I received a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers read at your own discretion.
I had read The Mother by Andrei David a little over a month ago, but first impressions left me in a bad mood, so I had to take a step back before reviewing it to give the book the benefit of the doubt. Now I can give it a 2.5-star rating (which is higher than what it will be).
Where to begin? At first, I loved the characters as they felt unique, and you wanted to root for them. However, there became too many of them for me to keep track of, and most of the book was spent with me trying to recall who some of the characters were because it felt like we were never introduced to them except surprise we were, but they were slightly different.
Most of the book brought me back to ten years ago when I was in grade 10, and my guy friends were explaining quantum physics and mechanics to me. I was proud of myself for keeping up and understanding what they were saying until they threw in things like Guy Fawkes and fireplaces with Falcon Punch. It sounded less like quantum mechanics and physics and more like a video game. This book was so much like that where at first, I could understand what was going on and felt proud of myself for it, but the longer it progressed, the more I started to feel like I needed to be a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on.
This book is also magical; characters appear in places that they cannot be in because it is physically impossible for them to be in two spaces at once. I got confused on most of the plot points because I could never figure out the characters' motivations behind their actions or why some of the things happened. And a question: if the man is who I think it is and might be the child that they saved as a baby, then did they really save the world or is everything doomed to repeat? If everything is doomed to replicate, then the book feels rather pointless, but if it is the former, what will the new world look like?
Also, many moments feel kind of far-fetched, like when a girl is basically dead and gets brought back to life by nanobots like how? I found myself suspending disbelief for a lot of the book, and because it was sci-fi, so maybe some things could be plausible but are not in my wheelhouse?
I love that the author tried to be diverse, but did not like how he went about some of it like you are attracted to this person because you touched them while you had embraced the Flame. I feel like there could have been some other way to have the characters be gay without things like that. Or maybe I completely misread the whole book, and it was meant to mean something else, but I could not follow half of what happened.
Also, I love mythology, so when I read Banshee, I thought it was actual banshees, not a group of women that are like warriors who fend the others from these shadowy wolflike monsters that are apparently children of the universe. Like I said and will probably repeat many times before this review is over that I could not follow half of what went on because some of it sounded like the author thought it would sound like a great thing to have in the book. But never checked to see if it could fit with the book or if ordinary people will follow along.
Part of me knew it was supposed to be on earth, but it confused me as to where on earth or how earth got that way, and by the end of the book, you still do not understand how the world got to be the way it was. I think there was a nuclear war or something, and half the time, it sounded like we were on an entirely different planet.
I still don't fully understand who Three is and whether she is a Banshee or an old fashioned space cadet or what. I have no clue who or what Cerebus is, even though it is often mentioned in the book. Of course, when I read Cerebus, I think of the three-headed dog in Greek mythology, so that is what I thought it was, but as it progressed I was less sure. If the author had renamed things, it would have worked a lot more in his favor instead of naming things after mythology and giving a girl like me who loves mythology false hope that it will have a significant role in the book.
Not all of the book is bad or confusing, and you have read the review so far, you are a champion. Since this book takes place, god knows how long in the future, the author did a great job imagining what the cities would look like in disrepair and what people who have never set foot in a town would view it as. Actually, when they visit the city, it is my favorite part because it is a little ambiguous, but it feels like you are discovering everything for the first time. For a while, I did like Sam and Lucas (or is it Lucius? Shoot. I'm going to be calling him L from now on and feel wrong about that), and in the end only liked L because at least his character arc was consistent and felt like the only one I could root for. He was deliciously a morally grey character, which I loved. I feel bad for saying this, but I loved Sam up until the moment she embraced the girl in the Flame and magically became attached to her because I stopped believing in their characters after that moment because it felt so odd and far-fetched to me as a girl. If the author had taken the time to explain things more and did more world-building, I could easily see this book as a five-star book, but alas, the author did not, and I was left with only questions and no answers, which is kind of what left me in a foul mood and took so long to write this review. (Otherwise, this would have a lot more expletives in it).
2.5 out of 5 stars.
