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gmont's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
TL;DR: This was fun, cute, and feels like something I would have liked as a kid, yet fails to hold up as an adult with a more critical mind, especially during the second half.
What I liked: It was fun, moreso when I pictured it playing out like a cute animated film. It has elements I personally love: a diverse cast, mythical creatures, fantasy with a twist, a spotlight on social issues, an interesting premise and plot, and emphasis on the characters. The writing style is simple but not juvenile, so as a slow reader with ADHD who was hooked into the story, I was able to devour it in record time.
The concepts presented were intriguing (I adore the idea of two princes running away together on a dragon and navigating a relationship when one of them is aroace, plus how magic is utilized somewhat like sci-fi technology), the characters were all distinctive in my mind, and I was invested in the main relationship.
What didn't work for me: Heavy-handed and on-the-nose writing, plus lack of development in some areas (by the end it felt like everything revolved around Gerald at the other characters' expense, yet he himself wasn't contributing much). Too much time devoted to Gerald's self-loathing/anxiety/protestations and not enough to highlighting his strengths and likeable traits, which rendered him more annoying than sympathetic, especially over the second half.
I also felt his non-romantic partner, while likable, was barely fleshed out outside of his relationship to the protagonist, so although this relationship was meant to defy norms he ended up as little more than The Love Interest trope. All that said, by the end their relationship wasn't as believable as I wished it was—I couldn't remember why the partner liked the protag nor see what the protagonist offered in their relationship. I was only able to get by because teenagers really are "like that" and deserve more sympathy than they're given, plus there were many time skips wherein they could have had more pleasant moments offscreen, but that doesn't make for a pleasant reading experience with what was shown.
Though I'm not disabled, there was also something off about how the acquired disability storyline was handled as well, as that was when the writing quality truly dipped for me. I'm not informed enough to comment further on this, however.
Finally, the ways Gerald's sexuality and preferences were explored in scenes felt on-the-nose, more like PSAs on social media or modern people talking than truly natural conversations within the setting. I did admire how every point was touched upon—but again, the execution fell short. It would have been nice if Gerald wasn't the only aspec character as well; the fact that this is a fantasy world where every other queer identity has been normalized and accepted except for aspecs seems... poorly thought out, to an extent. I'm aware of infighting within queer communities, but it just struck me as martyr-like at times.
What I liked: It was fun, moreso when I pictured it playing out like a cute animated film. It has elements I personally love: a diverse cast, mythical creatures, fantasy with a twist, a spotlight on social issues, an interesting premise and plot, and emphasis on the characters. The writing style is simple but not juvenile, so as a slow reader with ADHD who was hooked into the story, I was able to devour it in record time.
The concepts presented were intriguing (I adore the idea of two princes running away together on a dragon and navigating a relationship when one of them is aroace, plus how magic is utilized somewhat like sci-fi technology), the characters were all distinctive in my mind, and I was invested in the main relationship.
What didn't work for me: Heavy-handed and on-the-nose writing, plus lack of development in some areas (by the end it felt like everything revolved around Gerald at the other characters' expense, yet he himself wasn't contributing much). Too much time devoted to Gerald's self-loathing/anxiety/protestations and not enough to highlighting his strengths and likeable traits, which rendered him more annoying than sympathetic, especially over the second half.
I also felt his non-romantic partner, while likable, was barely fleshed out outside of his relationship to the protagonist, so although this relationship was meant to defy norms he ended up as little more than The Love Interest trope. All that said, by the end their relationship wasn't as believable as I wished it was—I couldn't remember why the partner liked the protag nor see what the protagonist offered in their relationship. I was only able to get by because teenagers really are "like that" and deserve more sympathy than they're given, plus there were many time skips wherein they could have had more pleasant moments offscreen, but that doesn't make for a pleasant reading experience with what was shown.
Though I'm not disabled, there was also something off about how the acquired disability storyline was handled as well, as that was when the writing quality truly dipped for me. I'm not informed enough to comment further on this, however.
