I found this one, despite it's genderfluid main character, to be pretty typical of the ya genre. The writing, as well, didn't always do it for me (I'm one of those people that has to really like the writing unfortunately). I ended up skimming some parts, because it just wasn't going the way that I wanted to, though I really did want to like it.

There's a bunch of potential in this (I mean, gender-fluid character, come on now, that's great) but it is a little derivative of Sarah J. Maas and the Hunger Games. I'd be interested in seeing what else Miller comes up with, because there's a lot of potential! Just not a fully developed, unique story.

I wanted so badly to enjoy this book because the concept is awesome and it has a gender fluid MC. But sadly, I couldn't get get into it and had to let it go 25% in. I didn't care for the writing style, the story felt generic, and I found it dull and lacking in the plot to keep things moving forward. I feel like I wouldn't have enjoyed it and life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.

I enjoyed reading the book. Most of my friends didn’t enjoyed it but I was captivated. From page one to the last page. It made me forget I was reading about it.

I will start by saying that I did not finish this book. I got to 30% and decided to stop. I feel I have read enough that I can rate what I read and speak about why it wasn’t working for me.

I like the premise of this book. I enjoy books with competitions and that feature assassins. With this one, I feel that we were thrown in to the middle of this character’s life with no background or even flashbacks to why they were resorting to thriving and then ultimately wanting to become the next Opal. The more I was with Sal, the more I realized I didn’t care about what happened to them because I wasn’t given the opportunity to learn about them. I felt like just a spectator watching random people try to kill each other with no context. Because of this, I became bored and it wasn’t enjoyable to read. My rating is based on the 30% I read of the book.

This book was a fantasy/action YA diverse read. I appreciated the storyline and content that the book covered (a gender-fluid MC is not typical). However, the world building was extremely hard to follow at times. There a lot of mixed reviews surrounding this book, and I am not surprised. I can understand how people enjoyed it .. but also the frustrations that come with a debut series.

Seem to have requested this book accidentally, and no longer wish to read the novel. Rating it as 3 stars for a neutral rating.

This book had a lot of potential, and I was really hopeful based on the synopsis, but in the end ot was kind of a fail for me. There was an inordinate amount of info-dumping, the plot lines were predictable, the author did too much telling rather than showing, and the training scenes could have been cut back and would have worked better if they were a bit shorter and fewer. For all of the info dumping it still didn't feel like a fully fleshed out world, and the dialogue felt forced. The narrative didn't always flow and aspects of the world didn't make sense.

First, while this is undeniably a good time it needs another editing pass. Too repetitive and way way too lomg. It's an intriguing fantasy with a death tournament and also a secondary plot with politics/revenge. Sal is a refreshing MC and I would like to see her character's evolution -- but in a more streamlined sequel.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sal gets into the Audition to become the next Opal a particular assassin for the Queen. Sal has other plans, Sal wants to find out all of the people involved in killing everyone in Nacea.

This book is okay if you like assassins and people going around trying to kill each other and blood and guts and what not.

I was highly anticipating Mask of Shadows but unfortunately, I am in the "not a fan" camp. The reviews about this were pretty divisive, but I found that I agreed with many people who were bemoaning how slow and dull this book was.

I was excited to hear that the main character was gender fluid. I appreciate it as an important step in diversity in YA, but I don't think it played as big a role as it might have in this book. I was hoping that it wouldn't be a token LGBTQ+ addition, and I think it was almost bordering on that. I don't think I have any right to take offense or praise the author's choices in their portrayal, so I will leave that up to each person to decide.

Otherwise, this was a very typical YA fantasy. The writing was simplistic and lacked sophistication or style. The action was nonstop, but still, it seemed that nothing exciting was happening. I don't think I'll be continuing with these.

This book was number one on my to be read list. I appreciate given the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I was not able to get around to reading this. The character sounds very relatable to me. I do have a physical copy of this book and hope to get to it very soon. I apologize I was not able to review it before the release date.

I very much wanted to enjoy this book but found I couldn't ground myself within the characters. Yet, I'm very satisfied that this means that this book may not be for me and I sincerely hope that the series has found its readers.

I will be honest, I gave this book a good 100 pages. And I think half of it was the book, and half of it was me. I wasn't in a reading mood at the time, and the just wasn't grabbing me. I do however love that there is a YA fantasy out here with a non-binary main character, and I think a *LOT* of teens need this. I do think this book could be really really amazing if I finished it, but I have to move on and read something that does grab my attention.

