Spoiler Free Review: The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco

Title: The Never Tilting World (The Never Tilting World#1)

Author: Rin Chupeco

Pub. Date: October 15th 2019

Genre: YA Fantasy/LGBTQIAP+

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 496

Format: eARC

GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | AMAZON

🖤ARC provided by author in exchange for an honest review🖤

I’ll admit when I first heard this book described as Frozen meets Mad Max I was very intrigued at how uniquely strange this came across. Whoever came up with this description hit the nail on the head! We have a world literally torn in half. Aranth is shrouded in darkness, frozen over & surrounded by a raging sea. While The Golden City sees only daylight under a scorching sun & is plagued by desert cannibals. At the center of the story are two sisters/Goddesses who are divided by a broken prophecy. Each one of them holds secrets & each one of them also have a daughter. It’s made known from the very beginning that these “daughters” are actually twins being kept apart. Odessa & Haidee are destined to meet, this is the story of their journey to their fated union. All they know is that there are higher powers at work pulling them towards one common direction, much else isn’t known. Both Haidee & Odessa set out on a quest to try and repair the damage that has been done sine “The Breaking” or splitting apart of their world. This was a WILD ride! & having read The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco I can also honestly say that this is a big departure from the style of world building we see in those books. There’s more chaos in this world & at times I wondered at just how odd this book really is…but it works!!! 🙌🏽 I often felt I was watching a movie play out in my head as we alternate between the two sides of the world. Although it’s a Fantasy, we see environmental ramifications that hit close to home in the real world. This blend of Fantasy with reality made for a surreal reading experience.

Content Warning: Death of a loved one, panic attacks (PTSD related), mention of sexual assault, violence, torture

Odessa daughter of Asteria & heir to the throne, Odessa is Lesbian & a lover of romance novels

Haidee daughter of Latona also expected to one day rule, however she truly has no interest. Haidee is a Mechanika with a soft spot for animals. Haidee is my new FAVE fictional character! 😍

Lan Bi-sexual, a healer & travel companion to Odessa. Lan & Odessa’s relationship is complicated to say the least 🤷🏻‍♀️ Lan also suffers from PTSD & is my second FAVE character. I felt a bit overprotective of Lan & at times felt the interactions with Odessa were very toxic.

Arjun A no-nonsense orphan with Fire gate abilities, he is disabled by way of a missing hand. Arjun falls for Haidee even though he set out to hate her for the sins of her mother.

Rin Chupeco has pretty much solidified her spot in my very top fave authors of all time. The change of pace in this new series had me blown away & also unable to pull myself away from this world. This series may not be everyones cup of tea because of how chaotic & high octane it truly is but I just can’t deny that the writing skills are top notch. Just when I would begin to feel as if I were going to start favoring one twin over the other, something would throw me back to uncertainty. You spend just enough time with each character so that you never tire & can quickly return to your faves if you wish. The only reason I docked it a star was because I felt I still did not have enough clarity on the secrets Asteria & Latona are keeping. This however did not hinder my enjoyment of this story & I hope we’ll get some questions answered in the follow-up. Rin Chupeco gave us Goddesses, demons, cannibals, sand dolphins, elemental magic, discussion of climate change & its effects, and a bit of romance in the background! 🔥 The Never Tilting World was a WILD RIDE! I’ll be on the look out for the sequel 🖤