There’s been a lot of talk on BookTok about Kingfisher and the book Quicksilver written by Callie Hart. Another popular romantasy novel that Netflix are turning into a film! As a fan of romantasy since last year after reading Fourth Wing, I was excited to see if Quicksilver was worth the hype.
Let’s start with a quick summary - Quicksilver follows the story of Saeris, a twenty-four year old human who possesses some strange powers but keeps them hidden. She’s a thief and liar who is fighting for survival in the rejected part of her city, where water is rationed and people die daily from severe poverty.
Saeris ends up in a precarious situation where she finds herself fighting for her life. When she thinks it’s all finally over, she meets death himself…
From here on out, it’s spoilers. This is your warning.
I know a lot of people criticise BookTok, usually saying that the suggestions are rubbish, but it’s helped me find some of my courtier books. I had hoped that Quicksilver was going to be one of them. But, sadly not.
I will say that I enjoyed reading it, and I got through it in three days so it definitely kept me engaged. The last one hundred pages of the book were the best by far as there was a lot of action and all of the questions you end up asking, get answered. There’s even an unexpected twist (or perhaps two; it depends how good you are at spotting them).
The problem was, it felt like this book, copied a bunch of other stories (who have also been accused of copying other stories). A book can be an enjoyable read, but it takes away from something if it feels like it’s basically a rewrite of something else that’s already successful.
Kingfisher is a combination of Rhys from ACOTAR and he also reminded me of Raihn from The Serpents and The Wings of Night. There was a lot that was like ACOTAR as Saeris is a thief suffering with poverty but happens to be a magnificent fighter (which is similar to Pae from Powerless too). Then Kingfisher acts awful but turns out he cares deeply and is royalty (just like Rhysand). Then there’s the whole ‘mates’ thing and the tattoos and bonds. There’s just a lot that feels stolen.
It got me thinking about where is the line for inspiration. The unique part of Quicksilver is actually the quicksilver. But then everything else feels like ACOTAR combined with a few other romantasies that I’ve read over the last couple of years. It becomes frustrating as I want a story to be memorable. I hate when the characters all start to blur into one. That’s unfortunately what happened with this book. The characters are very similar to that of ACOTAR and Dawn Of Onyx. I suppose perhaps Kingfisher is more like Kane from Dawn of Onyx. There’s also the parallel that Arwen works with potions and Saeris is similar. She’s forced to help them win the war, similarly as in Dawn of Onyx.
Quicksilver is a good read and if you enjoy fantasy and romance, you’ll probably enjoy this. I’ve seen a lot of people say that they didn’t enjoy this book because it feels copied but if this was the first book you picked up in the genre, you’d probably enjoy it.
The question comes, how original can a story be and is an original story really what publishers want? Publishers want something to be succesful and that happens either through following a trend, or acquiring a book that’s already sold well through self-publishing. That’s what happened with The Serpent and The Wings of Night and I think also happened with Quicksilver (but I’m not sure). The thing is, books sell well through self-publishing if they follow what is popular, such as the current romantasy genre.
Basically, if you enjoy reading romantasy and dipping into a fantasy world, Quicksilver is definitley worth a read. If you’re looking for something new in the fantasy genre, Quicksilver probably isn’t for you. It’s a good book but I can imagine that I’ll forget most of it (apart from the quicksilver) by the time the next book comes out.
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