy, you’ll probably like this a lot too. If like me, you are fan of characters going on physical as well as metaphorical quests, then this book is a perfect choice for you. The audiobook is also excellently narrated, and I loved listening to a full cast. The book however can be a bit slow, so maybe keep that in mind before you dive into it. I may not be entirely satisfied with the ending, but I really loved the journey this book took me on and I’m already upset that I’ve got to wait a very long while to see how it all ends.
Rating: really liked it
buddy read with CelaenaDNF @31%The synopsis was interesting, however, the execution didn’t work for me. I had to force myself to pick it up, and when I did pick it up I would stop mid-chapter to do something else because I didn’t have the will to read it. The world was confusing to me maybe because I wasn’t paying much attention, but the characters didn’t pull me into the story either. I couldn’t care less about the goddesses that were oh, so important in that world.
