Review of Anathema

Goodreads Summary: "Reychel is a slave girl surrounded by magic, lies and manipulation. Her best friend disappears in the middle of the night leaving Reychel to face her fifteenth birthday, the day her master burns his brand into the back of her bald head, alone. She's sheltered from the outside world and doesn't have any hope for escape, but when people desperate for freedom ask for her help can Reychel learn to believe in herself?"

Having read and loved Sleepers by Megg Jensen, who is just fabulous by the way, I couldn't resist seeing what else she had to offer. With this mindset I scooped up an e-copy of Anathema one of the times it was offered as a freebie via Amazon for my Kindle.

You guys all know I'm a fan of fantasy. Its hands down my favorite of all the genres. In my fantasy I love diversity, I love culture clash especially and I love when said culture clash leads to a revolution which is probably one of my favorite plot-points in the entire fantasy genre. There is just so much potential within that revolutionary dynamic for drama, for betrayal, for love, for becoming a heroine (or hero!) and for magic. Need I say that these are a few of my favorite things? Anathema by Megg Jensen is wrought with these wonderful things. Culture clash, revolution, love, friendship, betrayal, and surprise twists.

Reychel is our narrator through the world of Anathema. A slave girl who knows nothing of her own life, nor does she know the ways of the world outside of the castle walls. Her entire world is a sunless captivity where she is often isolated from those around her. Dreary, right? Needless to say Reychel is an incredibly naive character. But she learns from this. Fool her once shame on you, fool her twice shame on her. I love characters that learn from their mistakes because I love watching characters grow as people. Reychel's path through Anathema was definitely an interesting one. ;]

My only qualm is that I wanted more time with the characters. The action within the novel was non-stop with things constantly happening, including new characters being introduced and I felt as if I only just barely got to know these people before we were on to the next big adventure. I saw glimpses of characters that had the potential to be favorites but it is only with the main character that we get to spend a consistent amount of time. A little saddening but I'm hoping in the following sequels we'll get a better feel for the cast of the trilogy.

Overall Anathema was a satisfying, fast-paced fantasy romp and I would definitely recommend it to fans of fantasy looking to scratch their itch.