I fell in love with Road to Ruin before I even finished chapter one. It delivers neurodivergent, queer, Mad Max dystopia 'burn the world down' vibes. Full of kingdoms brimming with misogyny, the world is compelling and quick to captivate. There's this world of Talented and Talentless, desert storms, and mad dashes. But I think what charmed me the most were the characters. We get to see through their eyes as they expose their vulnerabilities, naivety, and mistakes.

HIGHLIGHTS
~magic motorbikes
~dinosaurs in the wastelands
~love letters that don’t know they’re love letters
~the world is a lie
~villains can surprise you

Road to Ruin is a book I have been pining for ever since I saw the publication deal announcement a couple years back – it was pretty clearly going to be polyamorous, and in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting??? Yes PLEASE!

It didn’t quite live up to my hopes, but it’s still a great adventure-type read that a lot of readers are going to enjoy!

In the aftermath of some unspecified cataclysm, some humans have gained magical talents, placing them above the legions of the Talentless. Human civilisation has been reduced to scattered Kerinas – cities, basically, protected from the deadly mana storms by Shieldcasters – amidst a wasteland populated by dinosaur-esque monsters, cannibal raiders, and the aforementioned mana storms. Each Kerina has its own culture (although all seem to believe in the same gods, even if they worship them/interpret them differently) and trade between them doesn’t seem to exist. The only exception to this are the small, individual packages and letters carried by Couriers from one Kerina to another – there’s no trade in the way we’re used to thinking of it, where cities and countries swap resources and so on. Kerinas are each apparently entirely self-sufficient, although we don’t actually see much of what the quality of life is like inside them – our only glimpses are of the lives of the very wealthy.

Jin is a Courier who’s been taking letters back and forth between Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen – who live in separate Kerinas – for years. Because Kadrin is dyslexic, Jin has always read Nereen’s letters aloud to him; because women in Nereen’s Kerina are not taught to write, Nereen has always dictated her letters to Kadrin to Jin. This obviously gives her an inside view of their relationship, and almost makes her a part of it; both Kadrin and Nereen consider her a friend, and their letters to each other often include bits of Jin’s commentary, which she’s been (playfully) ordered to include.

So it’s really not weird at all that when Nereen decides she wants out, it’s Jin she turns to for escape, and Kadrin she looks to for sanctuary. If Jin can just get Nereed to Kadrin’s Kerina, everything will be fine.

Spoiler: things do not go according to plan.

Road to Ruin is a very easy-to-read book, the writing kept simple and accessible, the worldbuilding fairly minimal (although there’s much more of it than there seems at first!) I want to say this is one of those books that would be a good intro for someone who doesn’t usually read fantasy – there’s nothing pretentious about it, and it doesn’t depend on the reader being familiar with genre conventions. You can dive right in, and everything you need to understand what’s going on is squarely between its own pages.

…I was a little bored. And I don’t know why! Because when you look at it objectively, there is plenty going on in this book, complete with twists and a few genuinely surprising reveals. There’s also some really cool groundwork laid for further revelations to come in the sequel/s. I should have been completely hooked.

And I wasn’t. There’s quite a bit I liked in theory, but didn’t really care about in practice – there are Women Belong to Themselves Actually issues, and classism, and twisty religions that have perhaps mutated from what they meant originally, and the mystery of the Road Builders (us??? Is this meant to be set in our future??? Are we the Road Builders??? Very unclear, will probably become clearer later in the series). There is a Completely Unexpected Thing, which I would love to go into more detail on but I can’t see how to do so without spoilering you – Jin and Nereen stumble onto a very cool discovery, there, that’s the best I can do, and I, as a worldbuilding nut, wanted to know so much more about that than we got (although kudos to Lee for believable language barriers; I’m a little tired of fantasy protagonists always being linguistic geniuses and picking up new languages in ten minutes flat).

There are also dinosaurs. They live in the wastes and different ones can be dangerous in different ways. I’m not going to lie, something about the inclusion of dinosaurs really rubbed me the wrong way – maybe because they seemed so random? But if this ISN’T a future version of our world, why NOT dinosaurs??? (Or even if it IS set in our future, can I swear that some twit wouldn’t clone dinosaurs and release them into the wild at some point? No, no I cannot.) I can’t justify my dislike, I just…didn’t like it.

