Silent No More

I had no idea what to expect when I picked this up. The only reasons I did were 1) Beautiful cover and art (I know, I know, so shallow of me) and 2) I had never heard of Mai Corland and I wanted to read Korean-inspired fantasy. So there you have it. 

What I got was one of my favorite reads this year. Five Broken Blades surprised me in all the best ways – excellent worldbuilding, fantastic writing, engaging characters, much loved tropes done well. *Happy sigh*. So grab some hot tea, a cozy blanket, and dive in. 

Five Broken Blades follows the story, unsurprisingly, of five individuals. They are all killers, and all liars. This immediately grabbed my attention. They all had one purpose – they needed to kill King Joon. My initial question was, how are these stories going to intertwine? And let me tell you, the intertwining was satisfying and done oh, so well. I’ve read a lot of complaints about the insta-love between certain characters, and how it felt rushed, but I couldn’t disagree more. If you really dive into the characters, you can see why. Each came from very difficult backgrounds, where love was something that was withheld or used against them. So each had an unhealthy view on love, and didn’t know how to express it. So it’s no wonder they fumble through, mistaking lust for love, or realizing what love really is and being changed because of it. In fact, I would posit that this was an incredibly realistic depiction of what love or lust looks like in our current social media-saturated culture. 

The plot was easy to follow and raced at a fairly rapid pace. I’m a sucker for anti-heroes, and their story arcs. So the characters hit all the right spots for me – surly, pretty unlikable yet lovable, smart, sarcastic, caustic, funny. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a favorite stand-out character. I enjoyed them all, and enjoyed every POV. And the POV’s were so well done – you knew exactly which character you were following because they each had their own distinct style. This, dear reader, is incredibly hard to do, coming from someone who has written multiple POV stories. It’s NOT easy, and Corland does it with seeming ease. 

I can’t wait for the next book. I absolutely loved this thrill ride. The characters were brilliant, the writing was imaginatively delicious, and the plot was fun. Do yourself a favor and give it a chance. 

5/5 stars