Seraphina continues on her journey to find the other half breeds. Shadow Scale is the sequel to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. This review may contain spoilers to Seraphina.
When Seraphina ended, I wanted nothing more than to read Shadow Scale straight away and follow Seraphina’s adventures. This is a major reason why Seraphina made it to my Favourite Books of Second Half of 2016.
At the end of Seraphina we are standing at the brink of a war. Seraphina needs to find the other half breeds. Dragons and humans have begun to distrust one another. Orma, Seraphina’s uncle and a dragon who loves knowledge, is sent to have his memories removed. Seraphina and Prince Lucian have decided to be secretive about their love for another so as not to upset Princess Glisselda, Lucian’s fiance.
Expectations
If you still have not added Seraphina to your TBR, I urge you to do that. The book is such an amazing read. You might want to check Why Seraphina is a must-read for dragon lovers. So after we read that last page of Seraphina, we are at a cliffhanger ending. And here are the questions that claw our hearts and gnaw at our peace-of-mind about the sequel :
-More about Orma. He was one amazing book-hoarding-dragon. Does he survive the memory erasing procedure, does he escape, does he die?
– How will Seraphina team up the half breeds? Will there be a war?
– Shadow Scale must be more fast paced than Seraphina because it is all going to be action and war.(Wooho)
– Seraphina had amazing world-building. Will we see more developments? Will we see more of the political hierarchy of the neighbouring countries?
-The music! Such an integral part of Seraphina. Will her music help her in the next task?
-The romance, of course- Lucien and Seraphina have such a good chemistry. How will their life ahead be?
-How will Glisselda react to the news of her fiancé falling for her tutor and friend?
Well, well, we get not even one tick in our checklist of expectations. Here is what happens:
1. Side-lining Orma
Shadow Scale asks us, “Why would you want to spend time with one of the most important characters of the first book?” Keep reading until you finish 400 pages or so. That will take you to a one page (yes, that’s right) conversation between Orma and Seraphina.
Clearly disappointing.
2. The Half- Breeds
Let me remind you there are 17 half breeds. They have nicknames given by Seraphina because she has not met them in person yet. And when she meets them in this book, they have real names. So now we alternate between the nicknames and real names. Then there are other characters.
You do the math. 30+ character names sure don’t fit in my head.
3. The pacing
The pacing is at a moderate speed. But mostly nothing happens in the whole book except Seraphina meeting the half breeds one by one and convincing them to join her.
4. World, politics and music
Nothing. Nothing at all about any of these.
5. Romance
The romance fell absolutely flat. There are a few scenes where Seraphina and Lucian talk to each other. They seem more like colleagues in a job (war) than lovers. There was no chemistry. No, not even a little bit.
6. Love Triangle
Suddenly there are new developments in the plot and Glisselda’s sexuality. Hello? Suddenly Lucien and Seraphina don’t care for one another. And it is not even clear what the author has in mind – lesbian vibes? Bisexuality? Polyamory?
I don’t know.
7. Ending mash up
Almost towards the end of the book, Hartman suddenly wanted to answer all of the questions listed in the Reality part of this post. Orma makes a guest appearance. There is some kind of a war. And Seraphina saves the day. Which brings us to the question of why get together all the half-breeds in the first place which took up three fourths the book. There is an unconvincing and unnecessary sacrifice for love. There is a forced inclusion of diversity in sexuality (which still remains ambiguous till the end), like a twist put in the novel for the sake of a twist.
Final Verdict
I was in two minds whether I should bother writing a post on Shadow Scale. In the end I decided to point out how Shadow Scale is an example of how a sequel should never be written; that too when the first book Seraphina was original, imaginative and nearly a perfect novel.
Don’t be put off by this review of the sequel. Please please pick up Seraphina which is absolutely mind blowing. And after that? Well, hang onto the cliffhanger ending and pretend there was no sequel.
Title : Shadow Scale
Author : Rachel Hartman
Publisher : Corgi Books
Published : 2016 (Originally in 2014)
Language : English
Pages : 499
Rating : 1/5
Ouch. After being so eager for Seraphina….I think I may just skip the whole series. Especially since I won’t be getting closure. 🙁
Oh no! Seraphina is absolutely brilliant. You must read it if you like fantasy. It has all the perfect ingredients. You can just imagine that there was a war and the good side won.
I have had Seraphina in mind for a while. So sad that the sequel is like this! Really unfortunate. Is there going to be a third part? Sometimes they fix, well, most things and then we all can pretend the middle book never happened.
No, I don’t think so. I think the story has ended.
BUMMER that this one didn’t work out 🙁 I hate when sequels fall flat!
Yep! Thankfully Seraphina was brilliant.
What a shame that this second book is so much weaker than the first. I’ve added Seraphina to my TBR but I think I may skip its sequel. Great review though.
Thank you. I hope you will love Seraphina! It is amazing.
What a pity! Sequels always have a lot to live up to, but this one sounds particularly disappointing.
True, especially since the first book was so good.
I waited so long for this sequel and for a long time I didn’t believe we’d ever get one, so I kind of wrote the ending myself in my head. When Shadow Scale came along, I was excited, but quickly discovered that I was more satisfied with my own conclusions than the one given in this book. Seraphina was so multifaceted, I expected the same for this one and I wanted to see the characters grow, but it just felt like the were all kind of stuck. I really didn’t like how Glisselda and Lucien were forced together either. I loved Seraphina and Lucien so much in the first book, but all that chemistry just sort of disappeared.
I am so glad you agree! Yes, there was no chemistry. And all the characters seemed drunk. They were behaving weird.
Much as I enjoyed reading this one, I agree with your rating. The story fell flat and much of it wasn’t well developed. However, I enjoyed seeing other settings and meeting other people and half-breeds in it. I was also disappointed with how little Orma is featured and that Glisselda’s sexuality wasn’t included earlier or explored.
Seraphina was a good read and I felt like the author rushed to get Shadow Scale done. Also, the way the battle ended was unsatisfying.
I’d love to read more stories in this world though.
Yes, that’s true. I was so disappointed because I kept thinking of when I will get to read about Orma. And he makes a guest appearance!! That was the worst. I have no idea what happened in the romance. Overall, a really bad book.
You aren’t the first person I’ve heard didn’t like Shadow Scale and it makes me sad because I’ve yet to read it but I loved Seraphina. I may read it anyway, borrow it from the library and find out what everyone has a problem with. I hate when sequels address none of the plot points which were left hanging from the first book. I kind of feel like Shadow Scale was pushed to be released because of the first book and maybe they should have waited a while to iron out the flaws.
I think so too Becky. I agree with you about Seraphina. It was so brilliant. I loved the read. I would not recommend Shadowscale in the least. Read it at your own risk and if you have the time to spare. And I am so glad you loved Seraphina. It is a must read for fantasy lovers.