REVIEW: Blood Heir (Blood Heir Trilogy #1) by Amelie Wen Zhao
This hot debut is the first book in an epic new series about a princess hiding a dark secret and the con man she must trust to clear her name for her father’s murder.
In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them are unnatural—dangerous. And Anastacya Mikhailov, the crown princess, has a terrifying secret. Her deadly Affinity to blood is her curse and the reason she has lived her life hidden behind palace walls.
When Ana’s father, the emperor, is murdered, her world is shattered. Framed as his killer, Ana must flee the palace to save her life. And to clear her name, she must find her father’s murderer on her own. But the Cyrilia beyond the palace walls is far different from the one she thought she knew. Corruption rules the land, and a greater conspiracy is at work—one that threatens the very balance of her world. And there is only one person corrupt enough to help Ana get to its core: Ramson Quicktongue.
A cunning crime lord of the Cyrilian underworld, Ramson has sinister plans—though he might have met his match in Ana. Because in this story, the princess might be the most dangerous player of all.
Review:
Dear Amélie Wen Zhao,
I am an occasional reader of YA fiction. I am more than happy to pick it up though when I think that story may interest me. When I heard about your book and alleged controversy surrounding it when it was supposed to be published I think in February, I ordered it almost right away. I was annoyed when Amazon notified me that the publication was delayed and eventually we learned that it would be published in November. I had not just ordered an ebook, but I also ordered a hardcover, something I very rarely do these days, because I don’t have space for hardcovers and paperbacks anymore.
For me it was a strange book. Certainly nothing like what I expected. I don’t mean that the story is particularly unique – there are definitely some derivative themes running through the narratives, but these themes were much smaller than I worried it would be after reading some ARC reviews (because boy I spent time reading ARC reviews and no, it is not a good thing for my review, but hey the controversy was how I discovered the book and for few days back in January or February I fell down the rabbit hole).
So what was so unexpected? No, not the girl who found herself in the position of being Chosen to save her people. Actually, this is just the first book, so who knows if she would end up doing so or her people would end up mostly saving themselves. No, what pleasantly surprised me was the world-building. I knew that the book was supposed to be based in the country reminding us of Imperial Russia, but not quite Imperial Russia and to me, it worked, it worked quite well. I think to me the author managed to recreate the *feel* of Russia and I am still not sure how she did that. Meaning that I am not sure how pieces of the puzzle created a more or less cohesive picture.
At the same time, the Russian language use in the book hurt my eyes and ears a bit, so that was a bit of dissonance for me. No, it did not upset me or anything like that, I just could not figure out for example why the author who chose to put some Russian words directly transcribed from Russian in the text and transcribed perfectly fine, made up some other words which sounded so weird. Maybe because It was Russia, but it was not? I don’t know. Russian naming conventions were ridiculous there is no other way to say it. No, that’s not a big issue, but it makes an author’s writing look sloppy in my eyes, that’s all. It is as if she just didn’t bother to research how Russian last names are supposed to end if the character is a woman for example.
I thought that the author knew how to tell an engaging story and from the beginning put the reader in the right moment in time and place to make sure I was interested. Instead of being treated to Ana’s back story in a long information dump, we meet Ana when she is in the horrible prison trying to find a person who supposedly could help her find her father’s murderer and the first third of the book moves really fast and it is tense and suspenseful. Then it dragged a little for me but not much, I finished the book pretty fast.
The book is incredibly dark. As I mentioned before, I am an occasional reader of YA stories, but even I know that the dark themes are common in this genre. The theme of human trafficking and necessity to fight it runs very prominently in the story and of course it is not a light theme. My goodness though, one of the reviews I saw recently mentioned that Ana needed a hug and I totally agree with the reviewer. I felt as if *nothing* and I mean *nothing* good happened to her and A LOT of bad things happened to her that includes lots of murders of people close to her and torture and murders.
Torture of one of the characters was seriously graphic for my taste by the way. I am aware that the book is supposedly based on the legend of Anastasia. I am not sure what this means for the book though. I didn’t watch the “Anastasia” movie, only the cartoon so maybe it follows the movie closely. I did feel I needed a breath of lightness which the narrative did not really provide for me .
I don’t know how I feel about Ana. She was naïve and brave, but her I am a monster or not a monster kind of got old for me. And yes, indeed whose bright idea was to call a male lead Ramson? Because Ransom is the only name for him in my head.
I am curious what the next books will bring .
Grade: C+
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Ramson Quicktongue as a Russian name?? That makes no sense to me. But the cover is gorgeous.
@Jayne: Sorry for not being unclear. Of course not. I meant that Ramson sounded as Ransom in my head while I was reading and I was not getting the joke if there was one. But use of Russian language was bizarre throughout the story anyway.
@Jayne: Sorry for being unclear. Of course not. I meant that Ramson sounded as Ransom in my head while I was reading and I was not getting the joke if there was one. But use of Russian language was bizarre throughout the story anyway.
@Sirius: Sorry that my comment was unclear. I just don’t see that name as Russian. I mean, the spelling for Anastacya is strange but the actual name is Russian and though the ending of Mikhailov isn’t correct, again it sounds like a Russian patronymic. But Ramson? It doesn’t sound Russian to me though obviously I could be totally mistaken.
@Jayne: No it doesn’t sound Russian to me either. Don’t laugh but after I read your comment I spent several hours ( while doing something else of course , not just staring at the sky and thinking about it) trying to think about Russian name which would sound somewhat similar at least. No such luck. It may still exist of course, but not to my knowledge .
I listened to the audio for this. Emily Woo Zeller was the narrator, and she’s very good. She’s one of those narrators who can elevate an average book into something better. My memory has faded too much to remember details, but since this is fantasy inspired by legend and the author is working other themes outside of that legend into the story, I wasn’t too fussed about names not really being Russian. Also, I don’t think Ramson was the name the hero was born with. I can’t quite remember what his birth name was (maybe someone will remember?). Wasn’t his father from a neighboring state as well?
Overall, I gave this a B- rating, so not far off your own. There was enough to interest me that I will probably pick up the sequel if I can get it from a library (like I did for the audio of this one).
@RND: I am interested enough to pick up next book too! I absolutely don’t remember Ramson’s other name and since I read a hardcover, I don’t feel like even trying to find it. I was not *fussed* about Russian names, but I did notice you know? It was just weird – some words were perfectly correct Russian words and some were not. The world in the book had Russian feel and was based on Russian empire to me, but it surely was not Russian Empire, so she was not obligated to use Russian words at all, but she did. Anyway, I guess weird was how I felt if I were to chose one word. Thank you for commenting.