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melliedm's review
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, and Gun violence
heather667's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Chronic illness, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Torture, and Vomit
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Excrement
Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Rape
taratearex'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a fantasy loosely based on French colonization of a North African country, I was on board from the start with that premise as I studied Arabic and lived in Egypt for a summer, so I really enjoyed seeing the fantasy elements that referenced this and I thought this worked really well and was really well done, the world felt real and the worldbuilding interesting and detailed. I enjoyed the absolutely messy characters in this, even if I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING a lot of the time, I think the messiness also did make sense when you think about Luca's desire for power fighting with her desire to be a good leader, this gets very white savior too so it's hard to sympathize with her character at all sometimes, but her as the opposing character to Touraine did make for interesting dynamics. And then Touraine, oof, her being deeply brainwashed by the military and then being thrown back into a world she should have known and dealing with a lot of trauma trying to free herself and find herself, she's a mess and it makes sense why- but the in world motivations for why characters sympathized with her did get a bit hard to believe. BUT everyone in this book is deeply flawed and so messy I went with it, and they are all handled with care, even side characters have stories to make them fuller people. Also the disability rep was great and I loved that it was a queer normative world.
Where I think it goes off the rail a bit is just that there are a lot of loose ends that get left dangling as you go through the book and so when I got to the last quarter I expected to see some of those tied up and instead it went kind of more off the rails. Motivations of characters became even more murky, the magic that gets introduced doesn't really get much explanation or time so I'm still not really sure what happened in a couple of the last scenes, and there's an alliance that seemed crucial sort of disappears?
Knowing that this is a trilogy it's always hard to know if some things are just being saved for the next book, so maybe some of these will be explained more in the next book, and I do think I will continue with the series as it was really engaging - it was very dense though so I totally see where some people lost interest in the complicated military and political dynamics, but I thought it was all very interesting, sometimes I'd look up and I'd just read for an hour without looking up, which is kind of rare for me.
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Death, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Vomit
alittleoverrated's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
But I am better at complaining than telling you its good.
I will give the book a slight pass on my first problem, which was what felt like a clumsily fast pacing because I listened to the book on 1.25x speed like three days straight while getting distracted at work, so sub optimal listening conditions. But still, I felt like I was being jerked around to the next thing pretty quickly with very little breathing room to get used to the characters in their current state and understand what they were feeling before they changed their mind an moved on to the next new thought. WHICH THEY DID A LOT, like i love these character but they could not stick to their convictions on anything. Touraine is boasted as a loyal to a fault solider, who betrays a different set of people like every five chapters. I get the character growth she was going through, I get the conflict of WHY, what I don't get is the doubling back multiple times. I was just a little tired of the constant back and forth by the end.
Also, Like I heard someone else mention in a review, the romance was not given enough time to slowburn at ALL before they were suppose to enemies again. There wasn't a strong enough foundation for the story they were trying to sell.
Anyways, just got the 2nd book in from the library and I'm going to devour it because why? say it with me folks. I really like this series anyways.
(Also, overused word of the book is bowels, which is just frankly the worst.)
Graphic: Blood, Death, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Excrement, Gore, Murder, and War
alexalily's review
- 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
Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Violence, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Gore, Police brutality, Slavery, and War
Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Torture, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Excrement, Self harm, Vomit, Cursing, and Child abuse
giuliaprim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Violence
Moderate: Colonisation and Racism
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Excrement, Torture, and Self harm
theirgracegrace's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Stalking, Torture, and Sexual assault
Minor: Cultural appropriation and Pregnancy
mybooksareincolourorder's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Blood, Excrement, Colonisation, and Death
Minor: Sexual assault
daniellestarredpages's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, and War
Moderate: Death of parent and Torture
paigemandia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Rape, Gun violence, Violence, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Death, Colonisation, Blood, Animal death, and Alcohol