Between every chapter we get one of the letters that have been going between Nereen and Kadrin for years, which were surely there so we could see the development of their relationship – to establish it as established, if you will. But I have to admit that I didn’t end up very invested in the love story, despite being so excited for a polyamorous fantasy. I could see genuine respect and friendship between all three of our protagonists, but romantic vibes and chemistry? Uh, no. Not at all. It fell very flat for me.

I wonder if most of this was more due to the writing style rather than the story itself? Plain, blunt/direct prose generally doesn’t work for me, and even though it felt appropriate to the book’s adventure/action vibes, it may have prevented me from connecting with the story properly. Because I really don’t think this is an objectively bad book. (Although I really, really didn’t understand the bad guy’s plan. Like, at all. The goal, yes, but not how doing what he wanted to do would accomplish that goal.) I think the right reader will find it fun, and enjoy the twists, and all the different plot threads that Lee weaves together.

But for some reason, Road to Ruin didn’t feel twisty to me. Even though it is. It felt straightforward despite not being predictable; it felt simple even though there are so many balls in the air all the time; it felt thin despite having layers and layers of worldbuilding and politics and all going on.

You will notice, this is all about my feelings. Because I can’t point to any particular thing (well, except the bad guy’s plan) and say, this is not good. If I take a step back, and try and look at this book objectively, there’s plenty to be impressed by. And yet I am not impressed. I’m not that interested. It doesn’t feel (that word again!) at all memorable. I do not see myself picking up the sequels.

I don’t know what’s going on, but for whatever reason, I don’t think I’m seeing this book properly. I don’t trust my own judgement on it. That judgement being: it’s perfectly fine, not terrible, not amazing, potentially fun for the right kind of reader.

But I think it might be kind of amazing? Is the thing?

Basically, please read a lot of other reviews for this book before you make your decision on whether or not to buy it. This one time, I’m telling you not to listen to my take. I think I’m wrong, wrong in a very odd way that feels very strange from the inside. And it means my opinion probably shouldn’t be counted.

This book was an absolute thrill to read! I loved every page from beginning to end.

A seriously wonderful fantasy with motorbikes and dinosaurs! Jin, Reena, and Kadrin are amazing main characters. I love the little bits of correspondence and the fact that Jin is forever the middleman. It made for a truly interesting plot line.

The setting is developed and manages to be both unique and familiar at the same time. Desert wastelands plagued by storms with a few domed safe cities scattered about is nothing new. But Hana Lee made that her own here, and it was just a fun unveiling of the land and its magic system.

I was on edge the whole time wondering who to trust, who was going to turn to the evil side, and who was going to end up alive and together. The pages kept turning rapidly because I couldn’t wait to find out what was next at every turn.

Fans of Dune, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Star Wars will eat this book up. I see elements of all three woven into the plot and setting.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

Enjoyable. I wanted to like it more than I did, and I expect that future books in this series will improve. As an homage to the Mad Max movies, it does well, giving much of the same vibe of failed civilization with some hope for the future. What it does lack is explanation of what happened to make things devolve to where they had, and why there appears to be little to no knowledge about what came before. Also, no explanation as to where the food comes from to feed the populations of the cities that all appear to be separated by wastelands. Still, a good read with plenty of relationship tension and promise for future drama. I'll definitely be here for the next book in this series.

3.5 stars, rounding up

I have So Many Thoughts about this book lol. let's tackle the good things first: the queer and polyamorous rep is absolutely top notch. I am so excited to see more polya characters and romances in mainstream publishing houses, it is a fantastic development.

I also really liked how the character povs were handled. Road to Ruin definitely has one central character (the courier, Jin) but her love interests are given substantial weight as well. the chapters from Yi-Nereen and Kadrin's perspectives give the reader new information and provide insight to the characters that we were otherwise miss.

most importantly though? Jin is absolutely hilarious. her little asides in the letters were my favorite thing ever. (her commentary is in the parentheses lmao.)

