Quicksilver

By Callie Hart

A dip back into my fantasy lands.

The Ugly Truth:

Quicksilver was exactly the book I needed to remind myself why I like the fantasy genre so much. Yes, this was not Fourth Wing or ANY of the SJM books, but it still had the ingredients to make it something sweet.

Firstly, I really liked the world that Callie Hart built. Like many before her, she brought in the idea of different realms on different sort of timelines and it was cool to see how they might all be blending together and to try and predict what it might mean for the future.

I liked all the characters, but struggled with some of their names. I mean, you’re telling me our hero’s name is Kingfisher – what is he? A fish? I just could not do it. That being said, I like his all or nothing attitude and the fact that he was kind of a villain in his own way. It gave him the sort of depth I need characters to have. However, when it came type to kind of describe his lore and explain his background, I think the book fell flat. It was trying to take too many elements from so many other well known books that it lost its own voice.

Saeris Fane was… okay? She mentioned the fact that she had sex like wayyyy too many times in the first few pages that I literally wanted to jump in the book and get her started on birth control (realized later that was not needed). I realize the author was trying to make her relatable, but it instead made her seem… ehh, braggy? Beyond that, though, I actually liked her character and liked the fact that she was always on the move (seriously, the girl was always trying to think of what could happen next). She was clever and showcased herself well in multiple situations. Similar to Kingfisher though, her last little bit in the novel shifted away from her likability and made her more into a damsel than ever before, it felt unfair for the character arc.

The side characters were super great adds and I had a ton of fun reading about the relationship growth between everyone. I thought it was interesting that the brother was just like ~not around~ but let that slide pretty quickly.

All in all, this did not fill the hole left in my heart from my fantastical favorites, but it still mended some short-circuiting strings.