Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - The Unbroken

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The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

25 reviews

dkranenburg99's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

This barely edges out 4 stars for me on the plot and characters. The prose is nice but there were some patterns in the writing that consistently bothered me despite it getting better throughout the book. What I really enjoyed about this novel is the way it deals with its themes of imperialism and colonization. Touraine's loyalty problem had me tense and frustrated but I couldn't help but feel where she was coming from. Luca had some interesting things going on as well, confronting her own complicity in the horrible things her family and empire has done and weighed against her conscience and weighed against her ambitions. It will be interesting to see how both of their mixed loyalties will evolve in the next entry. Overall this book felt very unique to me. And don't get it twisted, this is not the sapphic romance people like to bill it as. It's much more complicated than that.

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angiepoggi's review

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adventurous dark reflective 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

3.5

I didn't hate or love this book. I liked the world building being an analogy to France colonizing North Africa. Thus, it touches on themes such as racism, xenophobia and religious prejudice, but in a fantasy world with magic and many queers.

However, I didn't like the pace. It was slow (which I don't have a problem with) but boring. It took a long time for things to happen and there's a lot of time spent just talking, for example, until halfway through the book, about 245 pages, we were still building the narrative. Not to mention that, when some type of action could've happen, being running around or the characters discovering a secret on their own, a character immediately tells them everything and resolves the possible conflict quickly. Also, after halfway through the book, the pacing becomes very inconsistent, with the ending, the very end, very rushed, but that part didn't bother me as much.

Now, I didn't like one of the main characters, Touraine. She makes some decisions that made me so ANGRY AAA and they didn't make any sense, I mean, in theory they could've made for her, but the author didn't build much of a foundation for it. For example, in relation to the development of this character, I know the points the author wanted to reach in Touraine's journey, but there were none to few scenes to justify the key changes in her head.

Even with all these reservations, I'm still curious to read the second one. I heard that it's a different vibe and that the pacing is better balanced.

Anyway, I recommend this book if you want to read a fantasy that talks about colonialism with a lot of queers. There are a lot of people who love it, including a friend who wanted me to read it, so I think it's worth giving it a chance.

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lady_valhella's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

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nerdy_reader_9571's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is very slow with both its plot and character development, but it’s worth reading through to its conclusion. I really liked the world building in this book and its exploration of empire and of the complicated relationships that people can have to an empire based on their upbringing and station within the imperial hierarchy.

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lbelow's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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bisexualwentworth's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is utterly brilliant. It's one of the best things I've read so far this year. It reignited my love for high fantasy. And it's the author's DEBUT?! Phenomenal.

The Unbroken is a military fantasy set in a fantasy version of North Africa (the former Shālan Empire) that has been colonized by fantasy France (Balladaire). It follows two point-of-view characters: Touraine, a Qazāli-born conscript of the imperial army, and Luca, the crown princess of Balladaire, and their complicated relationship with each other, both as individuals and as stand-ins and representatives for their nations and cultures.

I haven't read another fantasy novel that explores internalized oppression, empire, and white saviorism in quite the gorgeous and intertwined way that C. L. Clark does in The Unbroken.

When we first meet Luca, she is a princess and a scholar, passionate about doing right by her people—so that she can take the throne that is rightfully hers from her uncle the Duke Regent. As a scholar, she has theoretical knowledge of the horrors of empire. She expresses interest in and respect for Shālan culture in a way that no other Balladairan-born character does. These aspects of Luca endear her to the reader—and draw Touraine to her as the two women grow closer. And then she loses herself to the same colonizing impulses that she thought herself better than earlier in the novel.

When we first meet Touraine, all she cares about is the wellbeing of her fellow conscripts. They are her family, and she will do whatever necessary—even on behalf of the empire that took everything from them—to protect that family and do what she thinks is best for them. Unlike Luca, Touraine is fully grounded in the realities of her situation—and then her world shifts and expands. She makes mistakes. She fucks things up. And she is complex and heartbreaking and BRILLIANT. Touraine's growth over the course of this book stunned me. It made me feel so many things so deeply. Her entire mindset changes, gradually and painfully, over the course of the novel, without changing what makes up her essential self.

The worldbuilding is delicious. C. L. Clark obviously draws all of the aesthetics and language of both Qazāl and Balladaire from the real world, but she also incorporates trade, religion, political theory, and even disease in ways that make the world feel unique and fresh and lived in.

I don't want to talk about the plot too much because I think that readers should discover its twists on their own, but I cannot wait to discuss their book at greater length with more spoilers at some point.

My one real critique of this book is that I didn't feel like I understood the magic well enough for the heavy lifting it does in the climax and resolution of the book to be totally satisfying.

Additionally, if you are looking for romance, this is the wrong book for you. To be clear, it is VERY sapphic. And if you enjoy hot women with swords, you are absolutely going to eat this shit up. But I would not call the extremely fraught entanglement between the two main characters romantic. It is far more complicated than that, and I feel like boiling down Touraine and Luca's dynamic to the sexual or romantic desire of it would be an insult both to Touraine's character and to the overall goals of the novel. There is not a romance between the leads in this book, nor should there be.

There IS a sapphic side couple in this book that will likely break your heart, though.

Oh, and HOLY MOMMY ISSUES OH MY GOD.

Favorite quotes:

"Maybe she had been a dog all this time, but she was ready to fight back."
"It was easy to be a villain when she felt like on inside."
"A smattering of applause. Less than she'd hoped for, more than she had any right to expect."

It likely goes without saying that this book handles its diversity brilliantly. The world is queernormative and seemingly lacking in any sort of gender roles, but it has all of the other violences and bigotries and evils of our own world. Luca is physically disabled, and the book handles her disability beautifully.

C. L. Clark is the sort of writer I want to be. I can't wait to read The Faithless.

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ashatroyal's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional lighthearted sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

The story was interesting enough but lolled as the story progressed. Took me a very long to finish. It turned up in the second half though. Definitely some plot twists I didn’t expect. The book is described as fantasy but is more a war story with touch of magic. I also felt like magic was used a crutch to resolve certain conflicts. We really only saw it to save someone’s life. Although this wasn’t a romance, I didn’t feel the chemistry between Touraine and Luca.

I like that essentially there are no gender roles. This books underlying theme is violent women in positions of power.

I could tell from the beginning that Touraine was a bit naive of what’s really going on in this war. She’s a bit brainwashed. My biggest issue is that Touraine isn’t loyal. She goes where she’ll be accepted at the time. Between Touraine and Luca, it was bad decision after bad decision.

Who tipped the soldiers off where Touraine was? If the other soldiers found her bound, how did she kill the Beledaire soldier? Why wasn’t that brought up? What took Luca so long to ask questions at the hearing?

Great world building and details. It was a lot of characters to keep up with.

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