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warlocksarecool21's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I thought Lore was a really interesting main character and I never got irritated by her narration. The overall world and magic system was so unique to me, even though it drew parallels to various mythologies. It was very much a slow-burn book in terms of plot, but it paid off, as we got to see Lore learn more about the court and her magic all while uncovering the mystery at hand.
I was weary about the love triangle being set up between Lore, Gabe and Bastian but both of the boys were so compelling and the tension was so good. Gabe’s character honestly broke my heart, even though he made poor decisions trying to help Lore. The angst that comes with his character was so well-written and I’m excited to see where his journey goes. Bastian was a delight and I loved how complex he was. I was a little surprised by how unhinged he was at the end; but I suppose the pieces to that reveal were built up as the story went along. I honestly was kind of gleeful when
Overall, I thought this was a very good start to the series, and I hope we see even more of the gods and the magic system in the next book. I am anxious to see the direction of where the dynamic between Lore and the boys will go, and I am honestly not sure how I hope it will turn out. I’m excited to see where all of this leads in the next book, and I can’t wait for it.
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Gore
Minor: Body horror and Animal death
jasminn_perez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Animal death, Death, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Addiction, Gore, and Sexual content
lilfirebird's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Animal death
bluejayreads's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Terminal illness, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Child death
Betrayal, religious abuse, child neglect (mentions)lsiedlak's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Body horror
Moderate: Child death
koistyfishy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Spice... NON EXISTENT
This is the perfect definition book of excellent premise, but mediocre execution.
Another way I could describe it is the book mentions quite a lot about "balancing life and death through the equilibrium of Mortem and Spiritum". Hannah Wittenn tried to balance the plot with the religious theology and lost God lore. And unfortunately, it felt as if the equilibrium was tipped into the boring side as half the time I was reading this it felt like a religious textbook that was putting me to sleep.
The book follows Lore, who "apparently" escaped a cult when she was 13 and was found by two ladies who raised her as their own. They also happen to be poison runners so Lore basically grows up in the crime scene as a spy. However, Lore has a secret that she is able to wield death magic or Mortem from birth, which most people are only able to do if they ever have a "near-death experience". So she has to keep that super secret because if they find out that she's this super powerful necromancer she would probably be murdered or sent to some burning island. One day a heist goes bad and she is given the impossible choice of SPY ON THE KINGS SON as part of the court and become SUPER close to him....or die. SO guess it's pretty easy to see what she chooses...
This book has some of the best tropes and some of the worst tropes.
The "Good" tropes you're going to get:
▹Court Intrigue
▹Romantic angst (could have been more)
▹Necromancy
▹Regency.
The "Bad" tropes are:
▹ A love triangle
▹ Miscommunication/Lack of Communication
▹ Religious Theory (it borders on SO MUCH INFODUMP)
Look, if I have to read about one more tapestry describing the Gods and what they look like and the colours that they're using and how they're painted or sculpted. Or have to hear about the Gods ascending and coming back to the world one more time.....I kind of lost the plot when those aspects were mentioned in the story, and they were mentioned SO MUCH.
I wasn't getting that pull into the writing I need with a book. It took a long time before I was actually hooked on the book because the first six chapters felt very, very theoretical and very info-dumpy. It was very difficult to follow along as the writing almost needs you to be one with a thesaurus. I love words. I love looking up the definition of words and highlighting unique words that I don't typically see in a book, but normally I only end up with about five max. In this book, I highlighted 55 words that are not common in English daily use as a result, if you're constantly looking up the definition of words, it takes you out of the story.
Another thing this book was missing is it felt like everything was very surface level and I needed more depth to everything (BUT THE THEOLOGY). The plot was very much you see what you get. The angst was there but not enough, the character interaction was there but not enough and the character development was there but it only scratched the surface of what would have been amazing!!! These characters have this undeniable feeling that they know each other, that they've got this drawing to each other...that they've known each other for their whole lives. But that isn't really explored enough and built on and it's never really explained why they're so drawn to each other.
I REALLY wanted to see a little bit more of their interactions too. Their talking...Lore actually talking to Bastian and Gabe and getting to know them. What little there was did not explain the attraction between them and why Gabe would be "pining over her" and she over him when most of the time they were literally just in the library researching books or THEOLOGY in their rooms. We had chapters DEDICATED to library research...
Another aspect that I didn't really like is the ending felt incredibly rushed and incredibly messy. I battled to understand what was going on. Everything was just thrown into the end and it was very quick with the characters acting completely different towards the end that didn't match who they were painted to be throughout the novel. The end was just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping some aspects stick.
Overall I DID like Lore...She does come off a little bit as a survivor and is a little bit unapologetic in a good way. But she makes really stupid decisions and she purposefully chooses to not communicate because fuck knows why.
If I haven't made this clear, the worldbuilding lent too much on theory. And as much as there was a unique magic system, which quite frankly, I absolutely loved! The book didn't go into any reason why Lore has this ability to wield magic, and I would have loved to have that explored a little bit more to understand her origin story and where she comes from.
There wasn't much romance in this except for one kiss that went nowhere. Out of our boys...I prefer the prince (until the end) as he actually has some snark and uses words... Gabe has been through some trauma but he is a little too attached to his wannabe father figure to know what's good for him and so seemed immature...
There might be a couple of triggers in this, especially around the religious aspect, which does have quite a few similarities to Catholicism. So if you are somebody who finds this a problem, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.
Luckily I had an amazing group of girls for the Buddy Read who helped string me along and gave me the motivation to tediously work through this book. And I don't know if I would have been able to finish it if I didn't have their motivation to do it.
The vibes were there...so ultimately I'm not sad that I picked up this book. I will pick up book two because I am intrigued enough to see where it goes. But if she doesn't kiss one of these boys within the first three chapters, I tap out!!!
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Blood and Religious bigotry
Minor: War
alyb_batgirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Animal death
mallorypen's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
With a few exceptions, I mostly didn’t care about the three leads. Lore was whiny (maybe the narrator’s fault) and dramatic; Gabe was predictable; and Bastian swung hot and cold between boring and interesting.
The plot would have been 10x more interesting if the author didn’t belabor every point with extraneous detail. The language drifted in and out of purple prose, and the “like so much xxxx” phrase was horribly overused.
There were some interesting elements - the use of poison to keep people alive longer; the dead goddess still leaking power from her tomb; pseudo-zombie monks … but the plot just didn’t quite hit for me. I won’t be reading the sequels, and I just didn’t care about the predictable and tired love triangle.
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, and Death of parent
dani_reis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Drug use
Moderate: Animal death
The animal death is one event very early on. With the story being about necromancy, you can anticipate how that goes. There is multiple mentions of the animal throughout.lbelow's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Animal death
Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Drug use, and Cursing
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness