🟡《REVIEW Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb》🟡
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🟨 Fitz, a former assassin, is now a middle-aged husband and father whose quiet life is disrupted by a new crisis.
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🟦We've seen Fitz as a child, teen, young adult, a man, and now we see him as a middle-aged husband and father. He's still Fitz: prone to brooding and big emotional swings. While the book is full of reflection on past events, the narrative still manages to be fresh and it is interesting to see Fitz's thoughts shaped by his maturity. I did find Fitz to be a bit dumbed down, not seeing the truths plainly in front of him, and he plainly lets Shun bully him into submission, bully his daughter and staff. Even Molly and Bee seemed to dominate him at times.
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🟦 The Fool and Fitz's friendship has always been the heart of this series, but it is interesting to see Fitz's relationship with the second most important person in his life, Chade
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🟨While I liked the addition of a new narrator, Bee, I found her aloofness and other-worldliness hard to connect with. That being said, the set up is worth in the next books.
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🟦The writing is beautiful. The pain of the characters is real: their struggles, their flaws, their sorrows.
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🟨That being said, the book takes a LONG time to get started. There is about 500 pages of backstory, 100 pages of story, and then the book ends. I don't think you would enjoy this book unless you were already invested in the 'Fitz' universe.
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Rating: 3.5/5 🌟
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Verdict: Loved the writing, but needed more plot