The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — Spoiler-Free Review

THE UNSPOKEN NAME
by A.K. Larkwood

Tor Books
February 11, 2020

From Goodreads:

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name was a fascinating premise with some great characters, but despite a plethora of glowing reviews from the rest of the world, the plot just didn’t come through for me.

The premise is a young girl, chosen to be ritual sacrifice, given a chance at the last minute to escape death and become something far greater. A life spent helping, and learning from, a great and powerful wizard. (No. Not the wizard of Oz.) Under his training, she’ll become a warrior, spy, and assassin, though the degree she does any of those things is up for debate.

I was in love with this premise. It showed so much process, but I found it to be full of half-truths. And very quickly, the book becomes about something else completely. But more on that later.

The characters were fantastic. I enjoyed them all. Deep, developed, and all with their own lives and backstories. These weren’t just people waiting in the wings until the novel needed them. However, after getting to know them, they started to do things that completely went against their nature, at least as far as I understood it. Gave me the impression that many of their decisions were based purely on plot development, which made everything feel just a little cardboard.

I usually enjoy when a book can surprise me. This book did that a lot, but not in a good way. Most of twists and turns didn’t make sense to me, which as I said above, the characters had something to do with. But also, you’re told this book is one thing, and it ends up being another all-together.

With the amount of love this book is getting, I feel like I’ve missed something. I would suggest you take my review as a grain of salt (or less) and try it out yourself.

Fun fact about this post: Yesterday I said I was going to cut down and requesting ARCs, and then requested two more ARCs. I hate myself.