Nobody’s Quest by Alyssa Day – Book Review

Book Rating: ⭐⭐.5

Series: The Nobody Chronicles (Book 1)

Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance

Spice: Hot

Summary:

Soli Graymind is an indentured servant working in a library who is afflicted by Gray Mind, a condition where she struggles with negative inner thoughts that at times make it impossible to stay mentally present. Because of her low social standing and her affliction, she is flabbergasted when soldiers interrupt her quiet work in the library to bring her before the king. There she finds out that a prophecy to save the goddess Artemisen has recently been interpreted to require a “nobody”. With no living family, and only one person she considers a friend, Soli does appear to fit the bill.

After undergoing a test to confirm she is indeed the chosen “nobody”, Soli is thrown into a quest traversing the continent to collect keys that will release Artemisen from her prison. With no training, or magic, or anything to protect herself on this quest, Soli will have to rely on a band of soldiers and heroes, including one very handsome prince, to help her survive. But the terrible monsters throwing the world out of balance are dogging their every step, and Soli will have to be strong of mind and body to save Artemisen and restore balance to the world.

Reaction:

I really loved the concept of Nobody’s Quest. The play on words within a prophecy sounded fun, and I was interested to read about a main character struggling with depression undertaking a great journey. Unfortunately, I thought the delivery of this story had some issues that prevented me from really connecting to the characters or world.

The overarching idea presented in the book, that someone low in society with no powers can be the chosen one, is good, and the quest provided structure for the novel. But I found the bulk of the quest boring. There wasn’t much escalating tension, and most of the time it seemed the FMC had an impenetrable bubble around her. No matter what obstacles she was utterly unprepared to face, most of the time she came out ultimately unscathed. And while I appreciated the inclusion of depression in the form of Gray Mind and thought the descriptions of the attacks Soli's own mind initiated were well done, her struggle seemed sugar-coated to me because she had so much overwhelming support from those around her. It was predominantly presented as an internal struggle, and only briefly touched on the complications depression can bring to interpersonal relationships in real life.

I really struggled with the world-building. I felt like there were misses on both high-level and detailed descriptions. Places and terms were thrown in without building a history or reference for them, and I struggled to build a clear picture in my mind of the society or setting. There were also a lot of random facts about the magic system added throughout the novel that seemed out of nowhere. By the end of the book, I was not surprised at “surprising” magical events because I’d been conditioned that there was no rhyme or reason to when new information was presented.

From the beginning I was confused by Soli. She so quickly alternated between cowardness and boldness that I couldn’t grasp what her personality really was. There was so little focus on her background too. For example, she says Trick is her best friend but doesn’t provide any details about how they became friends or practiced their friendship. This is emblematic of this novel telling rather than showing character history, which prevented me from building the characters up in my mind, and forming connections to them. The supporting characters were all rather bland; there was maybe one morally gray character in the entire novel. They were all evil for no reason, or so sweet it was giving me cavities. There was no nuance, and so there was no range in the treatment of Soli as a Gray Mind to challenge and elevate her personal growth in a way I was craving.

While the novel’s story could stand on its own without the romantic subplot, it was a constant focus. There are individual moments that I thought were fun (like when Soli and the Prince pretend to be mercenaries), but overall, I wasn’t into the romance. It’s very much instant love and didn’t bring any kind of meaningful storyline to the novel. Romance would also occur in moments that made no sense, which is one of my biggest literary pet peeves. While they did have struggles in the relationship, it felt very cliché and I thought it could have been more closely associated with the Gray Mind to bring more emphasis to it. That told me as a reader that these two people haven’t looked at each other much beyond the surface.

I really wanted to like this novel, but it ultimately fell short for me. I could see why people would enjoy it; it has a lot of elements that I usually find super enjoyable. But that missing connection to the people and places prevented me from really getting into it.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

What I enjoyed:

·       The scene where the group meets a band of mercenaries and has to pretend to be mercenaries themselves. It’s hot and it was one of the few times I was thinking, “this girl is a librarian, look at that memorized knowledge!”.

·       The literary quotes introducing each chapter were fun, a callback to the FMC’s librarian roots, and served as an introduction to the focus of the chapter.

What I didn't enjoy:

·       Romance at moments that didn’t make sense. Like when a character says “we have to get out of here…” then stops to have a sexy moment.

·       I was confused about where the quest was heading the entire time! Were they going North or East, passing by a big city, were the types of trees changing, or was it just a monotonous forest for all the adventure?