Forever Obsession: The Way of Shadows

ISBN: 0316033677

Pages: 645

Source: Library
Appearance:

Summary:

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.
For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.
But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Hi guys! So I am finally reviewing this book. I honestly didn't plan on reviewing it after I had a big mind explosion after reading it. I was literally incoherent because my mind was just completely scattered across the world. But yeah, I decided to give it a try, so warning, I might not make a whole lot of sense.

The Way of Shadows follows the story of Azoth, a guild rat under the control of a malicious leader called Rat. Fitting huh? Azoth puts up with Rat and his evil works until one day he reached his maximum limit. He seeks out the help of Durzo Blint, the best wetboy (assasin) in town and pleads for him to accept Azoth as his apprentice. Durzo agrees on the contract that Azoth kills someone big, someone like Rat. It doesn't take much to say that Azoth accomplishes the requirement and from then on, he's no longer Azoth but Kylar Stern, a poor nobleman by day and assasin by night.

The beginning was pretty interesting, there was so much plotting, deceit, revenge, betrayal, all that fun stuff. There were so many different points of views at one point in the story that I got so completely confused, but it didn't matter anyway because by then I was so involved in the story. Even when there's nothing going on, or at least it feels like nothing is going on, the author somehow manages to still draw you in and keep you turning the pages. I'll admit, somewhere at half point, I was really bored out of my mind, but then there would be that subtle hint, that little drop of information that made me turn the page.

The ending was a complete train wreck for my brain. It was good, heck it was too good. Remember what I said in the paragraph above, beginning was good, middle was a bit boring, but the ending...gods, the ending was when the world fell apart. All those "mindless" plots from the beginning/middle wove themselves into Kylar's story, all the pieces fell into their place, and the whole freaking world came tumbling down. I literally could NOT turn the pages fast enough, I swear I was just skimming because it was so intense and crazy. It was just so completely mind blowing that I had a huge reading slump after finishing it. It was that crazy...

One more thing to add, the actual ending as in the last chapter-ish was a bit of a disappointment for me. After that whole mind blowing, world crashing craze that was the "end" of the book, I felt like The Way of Shadows ended on WAY too happy of a note. It sounded so hopeful and uplifting that you feel like everything is going to be fine. I definitely would have preferred a major cliffhanger with a depressing ending over that, but that's just my opinion.

Definitely recommend though I strong advise to read with caution. Like I said, I had a bit of a reading slump which has never really happened to me before and it took a while before I pulled myself out of it. I need some time before I pick up the second book which I've read mixed things about. I don't think my brain can take another explosion anytime soon. Nonetheless, this book was amazing and you should definitely read it!