Fortunately, I have something better to offer you. Ta-da! Jin, please reveal the parcel at this point, with as much flair as you can muster. (Lower your expectations.)

now for the cons: I had a really hard time getting into the world initially and found the beginning just ,,,, really slow. I never particularly resonated with Yi-Nereen and I had a hard time rooting for her, esp towards the end (if you know, you know). my main complaint about this book is the ending though. don't go into this expecting a closed story; I didn't clock that this is the first book in a new series, but the ending certainly cuts off like a dramatic chapter break.

overall, I'm happy to see more rep, it's nice to have something to recommend to the motorcycle queers, and I adore this cover, so I rounded it up to a 4 star rating.

Everything should work out perfectly as long as no one notices the Scroll is missing in the meantime. (He's unhinged.)


queer rep - polya bi/queer mc, polya bi/queer love interest, polya love interest, sapphic side characters, bg queer characters
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

Mad Max but make it sapphic? I've been dying to read Hana Lee's debut since it was announced. The pitch alone told me I would love it--it has all the elements I've been craving--and the execution absolutely lived up. Lee's style is beautiful, tense, and electric.

This is an author to watch.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy!!! I know I say this a lot, but I liked this. I got cool motorcycles, wastelands, magic, and runaways. I liked that magic wasn't a gift, but more of a curse which everyone views as a gift. There is a mysterious element hidden behind the chase, fights and romances. Even at the end we don't get a full picture of what exactly happened only a vague idea. In this regard, the next book will really expand on this world.

There had better be a book 2!!! I loved this book and I can't wait to reread it and I'm so mad that book 2 is not already here in my hands (even though book 1 hasn't even been published yet.) Seriously Road to Ruin was INCREDIBLE! High Fantasy Mad Max that I never knew I needed. Our protagonist, Jin, is wonderful. The type of girl who pretends to be tough and closed off but would give her last bit of food to the alley cat that just bit her. Kadrin and Reena are each wonderful in their own ways, both of them truly playing on the sun and moon imagery. Always bound together but still so unique. I hope we get to see more of Kadrin next time because I feel like we really got to know Reena well, see her intelligence and her desire to do the right thing even when she's not sure what that is. I also want to see more of Sou-Zelle even. I fully expected to hate him the entire time and while he still has a long way to go I can see the seeds of change planted in him. Pre-Order this book! Read this book immediately! It was SO GOOD!!

I had a hard time with this book because I really wanted to like it! It promised to fit all of the boxes I want in a book - gay, love triangles/polyamory, unique magic system, conscious of real world issues - and yet it fell flat for me. The whole story takes place over 7 days which didn’t seem possible. It felt like there must be more than 24 hours in a day in this world for everything to occur and unfortunately that really took me out of the story. I wish we had seen the characters fall in love so it was more believable, instead of being told they were as it might have made me care about them more. I also found myself confused about some elements in the world building or plot and never had resolution on them. Some of the gaps I can see being fleshed out in later books since this is a series, but others felt like the characters not knowing how something worked was a work around for the author to not have to define it. For a debut novel, I do think it is pretty good, just not for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

This book was such a nonstop ride! The fascinating, thought-out world (a magical Mad Max with dinosaurs and mana storms and a magic-classed societal hierarchy) is gripping and unique, but the characters are what will remain with you long after. So much yearning! Unspoken longing! Repressed feelings!

My very favorite bit (yes, despite the adorable/violent baby dinosaur named Screech) was that Lee never takes the easy way out with her characters or her story. Where a less assured author might deliver a more superficial/straightforward character arc, Lee leans in to the messy complexity that people are made of. There is room in Road to Ruin for moral greys, for absolution and imperfection, for mistakes made and feelings denied. In that sense, magic shields and uber-cool magebikes aside, this book is as real as it gets. A brilliant fantasy debut.

This was a total romp. Fast-paced, fun, and inventive. I was immersed in the world from the first page. I particularly adore the attention paid relationships and how the author avoids cliches or simple answers in favor of more complex emotions. Read this, you won’t regret it.

This was both expertly written and extremely enjoyable. I adored the love triangle and the dynamics between the three very different main characters--I genuinely did not have a favorite pairing, which is very rare for me with love triangles! I also loved the saurians, the magic system, the side characters--basically everything about this book. "Road to Ruin" was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases and it definitely lived up to my hopes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

Mad Max: Fury Road meets Horizon: Zero Dawn in a high-adrenaline, apocalyptic wasteland world filled with intriguing worldbuilding, heart-twisting romance, and high stakes motorcycle action.