The Eleven

The eleven by Paul Gaskill.
Keira, Rowan, Sirris and Dess.
The lives of four people will change forever as they unite to bring the rulers to their knees.
But will it change for the better?
A very good read. A long book good story and some good characters. 4*.

The Eleven is an epic adult fantasy which follows 4 main character’s stories, which eventually intertwine with one another. There are dragons, multiple intricate magic systems and 4 different realms, amongst many other well thought out magical elements.

The first thing that caught my attention was the descriptive, sophisticated prose. The interesting vocabulary was engaging and worked perfectly in building the fantasy world. Each scene felt carefully constructed to immerse the reader, and at times I felt the real world being totally blocked out of my mind.

More often than not, when books have multiple perspectives, I find myself favouring some character’s chapters, and getting bored with others, which was absolutely not the case with this novel. I found each character’s story as interesting as the next, whether that be in the present or past tense. Personally, I didn’t get confused at all with the timeline as I thought each separate event was distinguishable from the others, though I can see how following multiple characters over multiple time periods could become confusing for some readers.

I thought the multiple magic systems were incredibly well thought out and explained, whilst also being completely original. I have read fantasy books in the past where the magic systems don’t seem to follow any sort of pattern or rules, but these systems were clever and believable. The fact that there were multiple realms and cities blew me away; The universe created is vast and epic, but the world building was so strong that I never felt overwhelmed.

I loved how the character’s stories intertwined in the past and present, and I appreciated how things that were a mystery were masterfully explained further down the line. The ending was exciting and unpredictable and I felt like I couldn’t read it quick enough, I was so desperate for it to be resolved.

For the most part, this is a fast paced book, though I will admit that there were some slightly slower parts. That being said, I flew through this book in only 3 days, despite the high page count.

Finally, I will say that some parts are EXTREMELY graphic and hard to stomach, so if you are sensitive to gore, this will definitely not be for you. I did find a few scenes to be overly detailed to the point that it was uncomfortable to read, but I can see that it was intended to have that effect.
Trigger Warnings for sexual assault, torture, murder, captivity, depression, DID.

Overall I enjoyed being in the expansive world of The Eleven, and the ending hinted that there are more to come, which I will be keeping a keen eye out for.