Alexandra Bracken’s Brightly Woven is a standalone novel. The opposing countries of Palmarta and Auster have lived in a tense peace for several decades, but everything changed when Palmarta’s king died leaving the kingdom to his young wife, Eglantine. Suddenly, the country descended into uncertainty as many doubt the young queen’s ability to rule and fear war from their neighbor Auster. These doubts run especially high in the small desert town of Cliffton that relied on Palmarta’s king to aid them during a decade long drought. Poverty and hunger run rampant in the small town staved of water, but, one day, the rain comes, bringing answered prayers, joy and a mysterious wizard named Wayland North. North is traveling to Palmarta’s capital carrying news that could prevent a war between Auster and Palmarta, but he needs an assistant. Luckily, poor girl and weaver Sydelle Mirabell is the perfect person for the job. Together the two rush for the capital, carrying news that could save many lives.
Sydelle is far from a remarkable, but she isn’t a bad character. She is a relatively average protagonist, displaying a both bravery and kindness. Her determination to act out her strong emotions can lead her into trouble, but she always means well. The one thing that ruins her character is the choppy narration of the book. The author’s failure to show the gradual change in her feelings and emotions can cause the character to seem almost bipolar. One minute she hates the wizard Wayland North, the next she is staring at him with a "heated gaze". The abrupt and jarring changes in personality ruin what could have been an interesting character and turn her into a confusing mess.
Brightly Woven is a disappointing read. Many Young Adult readers know that Alexandra Bracken is a powerhouse when it comes to writing. She wrote the Darkest Minds Trilogy and Passenger Duology, both of which are amazing, addicting books that were extremely successful. Unfortunately, her debut doesn’t live up to the credibility established by her other novel. Put kindly, this book is simply a mess.
It suffers from an extreme tendency to “tell” rather than “show”. From a young age, many children are taught to “show” a character’s actions through description in order to enhance the writing and emotional connection to the narrative. Alexandria Bracken fails to do this multiple times opting to either tell that a character is felling jealous without the showing the emotions that explain why. The poor writing fails to tie the story’s many good elements together, leaving the book a poorly written mess.
For example, the overall plot progression of the book is well thought out. It increases at as steady rate growing more interesting with each chapter. Unfortunately, the individual events are strung together in a way that feels choppy and fragmented. We are told that Sydelle and North are carrying invaluable information that needs to be delivered with upmost urgency. Instead of quickly riding on the shortest path possible, the two spend weeks wandering through the wilderness, from town to town, only remembering that they are on a mission when the plot wants some suspense. This robs the book of any feeling of urgency and makes you forget that there is a war approaching on the horizon. On top of this, bland story telling makes the weeks in the desert feel long and monotonous while exciting scenes of high suspense are over in a split second. The characters are as equally thought out as the pacing, but, like it, fail in delivery.
Many of the characters are multidimensional, with interesting backstories and emotions. It is easy to want to care for them, but hard to actually care since much of the small details that complete and define a character are missing from the book. Instead of being shown the leads’ slow building love for each other, or seeing a side character’s devotion to another, we are simply told their emotions. This can lead to jarring out of character actions and unwarranted responses especially when applied to the budding romance between North and Sydelle. Of course, this doesn’t even bring up the clunky dialogue which can be equally as jarring and uncharacteristic.
Unlike the characters and plot, there seemed to be no world building. North and Sydelle’s travels were an incoherent mess of drastic climate changes, bland settings and a religion that is never truly explained. Religion and religious fervor has a decent role in this book, but the world’s mythology is explained. Even now, it is hard to remember anything about the gods and goddesses that once ruled their world, despite the prominence of religion in the story.
Similarly, the magic system used by the wizards isn’t properly explain, which is a real shame. It incorporates elements and talismans in a unique manner that could have been interesting if explained properly (like honestly everything in this book).