Review: Eight Will Fall

Eight Will Fall
Sarah Harian

Published By: Henry Holt
Publication Date: November 26, 2019
Date Read: February 18, 2020
Genre: YA - Fantasy / Horror
Source: Fairyloot
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352

From Goodreads:In a land where magic is outlawed, eight criminals led by seventeen-year-old Larkin are sent on a mission to kill an ancient evil that plagues their kingdom. Descending into an underground realm full of unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her party must use their forbidden magic to survive what lies in wait, teeth sharp and jaws deadly.

As she fights for her life, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon Larkin and Amias realize their fates are entwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.

But as the dangers multiply and her band of felons are picked off one by one, Larkin must confront a terrible truth: They were never meant to return.

"Though I have fallen, darkness will rise."

Eight Will Fall is a book that I had never heard of before getting it in my Fairyloot subscription box. After getting it in that subscription box I decided it sounded quite cool and thought I'd give it a go. Honestly, I've never felt so mixed about a book as much as I do about this one. If I hadn't have received this in a subscription box I probably never would have bought it... and I'm not entirely sure that I would have been missing out on anything had I not.

Eight Will Fall is a very... weird book. It was super slow to start with and then when it picked up at around page 40 I was really intrigued and really enjoying it. This is a very dark and horror-eske book and I was enjoying it. I personally would not describe Eight Will Fall as a YA Fantasy. There is nothing fantasy in this book, in my opinion, other than the fact that the main characters have some sort of power. I would say this is more like a mix between a paranormal and a horror book.

The characters in this book are intended to be morally grey and I could see what the author was aiming for, having that debate of whether anyone is truly good or evil but I just felt like it didn't really work that well. All the characters just kind of felt and sounded the same. There wasn't really anything that set any one of them apart from the others and I didn't really form any sort of emotional connection with any of them. When something happened to any of them when usually I get very emotional and heartbroken I was just a bit like... meh oh well.

The more I read of Eight Will Fall the more I got bored and just wanted it to be over. A lot of the events just felt very repetitive. I could predict exactly what was going to happen next and that just takes the fun out of reading for me. I did at one point consider DNF'ing but I pushed though. I'm glad I finished it as I knew it would have bugged me not knowing what was going to happen to the characters but this is definitely not one I would re-read. If you like dark, horror type books then you may enjoy this one but you're not really missing out on much if you give this one a miss.

"There was light in this world. Larkin had found it in the darkest places, where she thought there could be none at all."