My Review of Anathema, by Keri Lake

 

Anathema by Keri Lake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The good part about Anathema is that Lake has done a great job of worldbuilding. The magic system is reasonably unique, the land and civilizations are interesting, and there are unique and interesting monsters and supernatural creatures.

The story is told from the POV of two characters: Zevander, who is an assassin, and Maevyth, who is a waifish and innocent young woman. Zevander is a complex character with an interesting background, powerful in magic, and very dark and brooding, haunted by his past and his curse. Definitely an anti-hero. I enjoyed his part of the story. Zevander's part, and the worldbuilding, are the only reasons I bumped up to 3 stars.

Maevyth, on the other hand, is a very two-dimensional character and very weak. She (and to a slightly lesser degree, her sister) is constantly victimized. In fact, her entire community victimizes her, including her (stereotypical) evil stepmother and her lascivious uncles. So much so that nearly every page of her part of the story involves some sort of in-you-face disrespect or outright torment. Everyone is out to get her, and every man is lustful and rapey. It's so heavy-handed that it is nearly unreadable. It isn't entertaining. And just when you think she's finally escaped her repressive situation by fleeing to the other world through a portal, she is immediately captured, threatened with rape, and thrown in a cell. And then she is rescued... only to be thrown in a cell again. She doesn't drive her story, she just reacts to the constant victimization, pulled along by the winds of torment. Not fun. And then, in the midst of this victimization, somehow we are supposed to buy that she is getting attracted to and aroused by the other protagonist? It's the worst sort of forced romance.

The book then ends on a cliffhanger which is not satisfying in any way. I also didn't like the editing of this book, as there are frequent sentence fragments and modern allusions that bump me out of the story and setting. I don't recommend.

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