Unfortunately was not my cup of tea. I was drawn in by the promise of a gender fluid protagonist, but the story did not deliver for me and many of the characters and character interactions fell flat.

Love the world building, felt like I was there experiencing the a long side the characters. Can’t wait for the next book to come out to see where the storyline goes from here. I so recommend this book.

I love this book!! Such good genderfluid rep, I loved the romance too, and how gritty and kinda dark this book was. F/gender fluid rep yes!! Can’t wait to read book 2

Ok ok. I guess I wanna see where this goes after all.


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The first time I picked this one up I was ready to DNF. The writing style wasn't sitting with me and I wasn't convinced with the romance (still not tbh), but I liked the premise so I wasn't fully ready to give up on it. After a few years, and with the help of the audiobook, I got through it. The plot was enough.

Sal had a singleminded focus on revenge that was built upon this idea that the Queen was perfect and powerful and would appreciate their efforts towards the cause. What they ended up finding in the end of their story is that not everything is as it seems, even the Queen is human and sometimes single-minded focus can't sustain a full life.

I can't wait to see if they are able to meet their final goal or if real-life expectations get in the way.

p.s I can't speak to the validity of the gender-fluid rep, but I did appreciate the little inner monologue Sal would have whenever they were either misgendered or addressed by the proper pronouns. I like that it wasn't just a throwaway line about their identity and then it's never brought up again. No, their identity is given the space it deserves.

I’m truly not sure I have an opinion on this book, whilst I enjoyed aspects of Sals character I wasn’t particularly blown away by them, I enjoyed reading about a gender fluid protagonist as it was a first for me but apart from that this book wasn’t anything special or bought anything new to the genre.

[Received Mask of Shadows as an ARC back in April. There are possibly changes between my copy and the published copy.]

Technically 1.5 stars.

Here's the thing: Mask of Shadows gets points simply for existing.

I feel like novels featuring minority characters receive an extra critical raking over from reviews. "It's basically [Title Here] but with a [minority character]. It's not original." Books with white hetero cis leads don't get this level of flack. Especially male white hetero cis leads. This extra level of criticism is probably unintentional bias, although it doesn't excuse it any.

So, the thing is, these books are original simply for existing.

But, unfortunately, Mask of Shadows isn't very good.

(I could bring up Sturgeon's Law at this point, since the overall quantity and quality of available LGBT+ is unfortunate all around, but that's a Whole Other Thing.)

Sal has the potential to be likable and dynamic. The world is ripe with complicated history and political conflict between the nation(s). There are tons of characters bright with personality; characters I'd love to learn more about.

That's the core problem with Mask of Shadows: it is brimming with potential.

But the potential is beyond the author's ability to execute.

First thing: Writing memorable characters the reader can cheer for, even if only out of the curiosity to see what happens next is a hard task for any writer. It's nearly impossible when most of those character have number or gemstone aliases instead of names and their faces are obscured by masks for most of the book. Without any real visual cues from the text, it's hard to conjure scenes and easier for the reader to disconnect from the book. We need a visual on the main character as soon as possible. I'm not saying we need a description of Sal with gendered words, but height, hair/skin/eye colour, build, how they walk, any scars or striking features need on the page. They should not be dribbled through the first half. The physical descriptors were so lax I struggled to picture characters like Elise and Maud, who never wore masks.

Due to their bloody memories of their ruined birth nation, killing doesn't bother Sal, even when they kill for the first time. This is a little creepy, but mostly feels like a gloss-over so there isn't any actual moral struggle on Sal's part. Actually, there is so much to unpack in terms of the history of Igna/Erlend/Alona/Nacea, mages and shadows, and Sal's own personal history simple to understand the current situation and Sal's motivations. The author has mapped out hundreds of years of history for these nations, varying appearances, cultural differences, etc. Love and work are clearly present, but the skill to unpack efficiently and elegantly it is not.

What we do have is poor exposition (Sal explaining everything), and plain old bad writing in general. This is not the sort of book which thrives in first person in the first place and Mask of Shadows is not a well-executed good first person narrative. The writing is raw and amateurish, full of filter words and extraneous words weighing the sentences down: just, had, still.

Setting the Royal Assassin thing aside, the rest of the plot drags. No one wants to read dull training scenes--they're mostly filler--no matter how accurate they appear to be. While a gentler, open-minded approach to the concept is different, it seems like a waste of time to train the candidates. I understand testing a candidates ability to fill a gap in their training, but uh, isn't the whole point of hiring someone for a highly skilled position for them to already have these skills?