Finally, the ways Gerald's sexuality and preferences were explored in scenes felt on-the-nose, more like PSAs on social media or modern people talking than truly natural conversations within the setting. I did admire how every point was touched upon—but again, the execution fell short. It would have been nice if Gerald wasn't the only aspec character as well; the fact that this is a fantasy world where every other queer identity has been normalized and accepted except for aspecs seems... poorly thought out, to an extent. I'm aware of infighting within queer communities, but it just struck me as martyr-like at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia and Ableism
lettuce_read's review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Ableism, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Bullying and Animal cruelty
Minor: Sexual content
caitie95's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Kidnapping
ohmage_resistance's review
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
This book is about an aro ace prince in a world where young royals have to find a future spouse by rescuing another royal or being said rescuee. The premise was not super realistic, but I still found it pretty interesting. Unfortunately, I ended up thinking that the author could have gone a bit further with it than they did. Even though Gerald tried to dismantle the system do to its amatonormativity and cruelty to magical creatures, in the end, amatonormativity is brought straight back into the new system, due to the focus still being on everyone needing to find a partner. Although I found Gerald's queer platonic relationship nice, I really think this book could have benefited from having at least one aromantic character who is not interested in having any kind of partner, who would be able to challenge the system more than Gerald could. I also feel like the pacing lagged, especially in the second part of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia and Ableism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Animal cruelty to sentient magical creatures, Aphobia is said to the main character but addressed by the narrative.b3ck's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Honestly when I first started reading this, I was bored. It felt slow, the plot seemed a little odd, and the writing isn’t all that great, so I wasn’t really feeling it. It definitely picked up and I began to enjoy it much more around the 40% mark though.
The aroace representation was fabulous, there was a LOT of hurt/comfort (my fave), and the main characters were very likable (especially Omar!). As an aroace person myself, I definitely saw myself in Gerald. The ending was satisfying. I was honestly kind of sad to finish it and found myself wanting more.
The aroace representation was fabulous, there was a LOT of hurt/comfort (my fave), and the main characters were very likable (especially Omar!). As an aroace person myself, I definitely saw myself in Gerald. The ending was satisfying. I was honestly kind of sad to finish it and found myself wanting more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual content
aevinaroace's review
adventurous
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Acephobia/Arophobia
tieflingreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Ableism
Minor: Sexism and Sexual content
eleanorefiore's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
✨ aroace main character
✨ talking dragons
✨ not a fan of how women are presented
I absolutely loved the setting. It’s a queer-normative world with many POC and LGBTQ+ characters, and there’s even gender-neutral royals who use the term princex which I LOVE. The dragons and the magical creatures were a lot of fun, and I liked how many different environments we saw.
As far as Gerald, I liked him, but he’s a little bit of a downer. Now, I get it—I’m asexual, and I get how incredibly disheartening acephobia is. But I’m also a “don’t mope” kind of person from a “pick yourself up” kind of family, and I don’t believe in talking badly about yourself for an extended period of time. He spends 95% of the book down on himself for everything, and while I never minded that much, I think some people would have a problem with that.
He also has great connections with the other male main characters of the story though—Erik and Omar. I loved their dynamic, it felt very real and their dialogue wasn't forced at all. And I loved the exploration of a queerplatonic relationship.
That said *calming breath* all the women in this book were one-dimensional bullies. All the women main characters were portrayed the same—they pick on Gerald, they're arophobic, they’re pushy, they’re mean, they steamroll conversations, and everyone else is like “well, we can’t stop them I guess we have to let them finish *shrug\eye roll*”. And the women side characters who weren’t characterized that way were just passive.
All of them existed just to be acephobic\arophobic to Gerald and that’s it. There wasn’t any depth to anyone—not even his mom or sister. We’re told that they have depth, and that their feelings on Gerald are complicated, but we’re never shown that.
The men and non-binary characters had personalities and differences, and the women didn’t (besides their looks) and that really frustrated me.
Overall, I did think the book was cute, and I did enjoy it. I also related to a lot of the frustration Gerald feels, and how acephobia can affect you and your thought process. But the disregard for women really brought the book down for me.
✨ talking dragons
✨ not a fan of how women are presented
I absolutely loved the setting. It’s a queer-normative world with many POC and LGBTQ+ characters, and there’s even gender-neutral royals who use the term princex which I LOVE. The dragons and the magical creatures were a lot of fun, and I liked how many different environments we saw.
As far as Gerald, I liked him, but he’s a little bit of a downer. Now, I get it—I’m asexual, and I get how incredibly disheartening acephobia is. But I’m also a “don’t mope” kind of person from a “pick yourself up” kind of family, and I don’t believe in talking badly about yourself for an extended period of time. He spends 95% of the book down on himself for everything, and while I never minded that much, I think some people would have a problem with that.
