Of Metal and Wishes (Of Metal and Wishes, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

May 21, 2017 Shannon rated it really liked it

Shelves: asia, retellings, steampunk, science-fiction, owned, 2017, asian-characters, novels, dystopia

I somehow completely missed that this was a Phantom of the Opera retelling when I started and honestly I don't think it really mattered much. This has the basic structure of Phantom but it's still its own story.

~~Wen is a great character~~ Everyone in this book is a great character. They're incredibly well-fleshed-out considering how different they all are: the villains especially. Bad people come in all shapes and sizes in this story. At times it seems to feel overwhelming that so many people are j I somehow completely missed that this was a Phantom of the Opera retelling when I started and honestly I don't think it really mattered much. This has the basic structure of Phantom but it's still its own story.

~~Wen is a great character~~ Everyone in this book is a great character. They're incredibly well-fleshed-out considering how different they all are: the villains especially. Bad people come in all shapes and sizes in this story. At times it seems to feel overwhelming that so many people are just downright awful to Wen, but I think this is a nod to the source material, being that it's not a happy story. It also strays away from the usual YA tale where the protagonist is the "chosen one" or whatever and everything goes right or falls into place for them easily.

One big thing I really enjoyed was how the romance was handled. This isn't a romance by and large, it is definitely more of a science fiction (steampunk/dystopia) novel that just happens to have a romance in it. It's not insta-love, it's not overly mushy, it very much feels real.

I was also surprised at how gruesome this was: very graphic deaths, sexual harassment and rape (happens off-stage so you don't actually get details thankfully), oppression, and racism (lots, and lots of racism) - among other things. This wasn't a super heavy book though, I mean, the topics are definitely dark but it didn't make me uncomfortable to read ... well, scratch that. The scenes where Wen was being molested (she's 16 btw) actually did make me uncomfortable and I just wanted to skip those parts. 😬 Props to the author for making me feel that way ... I guess? Lol, kind of a weird thing to praise someone about.

Random note: figured I'd mention this is in first person present tense - something I know some people hate (I'm not bothered by it.) Also, for anyone sensitive to animal death, this takes place in a slaughterhouse. 🐮🔪🍖

So, I enjoyed this a lot. I've actually never read/seen Phantom but I get the gist of it. I don't think you need to know anything about it to read this though. It is very much its own entity and a great story to boot. ...more

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Jan 31, 2016 Purple rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, uf, series

I was wondering how this book will end. It got me really curious I had to finish it in one seating. Some of the point of views are old fashioned, and yet some points are futuristic. I couldn't categorized it in fact.
It feels like the modern world yet its not. That blurred. Regardless, I was satisfied with this book as a start of a series. Weirdly, it reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera. The Noor was rather disappointing, his character was not well portrayed unlike that of The Ghost who I th ...more

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Aug 07, 2014 Samantha rated it liked it

Shelves: ya, 2014

3.5-stars An interesting main character that changes a lot of her life views by the end of the story, but she did tend to get on my nerves with her holier than thou views and judgmental nature. The ending also left a lot of things in the air, but it wasn't too abrupt. I'll be reading the next one, but I'd like to see more of an explanation about the world and different countries, because she focuses quite a bit on the social struggles at place, but I don't have much of a context with the governm ...more

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