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Review: "Marked" by Kim Richardson

  • Writer: Holly Jane - Writer
    Holly Jane - Writer
  • Jan 1
  • 5 min read

"Marked" by Kim Richardson. Book 1 of the Soul Guardians series . Genre(s): Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Supernatural Favourite Quote: "It'll be the 12 step program for you, buddy!" *** Please note that this review will likely contain spoilers and only reflects my own thoughts and experiences. There is no conflict of interest here. ***


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So we're introduced to sixteen year old Kara who's unknowingly about to have a fatal accident. The first chapter gives us quite a bit of insight into her life. She's a budding artist, hoping for her big art break at a local gallery and supported by her BFF, Mat. Upon racing to a late presentation for an art competition, Kara's subsequently obliterated by a bus and her human life is over. Confused and lost, Kara finds herself in a busy queue, being shuffled to be sorted with thousands of other recently dead humans. Quickly, she's given the keys to Horizon (the afterlife) and handed training Guardian Angel status. Cue quick meeting with super hot Petty Officer responsible for her and boom - she's off on her first assignment, body still warm. Story The story itself I found to be quite ambitious and I was hesitant from the beginning as to how it might be carried out - purely because it's so easy to get lost in the YA element of the plot. I would have liked the author to have gone into the plot holes and my residual questions by really taking the time to explore and allow the storyline to flourish before moving suddenly onto the next thing. Instead, I'm left feeling like a cheap prom date and my partner's fallen asleep at the dance. All in all, the plot was OK and somewhat easy to follow, if not terribly coincidental and filled with incredulous unrealistic moments. Setting There's quite a few special nuggets of world building in here. Description about the mortal world is flat, uninteresting and it seems like all of Kara's missions are somehow in her home town or places she's knows about. However, I mostly enjoyed the descriptions and the lore of Horizon and the characters within it. I would have liked to read a lot more about this. Characters Kara is a typical main character who likes to throw in one liners that are sparsely amusing if not annoying. Only one of these got me, which I chose as my favourite quote, because it was just a ridiculous situation David is basically a cocky annoying arsehole. He was more interesting to me when he was giving Kara the cold shoulder, because it gave him that depth that I felt I needed from him. I feel like there's so much more to him that could have been explored but we're forced to know that he winks and laugh a lot, is gorgeous and is also a fan of dumb one liners. Every other character is more or less the same. The archangels are carbon copies of one another with barely distinguishable characteristics from the next and the demon are literally like Disney-fied villains that have a tendency for devilish small talk and shouting in capitals. Language The text is easy to follow but really juvenile at times, which spoils it for me. Most of the jokes elicited no response and I skim read most of the banter. As mentioned above, the text really improved and came into fruition when Richardson painted a picture of horizon for us and the description was good. Theme I'm a sucker for post death hero which initially led me to this story. I love the idea of playing with the premise of life and death and how the two interact with one another. I think with some real development in some places, this really could have been explored so much more in the first book instead of the subsequent titles in the series. I'm just not a massive fan of the main protagonist and the idea of their actions being the pinnacle success of failure of an entire world/species/planet etc, with no real conversation or discussion. PROS + There's some really imaginative ideas in here that I think really make me think of the Harry Potter books and made the experience that little bit more magical. + Richardson really had an ambitious theme here and really wanted to challenge the norms of life and death and what it means for us. + Despite my reservations, the author did keep me turning the pages with this book. CONS + On the first mission, Kara's FIRST DAY, she and her guardian angel line manager (in a sense) are attacked and they manage to lose a soul. But then Kara's somehow punished for this? It's her first day and she's had no training on how to fight demons - she did a heck more than most people would have in her position! Rant over. + There's way too much over emphasis on David winking and smiling and being good looking. + Kara's suddenly picked to be the only person to save Horizon and everyone just accepts this. + The disrespectful attitude towards the monkeys. They are sentient beings who are entrusted to do their jobs and serve the angels, but Kara is an asshole to every single one? Also what's up with the eating scalp thing? + For someone's who is role "your mother's also a guardian angel" she surprisingly takes this well. I'd be damn desperate to contact or visit her as it wouldn't be breaking any rules? + The demons are just really insufferable and all the same as one another. Their speech sounded off and really fake. Conclusion It was a tough slog, but some chapters were more enjoyable than others and I did feel satisfied when I reached the conclusion. Although Marked did have a really interesting theme and did deliver on some of the more intricate details of the world building and plot, I just didn't feel as if it was the right book for me. I needed more padding, more building, more time and energy invested into the project for me to really become immersed and addicted to. A couple of people mentioned that they disliked the ending but I think it was probably one of the more better points of the book. I personally won't be going ahead to read any more of the series because I'm just not that invested and I don't feel as if I need to know what happens next. Overall I award Marked: 2 out of 5 magical unicorns. 🦄🦄

About the author

Kim Richardson is the award-winning author of the bestselling SOUL GUARDIANS series. She lives in the eastern part of Canada with her husband, two dogs and a very old cat. She is the author of the SOUL GUARDIANS series, the MYSTICS series, and the DIVIDED REALMS series. Kim's books are available in print editions, and translations are available in over 7 languages. Check out Kim Richardson's social media: Website Facebook Twitter Goodreads You can also purchase a copy of Marked from here:

As always, I’m taking requests for reads I should review next. Feel free to drop me a line via the site or my social media pages. Thanks for reading! HJ


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HOLLY JANE - AUTHOR

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