A review by goodverbsonly
Path of Deceit by Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland

4.0

ohhh hoho this is DELIGHTFUL and refreshing and sweet and CRAZY.

what is it that i want in a star wars novel, you may very well be asking yourself? well one: FORCE SHENANIGANS, and two, FORCE WEIRDOS and this has some of the first and LOTS of the second. the other thing i want are jedi with wide and varied personalities that i find charming. and you know what?? YES.

Kevmo is sooo charming and his devotion to the jedi and the force + his super adorable eagerness are literally my favorite combination of character traits in the world. his master, ZALLAH MACRI, is the kind of steadying presence i think kevmo would have achieved had he
Spoiler NOT DIED IN THE LAST CHAPTER WEEPING ETC
.

Marda! also charming, AND so sweet and earnest which is going to get used against her in very unforunate ways that i am genuinely EXCITED about! Yana was the character who felt weak to me, but less as a Critique of the Writing and more that I personally just didn't like her, but I think that she starts to come together at the end of the book as her goals become more concrete.

I love the way the Force is used and described in this book. I love the way it interacts with the world and how it effects the characters and I love the prose. It is good enough that I'm commenting on it in a star wars book! this is an achievement worth mentioning because usually star wars books have very bare prose, and I get it; we are doing sci-fi in a pre-exisiting world, but this book is just a joy to read and exciting and heartbreaking for ME personally because I love the Jedi and because
Spoiler the jedi that i loved personally are DEAD the high republic books are like, booooo we will kill all your jedi *anakin skywalker voice* i hat E YEOU
so there's that.

this is what we call in the biz a HIGH four star rating. but i really feel like a star wars book has to break New Barriers to get a five, i Mean Come On! (weirdly, rogue one novelization, i am looking at YOU)