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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book has been on my TBR for years. The world-building is phenomenal, and the writing is nearly flawless. My only issue was feeling overwhelmed by the information dump at the beginning, which made it hard to stay engaged. But once I hit part two, I couldn’t put it down. Epic fantasy fans, this one is a must-read.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
this book is pages and pages of information on the minute details of irrelevant events and then huge dumps of exposition and plot. Often with such vulgar and horrific details of human suffering it gutted me to read it. i understand that it’s based on real world events but to me that seems almost like a guilt trip to force readers to say it’s a good book. no one wants to insult a book that’s finally telling untold stories of suffering in asian history. But to me it’s distasteful to punctuate such 14 year old author fan fiction esque fantasy with shock value paragraphs of human suffering.
I felt like the characters weren’t lovable or memorable. i frequently had to look up character charts to know who we were following and how they related to the story. I felt like the ones i did remember were one dimensional and stereotypical. This lead to scenes where im sure the author meant to cause big emotions in the reader but since i didn’t care about the characters it was just another one of too many sentences in this book. If you’re going to write a book this long at least make it worth reading.
I read 97% through to the point where /spoiler: Rin is told she’s the new commander./ and it was my last straw. the entire book i felt like i was having to let unbelievable things slide. I know often times in fiction main characters get that sort of MC unbelievable luck and i can usually suspend my disbelief, but this story had way too many completely impossible moments. You mean to tell me that Rin was so knowledge hungry she was able to study in a short period of time what people study for their whole life, pass the test and get into the school against all odds, but she didn’t know what a period was? Even just living in the Tikany when the match maker came around she was scared to bits by what would happen on her wedding night. so she knew enough sex education to know that but not enough to know that people get periods? and yeah midevil times and malnutrition so not everyone would get a monthly but come on. she’s to smart to not know that.
I felt like the characters weren’t lovable or memorable. i frequently had to look up character charts to know who we were following and how they related to the story. I felt like the ones i did remember were one dimensional and stereotypical. This lead to scenes where im sure the author meant to cause big emotions in the reader but since i didn’t care about the characters it was just another one of too many sentences in this book. If you’re going to write a book this long at least make it worth reading.
I read 97% through to the point where /spoiler: Rin is told she’s the new commander./ and it was my last straw. the entire book i felt like i was having to let unbelievable things slide. I know often times in fiction main characters get that sort of MC unbelievable luck and i can usually suspend my disbelief, but this story had way too many completely impossible moments. You mean to tell me that Rin was so knowledge hungry she was able to study in a short period of time what people study for their whole life, pass the test and get into the school against all odds, but she didn’t know what a period was? Even just living in the Tikany when the match maker came around she was scared to bits by what would happen on her wedding night. so she knew enough sex education to know that but not enough to know that people get periods? and yeah midevil times and malnutrition so not everyone would get a monthly but come on. she’s to smart to not know that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was really looking forward to reading this due to all the hype. I would say it's a good book but way over hyped. I love being emotionally devastated by a book so when I didn't feel anything I was disappointed. It's the war imagery that is devastating people and making them emotional. It's full of genocide and SA description (because it's war and realistic). If you've studied any war, especially the horrors of war this book is not shocking or surprising. It literally uses real war events in a fantasy setting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail