The WritingThis is one of the book 's strongest points
What do you think of this way of write?
I was so close to giving this book a higher rating. I would rate the first half of the book as 4/5 and the second half as 2/5.1) The WritingThis is one of the book's strongest points. The author's prose is lovely in its creativity of expressing emotions and describing scenery. Luckily, this is well done throughout the book overall, lacking the heavy prose that can come from being too flowery with one's writing. There were only a few of times the creativity of the writing jarred me out of the story, as if the author was stretching it thin, but these were few and far between. The story is also in 3rd POV, which I found to be a smart move, allowing the author to take the narration up to a level that would otherwise be barred down by 1st POV.There are also usages of foreshadowing and symbolism that I thoroughly enjoyed in the book and found their execution spot on.However, this is part of the downfall of the story when paired with the plot, at least in the second part of the book.2) CharactersKarou is a strong character. Although I didn't connect with her right away, I was still able to appreciate how flushed and well rounded she is. She's got good point, but also flaws that even she comes to acknowledge. I also liked her resilience when it came to getting cozy with the love interest from the get-go. It plays more realistically and in a `genre' where I've read a lot of characters dropping everything for their love interest, Karou doesn't forget that her family comes first. Her commendable points are strong ones.My favorite where the chimaera. They didn't have a lot of book time compared to our main girl, yet still were powerful figures with personalities. I adored each of them, especially Brimstone, who, I thought, happened to be the strongest character of them all. That being said, I also found myself liking two minor characters, one of Brimstone's  collectors and the mysterious creature at his back. Even they were fun to read about.The love interest was a bit so-so for me, if only because his hunger for revenge made me feel like yawning. I appreciated learning his history layer by layer and understanding why he became the way he was. However, like Karou, I didn't have an emotional connection to him like I did with the chimaera. I didn't dislike him, but I wasn't swooning either. He gets his own POV chapters as well (still in 3rd person), but overall I think the switch of POV was done well enough. Not the best handled I've read, but not so distracting it caused the story to deteriorate.The only side character I did really like was Zuzana. At times, her dialogue was not cute (where it was meant to be) and made me roll my eyes. At the least, I didn't hate her, but preferred when she wasn't around to spoil the moment with her not-so-cute banter. I do like, however, that she served as an anchor for Karou and did remind the reader that there are humans observing the spectacle that is Karous and Akiva's involvement. Even if I didn't love her, I could still appreciate her purpose in the story.3) The PlotThe opening is a bit slow for me, I admit. However, I do find it was necessary to ease us into Karou's life and the juxtaposition of her other life with the chimaera. It didn't matter too much because the rest of the first half just skyrocketed for me. There was an excellent pace, interspersed with learning about characters, and I was hungry to know what was going on with the handprints. Karou meets Akiva, the love interest, and I was still aching to know what would happen.Then, it fell flat. The last half of the book is extremely heavy. The couple skirt around each other, feeling warm fuzzies and unsure why, and this consists of a good portion of the book. After that, we get the full history between them, and that's it. Whatever expectations of the greater plot are disregarded for now (perhaps to be resumed in the second book).That means the book was left hanging for me, with no resolution. Sure, Karou learns about herself but I could hardly call that a resolution when other "problems" she was facing are all gaping wide to be filled with conclusions. What aggravated the situation is how the past is completely unfolded before our eyes, with chapter upon chapter devoted to their past lives. This made it feel like I was reading two books by the same author in one.This is where a small fault in the writing arises as well. The creative prose I came to enjoy in the first half was utilized to capture every funny feeling the two characters had in their past, and then some, making the second half drag on that much more. Also, and this is more of a personal preference, we learn their love is an insta-one, which was a disappointment. This results in their current love to be lackluster and didn't give me any heart-fluttering moments.However, I will say learning about the chimaera was a plus, though it could have been executed in a manner that didn't involve the way the second half was written.-x-Overall-x-I think many people would enjoy this book, flaws included. I don't regret reading it, even if the second half was a disappointment. The writing is sublime and I could reread the first half again and again. Definitely give it a shot because it's still a gem in the YA category.Readability: Very high (for the first half) 