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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
I know what the author was trying to do with the language, but oh BOY was it horrid. A mixture of “thees” and “thous” and decidedly more modern language, it was linguistically offensive to the brain, as if someone combined an actually quite decent story with a Wattpad fan fiction of Othello on crack.
This book is phenomenal story wise. A great premise, a compelling main character (Maia), and full of the expected whimsy, there is no way I wouldn’t recommend reading this. But by far the book’s biggest challenge is the author, Katherine Addison who takes herself far too seriously to begin with, making the story feel like a caricature of a novel rather than a truly good read. Glossaries at the beginning are pointless without context, especially if they delay the narrative with pages of random names and places (begging the question, to put it quite bluntly, “who cares?”).
So to a prospective reader or someone DNFing, read this book! But for the love of the gods, pretend the author doesn’t exist. And maybe grab yourself a strong cup of tea.
This book is phenomenal story wise. A great premise, a compelling main character (Maia), and full of the expected whimsy, there is no way I wouldn’t recommend reading this. But by far the book’s biggest challenge is the author, Katherine Addison who takes herself far too seriously to begin with, making the story feel like a caricature of a novel rather than a truly good read. Glossaries at the beginning are pointless without context, especially if they delay the narrative with pages of random names and places (begging the question, to put it quite bluntly, “who cares?”).
So to a prospective reader or someone DNFing, read this book! But for the love of the gods, pretend the author doesn’t exist. And maybe grab yourself a strong cup of tea.
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
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Addison has obviously spent a lot of time on their world-building - it's well thought out and very rich - but I oftentimes felt myself lost with who all the similarly named characters were.
Diabolical how often I was sat repeating names and places out loud to see how they tasted
It was delicious
It was delicious
i will be honest, most of my books are recommended by queer sci-fi/fantasy forums, so i did read this entire book waiting for the main character to fall in love w one of the men around him, but that's on me. this was a lovely court intrigue with some very compelling and unique world building. the language choices are hard to parse at first but its well worth seeing it through.
Didn't finish. Very slow and obsessed with the formalities of the world. All and all just not for me.
Amazing. The way the prose was so complicated but read so simply. The way the main character was the sweetest most charming boy who I wanted to succeed more than anything. I couldn't tell you a single name or thing that happened only that I was delighted the entire time.
I would read Maia's pov forever.
I would read Maia's pov forever.
Very low plot, high politics. IMHO, too long. Definitely too long to not pass the Bechdel test
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
the main character doesn’t even have main character energy. he is a receptacle for the plot, not its engine.