The Assassin's Curse review

The Assassin's Curse
Cassandra Rose Clarke
October 2nd 2012
Strange Chemistry

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her. 

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

First things first, as a little side note, sorry (again) for not posting in, like, five days. I'm the worst, I know, but I've been reading a lot slower lately and don't have as much to review and I'm also really lazy so, you know. I'm going to try and post at least twice a week though, and get back into my usual routine.

The Assassin's Curse was actually a really great book, despite how difficult a title it is to spell (seriously, assassin is the worst word for keyboard typing). I wasn't too sure if I'd enjoy it that much (as, it seems, is always the case...) but I found that once I started reading it and got past the first fifty odd pages, I really couldn't put it down. Or, well, switch my laptop off because that's what I was reading it on (perhaps another testimony to its greatness! I hate reading books on here. It kills my eyes). It had a lot of my favourite fantasy plot tropes in it, like the whole Odd Couple Who End Up Inexplicably On A Quest Together And Will Undoubtedly Be Together By The End Of The Book/Series thing. Well, I guess that isn't really a thing, but it was in a lot of the manga that I used to read, so, I'm counting it.

I thought Ananna was a really cool character despite the fact that I didn't really like her name at first and found it pretty difficult to say. Though that isn't really a criticism of her character... Any way! I really admired her loyalty and bravery, even though it sometimes bordered on recklessness. Even though her and Naji didn't exactly start out on good terms with each other, I feel like they really came through for each other, not even in a romantic way, just as friends. She was tough, and even though (anyone esle keeping tabs on how often I can say even though in one paragraph?) the curse meant that Naji had to protect Ananna, she could and would look after herself, and save and protect Naji when the time(s) arose.

Naji was great too, and I thought that even though he was meant to be some amazing assassin, he could also be kind of a nice guy. Well, to Ananna anyway, very occasionally (more so in, like the second half of the book). but it was really cute sometimes getting to him in, well, any kind of social interaction because, let's face it, he wasn't really any good at it. He's more of the strong, silent, kill-you-in-your-sleep type, and assassins aren't exactly trained to have good people skills.

One thing that annoyed me at first with this book was all of the names, particularly those of the pirates, but I think that after a while, I found myself adjusting to the world and all of it, and after that I thought that the names really helped to build the world and expand upon the cultures of all the different kinds of people from the different kinds of places in this world, and even though I still think some of them sound a bit silly, I like them a lot more upon reflection.

My favourite part about this book, though, was how well she made the plot work out. As much as I love this kind of story, there is a fine line, and it can get really cheesy really fast, but this book never crossed into that territory. I was actually really glad that there wasn't any obvious romance in it. I do hope that there is one, because the tension between Ananna and Naji is pretty much through the roof, and I can't wait for Naji to realise that he so does have feelings for Ananna that are stronger than he'd ever want to admit, because we know that Ananna likes him. I can't wait to see them figure out how to do the three impossible tasks and see how it all works out for them, and I'm really looking forward to it! I've already seen a mock-up of the cover and I love it and I would like the book right now please thank you.

The Assassin's Curse was a book that I enjoyed way more that I ever thought I would, and I am really looking forward to seeing the next stage of Naji and Ananna's journey (and hey, it's only a duology, so I'm also looking forward to that ever evasive thing called 'closure').