Book Review: Vessel

Goodreads summary:

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

My review:

I am a big fan of Sarah Beth Durst - I really enjoyed two of her books, Ice and Enchanted Ivy.  I had high hopes for Vessel, and while it was certainly unique and interesting, I think it's my least favorite out of her books so far.

For one thing, Vessel was over 400 pages long.  Usually the length of a book isn't a big deal to me - I can zip through a book that long in one day if it's really compelling.  But Vessel took me several days to read.  I felt like it could have been shortened so it wasn't so long.  Some of the scenes in the middle felt like they were dragging along.

The characters were very okay-ish.  Liyana is levelheaded and clever, but I never felt much emotion for her.  She was hard to relate to.  Other characters like Fennik, Pia, and Raan seemed like they were just there to add to the plot; their characters never seemed to have much depth.  However, I really liked Korbyn, the trickster god.  He was the character that really jumped off the page for me.  You can't help liking him.  He really brings humor to the book and was an amazing character.

As I mentioned above, the pacing is really slow, so the plot didn't always have me on the edge of my seat.  It all just moved very slowly.  The pacing was annoying and made it hard for me to keep my interest on the story at times.  But the action picks up in the last quarter of the book, and once I got to that section, I couldn't read the pages fast enough!

One thing I wholeheartedly loved about Vessel was the uniqueness.  I have never read anything even remotely like it; and I think the unpredictability was what made me continue reading it.  Durst definitely has a knack for world-building!  The idea of the story is so fresh and interesting.

Lastly, one thing that I disliked was the fables that Durst put into the book.   A few of the characters often exchanged stories, and every time a new one popped up, I started groaning.  Yes, I know the fables were symbolic, and I don't mind a few of them throughout the story, but it seemed like there were way too many fables in Vessel.  It got on my nerves after a while.

Would I recommend Vessel?  Well, if you're looking for a fresh change from the usual YA stories, then definitely try it!  But if you want a fast-paced, action-packed, mindblowing story, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

My rating:  6 out of 10

~ The Bookworm