Review: To Cage a God

To Cage a God by Elizabeth May
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The narration was fantastic but the story was SO DULL.

Firstly, this audiobook was narrated by Sofia Engstrand and she was fantastic. Her voice was lively and emotive and it was easy enough to distinguish between the different characters. I did still have to listen at x1.75 speed but otherwise it was done really well.

Sad that the story was just so plain. It really was just a romance novel posing as fantasy. This was ALLLLL about the hookups and the tension between the two couples, and the story itself mostly went nowhere.

It's 'Russian inspired' fantasy, which means a lot of big words and a multitude of nicknames for people that left me plenty confused. I was quite grateful to be listening because I think if I'd had to read all these names I would have eventually given up. There also seemed to be a lot of repetition of Sera's full name which seemed unnecessary.

I like this idea of gods being caged inside human bodies but it really seemed under-utilised to me. The 'dragons' felt more like a metaphor for emotions than actually badass gods.

Katya (I don't remember which of her names was the regular one, sorry) was probably my fave character because at least she had a goal beyond getting laid. She seemed the most well-rounded and fleshed out, though at times I really questioned what she was doing.

Being a dull story AND an audiobook, my mind drifted plenty of times, but I never seemed to lose the thread of what was happening - it was just that slow. It was also the first time I haven't had the e-book to read along with and it was quite tough to not be able to check words and spellings and things for deeper understanding.

Apparently it's a duology but I cannot see where it goes from here. I don't know what else there could be to write a whole other book about. I couldn't even make it through the 'bonus chapter' because I was so done with this story and it's self-centred characters.

And on that subject, Vitaly was one of the most annoying fellas I've read in a while. I'm really tired of arrogant assholes being love interests in fantasy. WE DESERVE BETTER.

With thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this audio

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