Mask of Shadows
⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆
Mask of Shadows (Mask of Shadows, Book 1) by Linsey Miller
Concept vs execution. 💭✍️
Finally, a YA fantasy novel where things actually happen… and it sucks. On paper, Mask of Shadows has a lot going for it: the concept is strong, the pacing is decent, the cast of characters has potential, and the story itself sets up an engaging competition filled with action and intrigue. All the ingredients are there for a solid book. 👐
But one fatal flaw ruins everything: the writing. To put it bluntly, it’s extremely rough. Clunky prose, awkward phrasing, and flat delivery drag down what could have been a genuinely fun, fast-paced read. When looking at just the foundation of the book (the idea, the setup, the direction of the plot) I could easily see this being an 8 or 9 out of 10. But the execution killed any momentum it might have had. It’s like trying to watch a great movie on a broken VHS tape: the story is there, but the medium makes it painful to get through. 😫
Then there’s the protagonist, who is written as gender-fluid. Representation in fantasy is great, but this book’s attempt at it is clumsy and distracting. The book insists on making the character’s shifting gender identity part of the text in a way that constantly pulls you out of the story.
If the goal was to keep the character’s gender ambiguous so readers could envision them however they liked, that would have been a clever and effective choice. Instead, the novel over-explains it, shoehorning the idea into the dialogue and worldbuilding without much subtlety. In a story that’s supposed to be about assassins, deception, and survival, the execution of this element feels heavy-handed and inconsistent. Worse, because the protagonist constantly changes their appearance, there’s never a strong baseline for readers to hold onto, it ends up being more confusing than immersive. 🤷
At the end of the day, the biggest problem is the writing itself. If you decide to pick this up, be prepared: the premise is exciting and the competition angle has promise, but the experience of actually reading it is rough.
