Cover Image: The Savage Peak

The Savage Peak

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Member Reviews

It was kind of interesting and funny. I really enjoyed reading Morgella growing up and what Delliah teached her. But i felt like it went very quick too, maybe too quick sometimes.

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It’s the prequel to an existing trilogy called the trilogy of Morgalla.

And I’m happy that I read this book before the series 🤗

I liked it.

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i really thought this was a great start to a series, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going on this journey and the world itself. I look forward to more in the series.

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DNF @ 25%. Unfortunately this was a miss for me. At 25% there was very little story, no character development and nothing to make me want to keep reading. As stated by other reviewers the are pages of info dumping and lots of telling as opposed to showing. Just didn’t work for me.

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I really wanted to like this book because it had everything I enjoy. Female leads, demons, challenges and everything else that makes a good story about a bad ass female. However, I found it really hard to get into this book due to way it was written. The constant dumping of info and dull characters really hurt my heart, everything about this was uninteresting. I had to force myself to push through it just to give a review as promised. I know what the author was going for, but I think he should take more care on world building and character development that doesn't just tell us what's happening. Show us! I really think this book and author has potential if you just do some reading of other novels in similar themes.

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I found this book on NetGalley and realized it was a prequel to an existing trilogy called the trilogy of Morgalla. I had not heard of this series before, but the premise of the prequel had me interested. I actually prefer to read the prequel before the start of a series because I find that I have a better appreciation for the characters and their journey during a series. Or if it's a prequel that elaborates on the world's history I found the story to be more enriching. This is the main book series that Jon David has written and you can explore more about this series at his website.

The premise of this book is what had me interested in writing a review. The story is about a young demon from Hell named Morgalla. Strength, reputation and kill count is what a demon prides themselves on and Morgalla does not fit the mold. She is empathetic and has an appreciation for other's lives, no matter what species. Morgalla has been taken off world to train and study, so she does not have the experience of growing up in Hell or understanding of demon culture. When she returns to Hell Morgalla does not fit in and soon gets a target on her back. She finds her self in yet another world, away from Hell, where she is forced to face her empathetic nature and the need to survive.

It took me a bit of time to get into this book because I received an ARC and some of the editing and sentence structure was hard to grasp, but as I continued to read on it seemed the editing cleaned up and had a better flow. I liked that the setting was different from typical YA fantasy series set in magical world's. I am glad someone decided to tackle creating a believable version of Hell that wasn't extremely dark and was able to connect demons to other worlds. David was able to create multiple vivid worlds and multi-dimensional characters in a short book. I would be interested to see how Morgalla's dynamic and relationship with her father, Zorach, develops and how other character's play a role going forward, like Delilah (Morgalla's mentor) and Vex (Morgalla's rival).

The solo journey that Morgalla embarks on in this book is a good start to developing her character and understanding of the world. Morgalla is torn between her morals and must challenge her beliefs in order to do what is best for people she considers her friends. This is the first time Morgalla has been on her own and has been able to make her own decisions. It's a good short coming of age story to set the path for Morgalla's future struggles and I have a feeling she is going to face a huge battle back in Hell.

I would rate this book a 3 out of 5 and I want to pick up the triology of Morgalla in the future when my "to be read" pile shrinks a little. I am interested to see what happens to Morgalla in Hell and how she navigates being different and challenging the demonic culture. I think we've only just begun to see how strong Morgalla could be, as she is just at the start of her journey and starting to discover herself. Morgalla may be small but she be fierce!

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I didn’t realize The Savage Peak was a prequel until I’d already received it so my main concern was getting lost in aspects of the world established in the main series.

It turns out I had nothing to fear there because this entire book is just a 200 page info dump. One of my biggest pet peeves as a teenaged YA reader is how wildly inaccurate characters ages feel. This MC is described as a teenager but acts more like an 8 year old. Literally every other sentence she says is a question because she’s so consistently confused. There’s such a heavy amount of info dump that I can’t even begin to wonder what must happen in the main series because this book assumes you know nothing.

And it’s not just the world building, it’s basic common sense. I think the whole “show don’t tell” thing is given too much importance because on occasion it’s okay just to tell, but this book is literally all tell because the author doesn’t trust you. It means you end up with sentences like “she didn’t say anything, not knowing what to say” because drawing conclusions on your own must be avoided at all costs.

If you can’t tell, I couldn’t get into the writing style at all and won’t be reading the rest of the series.

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