He also has great connections with the other male main characters of the story though—Erik and Omar. I loved their dynamic, it felt very real and their dialogue wasn't forced at all. And I loved the exploration of a queerplatonic relationship.
That said *calming breath* all the women in this book were one-dimensional bullies. All the women main characters were portrayed the same—they pick on Gerald, they're arophobic, they’re pushy, they’re mean, they steamroll conversations, and everyone else is like “well, we can’t stop them I guess we have to let them finish *shrug\eye roll*”. And the women side characters who weren’t characterized that way were just passive.
All of them existed just to be acephobic\arophobic to Gerald and that’s it. There wasn’t any depth to anyone—not even his mom or sister. We’re told that they have depth, and that their feelings on Gerald are complicated, but we’re never shown that.
The men and non-binary characters had personalities and differences, and the women didn’t (besides their looks) and that really frustrated me.
Overall, I did think the book was cute, and I did enjoy it. I also related to a lot of the frustration Gerald feels, and how acephobia can affect you and your thought process. But the disregard for women really brought the book down for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
The main character also has internalized acephobia/arophobia, as well as instances of outside characters being acephobic/arophobic.bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
I recently embarked on a quest to find all of the good queer dragon books, and I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, I have been disappointed.
Let’s start with the good, though. This book delivers what it says it’s going to. It’s a fantasy story about asexuality and dragons and forging your own path. The author is asexual themself, and I thought that the ace rep in this book felt very genuine (though I might come back and edit this review based on the opinions of a friend who actually identifies as ace and is planning to borrow my copy of the book). I liked the dragon, and there were several other characters who had potential, though none of them lived up to it.
Now, on to my issues with the book. Where to start?
My issues with this book are threefold: the writing, the politics, and the representation.
First, the writing:
This book is painfully slow. Nothing happens for large chunks of it. Conversations repeat over and over.
There were a lot of references to other fantasy books (the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Protector of the Small Quartet), and while I share the author’s love for those books, I didn’t think the references were integrated well at all.
I’m not someone who can’t visualize things at all while I’m reading, but I do struggle with it. I need some help. Not long descriptions necessarily (my ADHD brain tends to skim those), but physical descriptions of some variety are necessary. Unfortunately, this book had almost none. The characters’ races are to be assumed based on their names—Gerald and Erick are white, Omar and Padma are brown, etc. Gerald complains about not looking like his family, but I never quite managed to work out what any of them are supposed to look like. In fact, the only character who gets a detailed physical description is Nedi, who is also (probably) the only Black character. Very interesting.
Additionally, it was impossible to tell the dragons apart. I respect the author’s choice in giving the dragons neither names nor genders, but they also didn’t have any distinguishing adjectives. I had to use context clues to determine when "the dragon" was the main dragon character rather than some other dragon. Would it really have been so hard to make them different sizes or give them different ages or colors or scale shapes or SOMETHING?
If you just want to read a dragon book with an aroace protagonist, go for it, but it was really hard to get through this book.
Anyway, moving on to the representation issues:
As I noted above, the only Black character is also the only character who is given any sort of helpful visual description, much less a racialized one. This felt othering. She’s also not treated well by the narrative. Gerald dislikes her for no discernible reason, but maybe it’s not racially motivated because Gerald also dislikes every single other woman character in the book. Seriously. This character hates women so much. It's genuinely hard to read at times.
A particular storyline also left me asking, “is this bad disability representation or just bad writing?” I still don’t know the answer.
I appreciate the presence of nonbinary characters in this book (unsurprising, as the author is agender), but I would like the record to show that I LOATHE the word “princex” as some sort of nonbinary alternative to prince or princess. You really want me to believe that the sort of modern gender discourse that results in an X at the end of any word supposedly making it gender-neutral or more inclusive would coexist with a pseudo-medieval fantasy world in which all of the royalty are forced to marry each other?
Which brings me to my real issue with this book: the politics of it all.
I think that books about royalty can work in two different ways.
1) the royalty are the royalty and this isn’t going to change. There is no question that there will be a king or queen or whatever. The system is just going to stay in place. I tolerate this because it’s fantasy and yeah, sometimes it’s fun to read about royalty.
2) actual politics and social change. These stories are messier and more complex. They involve overthrowing governments and installing new ones. They question the role of the monarchy.
