Nobody's Quest by Alyssa Day (book review)

GENRE: Adult Fantasy

LENGTH: 379 pages

PLOT

Soli is an indentured servant whose life is changed when the king sends her on a quest to retrieve ancient keys to free a captive goddess. According to the prophesy, only a nobody can do this.

CHARACTERS

There are quite a few characters in this novel. There is Soli who is bookish – an avid reader whose knowledge from books proves useful along their quest. Her love interest is Kaelen, a prince who is extremely protective of her. Their romance is passionate but also instalove

Joining them are Soli’s friend, thief Trick, a sergeant, Neville, and a solider, Bern. Then there is Chitai who is a dessert warrior, Elianna, a sorcerer (it seems in this world the term sorcerer is unisex as typically she’d be referred to as a sorceress). Finally, there is the Sylvan (a member of the immortal race who serve the goddess).

Day attempts to build a found family dynamic with these characters, but I was never really convinced of their supposed bonds. There were two major causes for this. One is that there were simply too many characters. Neville and Bern could have easily been removed as they contributed very little to the actual plot. The second cause is that the novel is too focused on the romantic relationship between Soli and Kaelen. Yes, this is a romantasy, so yes, it’s expected there is a romance at the center of the novel. However, it shouldn’t completely overshadow the dynamics between the other characters.

WRITING

The novel is told from Soli’s perspective. Soli suffers from Gray Mind, which is her world’s version of depression. The author’s letter that precedes the novel explains that she herself has long battled with chronic clinical depression. As someone with a diagnosed anxiety disorder and depression, I am always both very excited and filled with trepidation when it comes to seeing mental illness representation in fantasy books (my favorite genre). Even though I didn’t personally identify with Soli in terms of her mental health struggles, I image many readers will. It is so important to have this representation in literature. I appreciated how the treatment of grayminds is reminiscent of the real world's stigmatization of mental illness.           

Day makes quite a few odd writing/plot choices throughout the novel. In particular, the, intimate scenes are always when the characters are in some sort of peril. The ending is also extremely random. Furthermore, the world building also could have used some bolstering.

My favorite quote from the novel is “Sometimes I think I’m not even human anymore. Merely vengeance, fashioned into a weapon.” (page 291). To me, this demonstrates that Day has potential has a writer, but she still has a lot of room for improvement.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Given the mental health representation, I wanted so badly to love this novel and sing its praises. I do think there’s a good novel buried somewhere in the book. It has a unique concept and some promising characters. I still think it’s worth the read if you’re interested, but I likely won’t be continuing on with the series. I will keep ahold of my copy as it’s one of the few fantasies I have with mental health representation.

FINAL RATING: 3⭐️

TRIGGER WARNINGS for: blood, gore, violence, child abuse, fire, death