The Prophecy - Lisa Zimmermann - ★★

AUTHOR: Lisa Zimmermann

GENRE: Urban Fantasy

PUBLICATION DATE: May 31, 2025

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: An urban fantasy with a mysterious prophecy being at the centre of the plot. The idea was great but the implementation was a bit basic. The writing style didn’t work for me, nor did the main characters who read younger than their age. Despite the shortcomings, I was still curious enough to know what happens. A good choice for those who care more about the story than the plot/character development.

Plot Preview:

Sarah, who is in her early thirties, lives a quiet life as a barista in an English town. When she suddenly starts getting strange hallucinations, she worries about her physical and mental health. Little does she know that a mysterious man named William, who is possibly stalking her, is connected to her visions. Soon, Sarah’s safe and predictable world is thrown into chaos, and the only solution can supposedly be found through a strange prophecy. But Sarah knows only half of the augury and no one knows where the other half is. As the danger escalates, Sarah is forced into a quest she never signed up for. Can an ordinary barista handle such life-changing perils?

The story comes to us in Sarah’s third-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

🔮 The plot idea. Can’t go into spoilers, so no details. But I liked the core premise, even though it left many things unexplained.

🔮 The tempo. Quite fast-paced once you get used to the minimalist writing style.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

⚔️ The prologue was so impressive that I increased my expectations from the main story. Unfortunately, the ‘prologue’ was just a rehashed scene from further ahead. Granted, it’s not from the climactic clash but from the first half itself, which is still better, I suppose. But I hate it when prologues just copy scenes from in between and put them at the start. That’s not what a prologue is supposed to be!

⚔️ The story covers quite a few places and even offers some visuals from the locations. But the *vibe* is missing. Location descriptions are minimal, and the atmosphere is almost entirely non-existent. It’s like looking at the place from the other side of a glass window: you can see things but you cannot feel it at all.

⚔️ The same goes for the magical elements: what little is there is very interesting but it is hardly detailed and barely used. Most of the book reads like a normal adventure, with minimal fantastical content. Oddly, the magical content decreases as the plot goes ahead.

⚔️ All the secondary characters in Sarah’s circle are excellent. Charlotte, Steven, Grace, and Joe are the types of characters you want to know more and see more of. Unfortunately, they hardly get enough page space. They just walk in and out of the scene when they need to play their roles.

⚔️ The author’s first language isn't English but German, so hats off to this brave decision of penning her debut novel in a relatively unfamiliar tongue. It must be a tremendous task to write a full-length novel in another language. (I don’t even dare write a review in another language!) But as readers will obviously be comfortable with English, there can be only a certain leeway allowed for linguistic lacunae. To be clear, the author’s technical command over English is visible. But the flow of the conversations feels a bit stilted. The writing tilts more towards telling than showing.

⚔️ Despite my lack of satisfaction with the writing, I was still fairly invested in the plot and wanted to know how things would be resolved. However, the ending was disappointing to me. I actually rolled my eyes at the big reveal, and I disliked everything that happened post that scene.

Bookish Nays:

💣 There are only three main players in the whole plot, but the character development for each was lacking in some way or the other. In a strange contradiction, most of the scenes in the book focus on Sarah and William, and yet they feel the most distanced from us. Sarah’s family background barely gets any detailing, and despite her parents being a part of her life, we never see them be active in any scene, not even through a phone call, and not even when things get really wild. Even Sarah’s lack of ambition, though refreshing, isn’t clarified. Why is she happy to stay a barista when she isn't even happy with her job? William’s portrayal is grey, perhaps a bit more tilted towards the dark grey side, which is fine. But he is allowed to get away with a lot of problematic behaviour, which is NOT fine. I never understood why Sarah didn’t question him much even after some red flags started fluttering with gusto. The third main character is more like a caricature of a villain. For some reason I can’t figure out, I never felt the chills when he popped into a scene, even though he was barbaric.

💣 The lead characters are in their thirties, but at no point of the story do they sound or behave their age. For the most path, they feel like young adults caught in an adult war. I would have recommended this book to YAs, but the gory scenes and the intimate scenes immediately negate this possibility.

💣 The whole setting and build-up of the prophecy and the resultant quest is vague. A lot of the hows and whens stay hazy.

💣 Yet again, there is romance in a non-romance genre, and not even a convincing one at that. Things are too instant even though they aren’t actually based on physical attraction. I never understand how fictional characters stay focussed on their libido even when their lives are at stake.

💣 Many of Sarah’s thoughts are repetitive, so after a point, you start feeling the déjà vu quite strongly.

💣 The action goes in extremes. When it’s there, it is quite gory (at least to my taste), with blood not just dripping but gushing. When there’s no action, there’s literally no action. Nothing except walking and talking. The quest hence feels passive and boring.

All in all, I did like the plot idea, but I didn’t like the implementation at all. It’s a debut indie work and not in the author’s first language, so perhaps a strict round of editing (by an English-fluent editor) would have helped somewhat.

Mine seems to be an outlier review, so do read others readers’ thoughts and take a more informed call on this debut indie fantasy novel. It might work better for those not too fussy about writing styles. Might also help if they are fans of NA fantasy.

My thanks to the author and BAD PRESS iNK for a complimentary copy of “The Prophecy”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

The digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.