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book_gremlin42's review
adventurous
funny
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Ableism, and Body horror
bree_h_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Ableism
Moderate: Genocide, Animal death, Confinement, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Racism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
scrubsandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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
4.0
If you love a Cinderella retelling crossed with Sailor Moon, with almost an anime-esque storyline, this is the one for you. Bonus for queer side characters and a himbo male love interest.
It was a cute story, I laughed a whole lot at many moment, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. This one is a good one if you’re looking for an East Asian setting that would make for a quick easy read without an overly convoluted plot. The climax though seemed to drag one and a few twists were more on the predictable side.
It was a cute story, I laughed a whole lot at many moment, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. This one is a good one if you’re looking for an East Asian setting that would make for a quick easy read without an overly convoluted plot. The climax though seemed to drag one and a few twists were more on the predictable side.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, War, and Homophobia
Minor: Confinement and Vomit
mezzythedragon's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.75
Conceptually, it was interesting, but the pacing got all jumbled by the middle. Also, I wasn’t getting into the worldbuilding.
But yay for not-so-subtle BTS references,
But yay for not-so-subtle BTS references,
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Ableism
vicwaltz's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Our female main character, Zhara, is a bit generic "magical girl." Which, I guess, so was Usagi but what works in an anime doesn't necessarily translate to a novel. That said, she's one of the few characters whose motivations are super clear and also evolve throughout the novel. Han, our main guy/love interest is a full tilt himbro and while his antics are cute, they're a little hard to believe. No one would actually be this silly/dumb. His best friend Xu is significantly more interesting but also I never quite sorted what they wanted for themselves/what they're up to. This is clearly setting up to be a longer series but I would love to know more about all of the side characters. Additionally a LOT of time is spent world-building and explaining the political structure, which is interesting but also affects pacing.
I think the biggest thing is that the novel reads like a middle-grade targeted anime but that's not how it's marketed. The premise is super interesting and I really want to love it but I just don't. That said, I think if this reaches the audience of younger teens/tweens, it will be well received.
Specific to the audiobook: The narration does a phenom job bringing the characters to life! Excellent quality.
I think the biggest thing is that the novel reads like a middle-grade targeted anime but that's not how it's marketed. The premise is super interesting and I really want to love it but I just don't. That said, I think if this reaches the audience of younger teens/tweens, it will be well received.
Specific to the audiobook: The narration does a phenom job bringing the characters to life! Excellent quality.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child abuse, and Ableism
sarahyjackson's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Satisfied every toonami Sailor Moon childhood nostalgia desire I had for it!
I found myself sort of rushing through the climactic event scenes but I sort of felt that way in Sailor Moon, too. Sometimes it really do be the friends and hero you make and become along the way.
I found myself sort of rushing through the climactic event scenes but I sort of felt that way in Sailor Moon, too. Sometimes it really do be the friends and hero you make and become along the way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Lesbophobia
noellelovesbooks's review against another edition
4.25
Content Warnings: body horror, gore, death, child abuse, ableism, confinement, homophobia, transphobia, animal cruelty, death of parents, and genocide.
This is my first read by S. Jae-Jones and WOW it was great! Such beautiful and intricate world building, characters that are easy to relate to and love. We get to meet a cast of, mostly under 18 year old's, who are finding out they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Being a teen is hard enough but imagine trying to save the people you love from possession and destruction?
Fantastic read and I can't wait to see what will happen in the continuing books!
This is my first read by S. Jae-Jones and WOW it was great! Such beautiful and intricate world building, characters that are easy to relate to and love. We get to meet a cast of, mostly under 18 year old's, who are finding out they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Being a teen is hard enough but imagine trying to save the people you love from possession and destruction?
Fantastic read and I can't wait to see what will happen in the continuing books!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Confinement, Transphobia, Animal death, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Ableism, and Homophobia
bookswithmick's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I wanted this to be good.....and it was so, so, so unbelievably not.
This is not age appropriate for any group of people. The characters act like ten year olds and are EXTREMELY juvenile and immature, and yet they're also making sex jokes constantly and talking about porn. It is both very middle grade and very adult and YA readers are not going to jive with it, even though they're technically in the middle. Who wants to read about kids with the maturity of ten year olds making porn jokes? Certainly not me. And "joke" is a strong word. Nothing in this was funny.
The plot wasn't the worst, but it also was not original. It didn't even start until like 30% in, and by then I was so irritated it was hard to get into it. The world could have been good, but it wasn't explored much because we just had to constantly hear about Zhara having the "good-looking giggles" every. single. time. she saw someone she found attractive. A lot that happened was repetitive and I've absolutely read in plenty of other books, the characters were obnoxious, the hints at the plot twists were blatantly obvious, and it was all just very poorly executed. Could've been decent even though it was unoriginal, but the writing was so bland and repetitive that i just ended up hating every moment.
Also why is BTS randomly in this?? There's a boy band that shows up super far into the story and is very obviously BTS and it just doesn't fit at all with anything that has happened. It felt kinda weird and off.
