Rashika, The Book Owl

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

After reading and loving three YA westerns last year, I expected Revenge and the Wild to be another winner but sadly, I was let down. I went into this book expecting my mind to be blown and was ready to fall in love but that didn’t end up happening. Instead, I was very disappointed.

One of the biggest problems with the book is that it isn’t very consistent. This could be because I am reading the eARC as opposed to the final copy but while I was reading the book, there were many details that would come out of nowhere and left me feeling confused. It seemed like things were being pulled from thin air and there wasn’t a lot of consistency throughout the text.

The main character was an okay human being and I liked how independent she was (without having to crossdress to be free) but I hated the way her alcoholism was treated in the book. For starters, I would have liked a better background but also just a more realistic struggle with alcoholism. I didn’t want it to be something that was meant to add to her character, I wanted the alcoholism to be explored and given the attention it deserved. Instead, it just became a deus ex machina and that was really disappointing.

On top of that (if you heard me rant on social media you might already know this) this book puts forward a very uncomfortable idea of sex. The main character describes sex as a gift to be given and that was not something I was okay with. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting your first experience to be special but the way this scene was written made the main character seem extremely passive. As if, her enjoyment was not important at all and it also seemed to imply that a sexual encounter is not worth having if it isn’t super special. THAT IS A LIE and definitely not what I would describe as sex positive.

So, going back to the main character. Every guy seems to be in love with her? I wouldn’t necessarily describe the situation as a love rectangle but there are a lot of men vying for her attention even if she is clearly in love with one of them. I didn’t understand that but I am also just generally opposed to every guy being interested in the MC. There is something very off-putting about that.

The ‘main’ romance in the book was actually pretty decent until the love interest--Alistair-- gives a shit explanation for why he was a douche for all those years. Then I was just like why?!?! It was the worst excuse in the entire universe and Alistair deserves to be punched in the face for his pathetic excuses.

Moving on, the world building in this book was actually pretty awesome-sauce and I liked the way magic mingled with the wild west. There were some references to things that happened in real life which just helped add to the world. I will say that I do wish the storyline with the natives had gone another way. The author uses them to make many valid points but I would have been so happy if they were an even bigger part of the novel (especially since they contribute so much to the world of this book.)

The plot of this book did seem all over the place though. There seem to be a bunch of inter-related things going on but the various pieces of the puzzle didn’t fit together as well as they could have. There was also this twist at the end that just creeped me out. It could have been a really good twist but given everything else that had happened, I was seriously weirded out by it.

Would I recommend this book? If anything I mentioned in my review is off putting to you, you might want to steer clear but I do know that many reviewers whose opinions I trust have enjoyed this book so perhaps you might too!

Note that I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review