Review - The Tower Must Fall by S.E. Bennett

Synopsis:

''The last fairy-tale ended a hundred years ago, and one thing is certain: the monsters lost. In the world beyond the Bay of Glass, humanity has an overwhelming majority, and the creatures that go bump in the night - the Cryptids - live in hiding. In some lands, discovery by the government spells death, while in others whole tribes are exterminated by knights in shining armor: the Animus.

Marek Tobar, a handsome, clumsy traveller, dreams of independence and uprising. It isn’t long before his beliefs drop him in extremely hot water, and he somehow finds himself at the tender mercy of Enyo Namenlos.

A reformed knight of the Animus with many faces and no allegiance but to herself, Enyo has spent years hiding from the life she left behind. Determined to somehow salvage the best parts of herself, she needs to repay a blood-debt: she pledges to deliver Marek to Sanctuary, the hidden city of Cryptids.

With war brewing in smoky cities and wicked woods, Enyo and Marek find themselves woven into a story that began centuries earlier. But when happy endings are myth and goodness is relative, what does it mean to find your heart’s desire?''

About the author:

SE Bennett is a biology student from London with an inability to stop writing stories during genetics lectures. She grew up in the desert in Africa, where she read everything and anything she could get her hands on, and she is passionate about inspiring young people to love science and explosions as much as she does. Her debut novel, Cipher, is published by Curiosity Quills.

Review:

*I’d like to thank CQ for alowing me to read and review this book*

Honestly, this book had me on:

‘’As Marek Tobar stared down the barrel of a very finely crafted pistol, he to began to seriously question his life choices. With the cool metal pressing against his teeth and tongue, all he could think was: this could have gone better’’

Which is pretty much the 2 first sentences of the book.

I don’t know if that is because Marek just reminded me so much of William Herondale (from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare) in this moment (take no wrong judgment cause I soon came to realize Marek was a person of his own and very different of Will) but I was hooked to the book from that moment on.

This story is all about casting light on the creatures we learned to despise from fairy tales. And S. E. Bennett has such a great creativity, distorting the stories we know by heart and still making so much sense that we don’t feel enraged by it.

I’ll give you a non-spoilery example:

Little Red Hood is a not a girl but a boy. And that boy did not have problems with wolf but was in love with one. But the Red Ryder’s family did not like it and so they killed the wolf.

Blow away? 

Go read the book and you’ll find much more detailed stories about ‘’what really happened’’.

Besides being extremely creative, the ‘’Tower must Fall’’ also has a great story line. Taking the monsters we learned to fear and showing us the other side of the story (‘cause everyone is the hero of their own story, right? Wrong.)

And part of that great and relatable characters like Marek and Enyo, that just hook you to the story and you can’t let go until is over.

I honestly don’t know what more to say to make you read this story, it’s all so surprising (and I’m not one to get easily surprised) that anything I say feel spoilery.

So if you like, life changing, deep, personal and fantastic books about coming of age, learning your full potential and learning to discover your inner strength, please go ahead and dive into this amazing book.

Marek, Enyo and all the characters whose names I can’t remember but that I really loved, are waiting to change your life.

Besides, who doesn’t love a book with a kick-ass female leading half of the story?

The only thing, I have to point out about this book is how the author commits a sin. Something so gigantic that I cannot look pass. Which is telling us that things were said, done or understood but not showing us that. And for me that’s the only thing keeping this book from being a 5* one.

Rating: 4.5/5

What you think? Do you like this kind of re-telling books?

Let me know in the comments!