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luna_noble's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Excrement
_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
gemstonejasper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Someone also said that this is a YA book, but it isn't. Darrow starts as a 16-year-old, but I have no doubt it was written for adults. Every time I was reminded that he was 16, it pulled me out of the story for a moment. It felt jarring. He didn't at all act 16. The audiobook narrator sounded like he was at least in his 20s. He was way too mature to be 16 and he starts out the story with a wife. I know that it was probably meant to demonstrate that kids are working these dangerous jobs in the mines. And his life experiences could 100% cause him to seem more mature than most 16-year-olds. But there are real developmental limitations on how his mind would work. So that pulled me out a few times.
To be honest, the book starts pretty slow in my opinion. It took me several chapters to really get into it. I liked it, but I would go a couple of days between chapters. But once they got into the school and things ramped up, I was in it. It just kept getting more and more intense. It was a wild ride, but I loved it. There were lots of surprises.
I would get a little annoyed because Darrow's motivation seemed to only revolve around his wife. It does struggle with the "woman written by a man" syndrome where his wife only existed and died to motivate him. Also, violence against women is used repeatedly to move the story forward. There were woman characters who only existed it be assaulted, and then Darrow could react to the abuse. There are other ways to show that someone is bad. Not every single bad guy needs to assault the women around them. But the rest of the book was really good, so I can overlook that.
Note: Sevro was the best by far. Protect him at all costs.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War
Minor: Cannibalism
emmalaya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual violence
litagentsaritza's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I would have liked to see more gender roles as this is truly binary in its depictions of gender and show little to no sexuality diversity. Races are also vague and there is very little disability rep that is also vague in its depiction .
Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, War, and Classism
Minor: Rape
_rils97's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Trigger Warnings: Murder, Sexual Assault, Body Mutilation, Cannabalism.
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism
neoralisa22's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Misogyny, Slavery, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma
naky's review against another edition
- 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: Death and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping
kaylanicholsmith's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I feel like I was really excited to get to this finally because of all the hype that I've heard over all the years and it was... fine? This book is kinda dense. You get thrown right into the world of Darrow, the main character, and you are learning as you go. There is nothing about the world, the language, the setting that is really explained to you. Darrow, as a character, kinda expects people to just know what he is talking about. Sometimes this narrative style works for me and other times it doesn't. Ultimately, the writing style as a whole just wasn't my favorite. I kept trying to remind myself that we are primarily reading from the perspective of teenage boys (yuck) but it just felt over the top with the juvenile quality sometimes. Also, my biggest pet peeve in books, any genre, is when the author has to insert fart jokes or fart commentary (usually as an insult to another character). I just can't stand it. The amount of times the author used "turd" could also warrant some kind of an award.
Despite the issues with the writing my biggest question with this story was the handling of sexual assault. On one hand, I feel like the author did do something a little different than a lot of other male fantasy/scifi writers - the female characters were not only there to be sexually assaulted and serve no other purpose. However, on the other hand, the amount of sexual assault still felt gratuitous and the female characters underdeveloped. While there is nothing graphic on the page, there is ample talk about the sexual assaults taking place, and not all of it is condemning the actions taking place. Granted, sexual violence is quite commonplace in war situations and the bystander effect is a terrible thing that happens everyday, but the author didn't really seem to tackle the issue quite as head on as he might have thought he was. Perhaps that was because there is SO MUCH going on in this first book - I think that we cover about 2 years in the course of this first book - and it flies. There is no real delving into any of the social issues that are being raised in the book. Everything felt super surface level.
I haven't totally written off the rest of the series but I'm in no major rush to continue on. I wonder if, as the story continues to build, that the commentary will become stronger and the writing more palatable but who knows. Maybe I never will... we'll see.
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism
luis_vieira's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Slavery, and Murder
Minor: Excrement and Injury/Injury detail