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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-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
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book - the author's writing style, the main character Maia, and the quirky mannerisms of the court in particular. I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if I hadn't listened to the audiobook (though the narrator did an excellent job). The flow of the story and the sheer number of characters, places and their unusual names seemed not to translate so well to the audiobook format. I'll admit that I'm new to audiobooks so it's probably not fair to rate this book 3 stars because of it.
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
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.