This book somehow manages to be both options, and it does not pull it off well.
Gerald and his friends are armed with the language of leftist revolution. They talk about systemic issues and wanting to overthrow the system and improve everything, and then what do they do? They just reform the system so that the royals are still all being forced to marry each other but at least animals aren’t being abused anymore. It felt like a bunch of liberal nonsense. And I think the fundamental problem is that for all the talk of systemic change, never once does the author question the existence of, apparently, a THOUSAND monarchies in this world. We meet exactly one human character—an unnamed steward—who isn’t royalty. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. It’s the fantasy equivalent of a show like Brooklyn 99 but with none of the humor and with less engaging characters.
Let’s start with the good, though. This book delivers what it says it’s going to. It’s a fantasy story about asexuality and dragons and forging your own path. The author is asexual themself, and I thought that the ace rep in this book felt very genuine (though I might come back and edit this review based on the opinions of a friend who actually identifies as ace and is planning to borrow my copy of the book). I liked the dragon, and there were several other characters who had potential, though none of them lived up to it.
Now, on to my issues with the book. Where to start?
My issues with this book are threefold: the writing, the politics, and the representation.
First, the writing:
This book is painfully slow. Nothing happens for large chunks of it. Conversations repeat over and over.
There were a lot of references to other fantasy books (the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Protector of the Small Quartet), and while I share the author’s love for those books, I didn’t think the references were integrated well at all.
I’m not someone who can’t visualize things at all while I’m reading, but I do struggle with it. I need some help. Not long descriptions necessarily (my ADHD brain tends to skim those), but physical descriptions of some variety are necessary. Unfortunately, this book had almost none. The characters’ races are to be assumed based on their names—Gerald and Erick are white, Omar and Padma are brown, etc. Gerald complains about not looking like his family, but I never quite managed to work out what any of them are supposed to look like. In fact, the only character who gets a detailed physical description is Nedi, who is also (probably) the only Black character. Very interesting.
Additionally, it was impossible to tell the dragons apart. I respect the author’s choice in giving the dragons neither names nor genders, but they also didn’t have any distinguishing adjectives. I had to use context clues to determine when "the dragon" was the main dragon character rather than some other dragon. Would it really have been so hard to make them different sizes or give them different ages or colors or scale shapes or SOMETHING?
If you just want to read a dragon book with an aroace protagonist, go for it, but it was really hard to get through this book.
Anyway, moving on to the representation issues:
As I noted above, the only Black character is also the only character who is given any sort of helpful visual description, much less a racialized one. This felt othering. She’s also not treated well by the narrative. Gerald dislikes her for no discernible reason, but maybe it’s not racially motivated because Gerald also dislikes every single other woman character in the book. Seriously. This character hates women so much. It's genuinely hard to read at times.
A particular storyline also left me asking, “is this bad disability representation or just bad writing?” I still don’t know the answer.
I appreciate the presence of nonbinary characters in this book (unsurprising, as the author is agender), but I would like the record to show that I LOATHE the word “princex” as some sort of nonbinary alternative to prince or princess. You really want me to believe that the sort of modern gender discourse that results in an X at the end of any word supposedly making it gender-neutral or more inclusive would coexist with a pseudo-medieval fantasy world in which all of the royalty are forced to marry each other?
Which brings me to my real issue with this book: the politics of it all.
I think that books about royalty can work in two different ways.
1) the royalty are the royalty and this isn’t going to change. There is no question that there will be a king or queen or whatever. The system is just going to stay in place. I tolerate this because it’s fantasy and yeah, sometimes it’s fun to read about royalty.
2) actual politics and social change. These stories are messier and more complex. They involve overthrowing governments and installing new ones. They question the role of the monarchy.
This book somehow manages to be both options, and it does not pull it off well.
Gerald and his friends are armed with the language of leftist revolution. They talk about systemic issues and wanting to overthrow the system and improve everything, and then what do they do? They just reform the system so that the royals are still all being forced to marry each other but at least animals aren’t being abused anymore. It felt like a bunch of liberal nonsense. And I think the fundamental problem is that for all the talk of systemic change, never once does the author question the existence of, apparently, a THOUSAND monarchies in this world. We meet exactly one human character—an unnamed steward—who isn’t royalty. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. It’s the fantasy equivalent of a show like Brooklyn 99 but with none of the humor and with less engaging characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Emotional abuse
jjcrafts's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
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