Fantasia Reviews Through The Veil

Through the Veil (A Novella) by K. J. Aminadra
Published 5/24/2018
Genre – Fantasy YA
Ages 13+

We are going to start this review with acknowledging the obvious. We’re back! We have a backlog of reviews to get through, and we will do it as we always have, one at a time. If you’ve contacted us for a review, you’re still on the list! No need to contact us again. Now, this book, Through the Veil, wasn’t on our TBR list. We chose to make it our returning review because we wanted something short that we could work through and review with some depth. As usual, we’re going to avoid spoilers when we can, but we want to focus more on finer details moving forward. Now, without further adieu, we present our review.

A Thin Veil

This might sound strange, but we promise it makes sense. The beginning of your novel, or in this case novella, should be the most polished part of it. Ideally, the whole of it has gone through numerous rounds of editing, but we know that’s not always possible for eager indie authors. Still, a polished start can keep people reading and keep them engaged.
Unfortunately, Through the Veil fails here right from the start. We will be frank; the writing is weak. Weak verbs, weak adverbs, and repetitions throughout. Lindes is a flat character who we found had few if any truly earned moments. The opening has her in tears as she is separated from her parents, though we aren’t given enough to allow us to empathize with her. After that comes the info dump in which we learn that King Agnar is attacking their kingdom possibly because their land is rich in some kind of generic ore, and Agnar is a greedy man. Goran, whom we believe to be some professional nodder, does his best to explain it all, but, as you might have already guessed, it doesn’t work well. We kept hoping for a break from our expectations, but it never came. Through the Veil is a two-dimensional crawl that manages to make its 120-page length feel far too long.

What a World, What a World

Well, we will forgive you if you thought that the world building could make up for the terrible characters and uninspired plot. It doesn’t. We have generic fantasy races that do nothing but insult the works that managed to use them successfully. We have orcs. They are quite evil. We have always loved blatantly evil races. How do they function? How does an evil government work? Are there evil bureaucracies? Evil banks? Evil doctors? We think you get the point. Miss Aminadra insults her readers with half-baked ideas that feel like they came straight from the Warcraft movie though with none of the nuances.

Only Valuable as a Cautionary Tale

We can’t think of a reason to recommend this book to anyone. We feel sorry for saying it, and honestly, we were hopeful when we started. However, the experience falls apart quickly and never really pulls itself back together. While not the worst book we have ever read, it won’t be earning a coveted spot on our shelf any time soon.

The Rating – 

Through the Veil is an uninspired story full of missed opportunities, flat characters and a whole lot of nodding. Through the Veil stumbles, falls, and then lays there. While we can’t recommend it, you can still take a look for yourself and let us know what you think.

Do you want to read Through the Veil? You can find it here.