Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

10 reviews

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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skienight's review

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.75


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vivavia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

3.75


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alexalily's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0


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leaflit's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0


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griffinthief's review against another edition

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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

3.0


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candidceillie's review

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5.0

literally all of the CWs for this one. It's a hard book. 

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booksthatburn's review

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challenging dark sad 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

5.0

THE UNBROKEN is a tale of colonialization, uprising, and a stolen child returning to her homeland as a conscripted soldier ordered to bring it to heel. Touraine is one of the Sands, the term for Qazāli people stolen as children and raised to be soldiers by the Balladaire. This puts her in the position of being used to enforce restrictions on the people she came from. Events early in the book remove her from the Sands, the people she's lived with, fought alongside, and bled with all her life to instead be in service to princess Luca. The rest of the book explores Touraine's confused attempts to figure out what she wants and what she's willing to die for, as well as Luca's desperate attempts to hold on to power through the slim thread of her uncle's distant regard and her subordinates' loyalty. One of the strengths of THE UNBROKEN is it highlights the way that someone who is marginalized in their own group but has power and privilege over another group often uses that relative power to gain a sense of control by oppressing someone else. Luca's physical disability and precarious political position lead her to make harsher choices in order to not appear weak, something that would probably be less on her mind if she weren't constantly worried about people mistaking her physical impairment for lack of will. 

The tension between Luca and Touraine is very well handled, as throughout the story their dynamic as a pair constantly shifts, but they're never quite on the same page about the nature of their relationship. It showed over and over how no matter how attracted they might be to each other, the gulf of power between Luca's position and Touraine's means that it's impossible to trust any "Yes" from Touraine when Luca can have her tortured or killed for a "No". This affects everything from their mutual attraction to the treatment of the Sands to the handling of the rebels. 

I love the portrayal of the Qazāli rebels, I can't discuss much there without spoilers but they were dynamic as a group and as individuals, each with their own reactions to Touraine and Luca's various intrusions on their lives, as well as the reality of life under Balladaire's oppressive colonial rule. 

I'm looking forward to the sequel, I'm a little worried that it'll only get worse for the characters from here but I want to know what happens next.

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achingallover's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0


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