The last thing, and one that I really struggled with: for a book that's supposed to have good representation, it does NOT. Yes, there are LGBTQ+ characters and nonbinary pronouns and that was all good. We love a queernorm world. However, there is a disabled character that was represented in a way that made me really uncomfortable. I do not have this disability so my opinion may be skewed, but she was made out to be completely useless by most of the characters for the ENTIRE book, solely because of her disability. She is defined by that alone. I couldn't tell you anything else about her besides her disability, and that's just depressing to write in this review. Don't distill someone's entire essence down to a disability!
Furthermore, the MMC is constantly put down and made fun of for being stupid and vapid. Constantly. I can't even count the number of times they told him, to his face and behind his back, that he was thick (dumb) and too obsessed with working out/his appearance and that some people liked to be around him because he was too stupid to notice anything or be a problem. WTF??? Mocking intelligence is not cute and it's not funny and is NOT something we should be encouraging in a joking manner in a YA book (he's also made fun of for not understanding porn; no idea why that was in there at all and it made me feel super weird and icky).
Obviously I am heated. This book was bad on so many levels and I honestly cannot think of anybody to recommend it to, since the characters act like actual children while also making very inappropriate "jokes" for children. And with the way some characters are treated, i just....cannot recommend this.
The good? The cover is colorful. I liked that. And i liked the concept. The execution was just not there.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. I feel bad I disliked it as much as I did but such is life sometimes.
This is not age appropriate for any group of people. The characters act like ten year olds and are EXTREMELY juvenile and immature, and yet they're also making sex jokes constantly and talking about porn. It is both very middle grade and very adult and YA readers are not going to jive with it, even though they're technically in the middle. Who wants to read about kids with the maturity of ten year olds making porn jokes? Certainly not me. And "joke" is a strong word. Nothing in this was funny.
The plot wasn't the worst, but it also was not original. It didn't even start until like 30% in, and by then I was so irritated it was hard to get into it. The world could have been good, but it wasn't explored much because we just had to constantly hear about Zhara having the "good-looking giggles" every. single. time. she saw someone she found attractive. A lot that happened was repetitive and I've absolutely read in plenty of other books, the characters were obnoxious, the hints at the plot twists were blatantly obvious, and it was all just very poorly executed. Could've been decent even though it was unoriginal, but the writing was so bland and repetitive that i just ended up hating every moment.
Also why is BTS randomly in this?? There's a boy band that shows up super far into the story and is very obviously BTS and it just doesn't fit at all with anything that has happened. It felt kinda weird and off.
The last thing, and one that I really struggled with: for a book that's supposed to have good representation, it does NOT. Yes, there are LGBTQ+ characters and nonbinary pronouns and that was all good. We love a queernorm world. However, there is a disabled character that was represented in a way that made me really uncomfortable. I do not have this disability so my opinion may be skewed, but she was made out to be completely useless by most of the characters for the ENTIRE book, solely because of her disability. She is defined by that alone. I couldn't tell you anything else about her besides her disability, and that's just depressing to write in this review. Don't distill someone's entire essence down to a disability!
Furthermore, the MMC is constantly put down and made fun of for being stupid and vapid. Constantly. I can't even count the number of times they told him, to his face and behind his back, that he was thick (dumb) and too obsessed with working out/his appearance and that some people liked to be around him because he was too stupid to notice anything or be a problem. WTF??? Mocking intelligence is not cute and it's not funny and is NOT something we should be encouraging in a joking manner in a YA book (he's also made fun of for not understanding porn; no idea why that was in there at all and it made me feel super weird and icky).
Obviously I am heated. This book was bad on so many levels and I honestly cannot think of anybody to recommend it to, since the characters act like actual children while also making very inappropriate "jokes" for children. And with the way some characters are treated, i just....cannot recommend this.
The good? The cover is colorful. I liked that. And i liked the concept. The execution was just not there.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. I feel bad I disliked it as much as I did but such is life sometimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Ableism, and Child abuse
Moderate: Body shaming
ezwolf's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-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? It's complicated
4.0
I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall with enjoying the books I've read recently, but this book was a fun and fast paced read.
The way the author used English to mimic how characters would have spoke in other languages was so interesting and gave it a unique quality. The magic system, while similar to others I've read about, still felt different than what I've read before.
I loved that both Zhara and Han had younger siblings that they were fighting to protect. And Xu! I loved Xu, they are probably my favorite character with Yuli coming in close second. Even though there was a romantic subplot with Zhara and Han, the friendship between them and Xu and Jiyi and eventually Yuli felt genuine and just as important as the romance. And the inclusion of queer characters was a delightful surprise.
The writing was a bit repetitive at times, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
The way the author used English to mimic how characters would have spoke in other languages was so interesting and gave it a unique quality. The magic system, while similar to others I've read about, still felt different than what I've read before.
I loved that both Zhara and Han had younger siblings that they were fighting to protect. And Xu! I loved Xu, they are probably my favorite character with Yuli coming in close second. Even though there was a romantic subplot with Zhara and Han, the friendship between them and Xu and Jiyi and eventually Yuli felt genuine and just as important as the romance. And the inclusion of queer characters was a delightful surprise.
The writing was a bit repetitive at times, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, Grief, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Homophobia, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, and Animal death
chronicacademia's review
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Child abuse, Blood, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Medical content