I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Sparktopia by J.A. Huss Series: Sparktopia #1
Published by J.A. Huss on 2024 September 19
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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Spark is light, Spark is magic, Spark is power.
Spark is everything and it blooms inside the bodies of Tau City’s young women. Once a decade, in exchange for enough power to keep the city modern and comfortable, a Spark Maiden must be sacrificed to their mysterious tower god in a ritual called The Extraction.
Ten Maidens are Chosen, but only one enters the tower as a sacrifice, never to be seen again. The nine leftovers are elevated to celebrity status and spend the next decade living in the luxurious Maiden Tower, wearing couture gala gowns, and partying with the city’s most interesting and beautiful people. Every young woman in Tau City wants to be a Spark Maiden because the odds have always been in their favor.
Until now.
One by one, the greedy god has summoned the leftover Spark Maidens into sacrifice. When Clara Birch, Spark Maiden number nine, gets the call, she fully expects her fiancé, Finn Scott, the Extraction Master’s son, to save her.
Spoiler He’s not going to.
At the same time, a rebellion is brewing. The forgotten underclass is plotting the end of the god and his tower with strategically-placed Rebel spies that will bring it all down. Jasina Bell is a young woman on a mission to make history and she will stop at nothing to get the fame she deserves.
When Clara is forced into the tower against her will, she makes an unexpected discovery. There is no god—just a man, one willing to do what Finn Scott wouldn’ save Clara Birch.
Even if it means destroying the entire world to do so.
Betrayal and sacrifice, loyalty and power plays—four people are entangled across time and space as they seek truth, freedom, and true love in this wild and twisted adult romantasy that will have readers breathlessly turning pages until the very last word.
Where should I begin with this review because I honestly have a lot of confused feelings for this book? Like, as I’m sitting and typing this review, I still couldn’t make up my mind about the dominant feeling I had after reading the book. Should I grade this according to my standards for erotica books? Should I grade it according to my standards for sci-fi stories? Or maybe I’ll just use my criteria for grading fantasy books?
So okay, let’s put the confusion aside and familiarize ourselves first with how the story of Sparktopia went. In the fictional world of Tau City wherein electricity is highly regulated and a rare commodity, selected women are born gifted with a spark; yes, as in electrical spark. Every decade, a festive event called the Extraction (another weird term for beauty pageant actually, only difference is that one aspect of the show is that the women are required to show off their sparking abilities ) is organized wherein these women are encouraged to join wherein at the end, ten out of the hundred hopefuls will be selected and marked as Spark Maidens. The Maiden who has the highest amount of spark in her body is the only one who gets to enter the tower and be sacrificed to the god who makes the electricity to power up the whole City. The other 9 Maidens, meanwhile, will get to live their lives lavishly for the succeeding ten years until such time that another Extraction event is organized. These maidens will then retire or get married or live the lives that they want, wealthy and respected. Our 28-year old heroine, Clara Birch, is Maiden number 9 and she got somewhat complacent because there’s only three months left of being beholden to the Tower god before she can leave the Tower and marry the love of her life, Finn Scott.
Unfortunately, fate has other plans for Clara because the bells kept on ringing, signalling that the god is no longer satiated with just one sacrificial Maiden every 10 years. The entity in the tower is getting hungrier and hungrier as the weeks passed by and it has already gobbled up Maiden number 8. And as much as she prayed for the three months to end without the ringing of bells, the bells rang again summoning Clara Birch. This is where the exciting part starts because you can’t help but anticipate and dread what’s coming for our heroine. Will she escape? How? Will she be saved by some deux ex machina? Will she be the girl of destiny who uncover the truth behind the existence of the deity? Will the love of her life save her? These were the questions that really made me read this book non-stop because the Tower god is as creepy and mysterious as f—ck and I just want some answers.
I must admit that my excitement about where the story was going was kind of shadowed with how I disliked Finn Scott and Clara Birch to the core. They’re one of the most superficial leading characters that I have the misfortune to meet in my reading career. Finn Scott is a spineless a-hole who thinks with his dick rather than his brain. And Clara Birch is one entitled, gaslighting bitch who thinks that she just can just have it easy without thinking that she’s living a life that’s too good to be true. And what’s with all the sex scenes and all the slut/whore calling that seemed so out of place in the whole story? I really don’t mind reading smut or anything explicit as long as it’s within context but some of the sex scenes in this book feel like they were just injected as fillers or as advertisement or maybe, to make the story longer. And then, another heroine (Jasina) and hero (Tyse) were introduced, which are more likeable as far as I am concerned. But still, I am kind of weirded out because once these characters were interacting with our other leading characters, the convo and other scenes just slip into out-of-this-world sexual territory. I just have to suspend my disbelief because there’s just no way that sex is just thrown casually by the author here and there.
So what I’m saying is that, the plot was definitely well-executed peppered with delicious surprises here and there. The author definitely has a good idea where the story of Sparktopia is going. She had laid out a solid foundation which really made for this one an entertaining read albeit my loathing for Clara and Finn. The spark system was definitely innovative and thoroughly explained so it was not that hard to grasp how everything worked. But boy oh boy, I could not give this book a much higher rating because of the unnecessary smut, and the repetitive slut-whore shaming. And well, this book could have also benefitted a lot if it was shorter because the other scenes (esp. the smutty ones) are just non-value adding to the whole mission of the story.