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catherinedsharp's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book was incredible! After buying it with hardly any exposition, I adored it. Not only is the cover beautiful but the writing too and I highly recommend to anyone who loves pirates, dragons, queendoms, adventures and more!
Although I placed this book as medium paced, the length of this book can be a little off putting and the density/complexity of the story can sometimes slow reading and understanding. Despite this though, the story is a fantastical adventure of many different characters who all link together in one plot line, although there seems to a very limited link at the beginning.
Additionally this book is slightly LGBTQIA*+ which is lovely! The representation is well written although it is a slow burn, and it is not the main focal point of the story, so I wouldn’t go into the story just for that.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and, although it was a long text, I found it enjoyable throughout and didn’t want to stop reading.
Although I placed this book as medium paced, the length of this book can be a little off putting and the density/complexity of the story can sometimes slow reading and understanding. Despite this though, the story is a fantastical adventure of many different characters who all link together in one plot line, although there seems to a very limited link at the beginning.
Additionally this book is slightly LGBTQIA*+ which is lovely! The representation is well written although it is a slow burn, and it is not the main focal point of the story, so I wouldn’t go into the story just for that.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and, although it was a long text, I found it enjoyable throughout and didn’t want to stop reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Lesbophobia, Violence, and Miscarriage
nila's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Really loved the style of Shannon's writing. This was a great stand-alone fantasy (I really hope there's no sequel). I LOVED the different character arcs and the richness of the world-building. However, I do wish there was a better balance between the build-up and the actual reveals of key moments in the story. I felt there was soooo much build-up, but when it came to the actual reveals themselves, it was over in a few pages (for example Tané's final battle to become a rider)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual content, War, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Addiction, Classism, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, Religious bigotry, Incest, and Pregnancy
lucithefer's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Violence, Xenophobia, War, Religious bigotry, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Gore, Alcohol, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Outing, and Animal death
leona's review against another edition
adventurous
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
2.0
I let this book sit for a bit before I wrote a full review, because I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it or what I wanted to write. Now, I'm still not sure what I want to write and I barely even remember how I feel about this book, not to mention I've forgotten like half of the plot and characters, and maybe that already sums up the majority of my feeling towards this book. Prepare for a big long rant.
Firstly, the characters. For the first half of the book, the only character I vaguely cared about was Niclays, the alchemist, because he had some interesting backstory and potential villain arc. He also had a few witty one-liners and was a pretty funny character at the start. My main problem was that we were introduced to like 100 characters in the first 100 pages. The beginning was so incredibly slow and boring, despite having a good opening couple of chapters, because every page damn it I was introduced to another 5 characters, with long, uninteresting and complicated names that I couldn't even remember. Now half of these characters are important for the later story, and half of them never show up again. This slows start made some of the plot reveals later completely uninteresting and almost irrelevant, for example, Igrain Crest being named as the traitor or whatever it was, because I didn't even remember who this Crest lady was and had no feelings towards her at all. Some of the characters became more interesting towards the end, I liked Ead and Tame, was meh towards Loth and still enjoyed Niclays arc. My god the scene where he finds out that Truyde is also dead is pretty heartbreaking. But I still didn't really feel that connected to any of the characters. For the majority of the first half to 2/3 of the book I found myself thinking, why do I care? I don't care whether they defeat the Nameless One, and I don't care if these characters die. Speaking of the Nameless One, this is another reason I found myself not caring. Our central villain to the plot barely makes an appearance until the tiny battle at the end and it has no motivations for being evil. It just is. No satisfying moral greyness, it's just evil because it is, but we don't really see it being that evil, no. The evil people are mostly the humans in the book doing things for the name of their religion or occasionally a 'wyrm' that comes in the nick of time to cause some chaos.
Now that brings me on to character deaths... Now, I feel quite mixed on this front. Some of them were good, and some of them were not. Most were used for shock value, and again, most of them I didn't really care about because I had no strong connections to any of the characters in the story, let alone the dead side characters. I found Kit's death, Truyde's, Sulyard's and Sabran's prince fella (sorry can't remember his name) to be relatively sad and I think the characters reactions to their friends death's were relatively realistic (but their could have been more grieving with some characters). Death's like Susa's (Tame's friend) however, were so egh. I don't care that you have told me she was your childhood friend. I've only seen you interact with her twice when you unloaded a criminal on her to preserve your own future. I don't care about Turosa your childhood bully, all he did was give you a few mean comments and he was never mentioned again. And there were no deaths in the main cast particularly either. And some parts were so messy.
Eg: When I thought Nayimathun had died (cause she was bleeding and just fell in the ocean after saying her last words or whatever) and just springs out magically alive to save Tame's arse again. Okay fine, the water saved you and now you're alive again. Great.
Or Margaret's fella, did he die? I don't think he did because it said he would live with a scar, but then Loth bursts in and says 'He's gone' or something and I'm like who? I think he meant the Nameless One but I was just confused.
And then that ending. WHAT THE HELL. Is Tame dead or not? Why has she woken up with a bloody great gash in her side? With absolutely no explanation at all! This is meant to be a stand-alone! What? I was pissed off.
Action: there was some, most of it came when the 'wyrms' decided to show up out of nowhere because the author felt like she needed to make the plot more interesting. However, the pirates that I didn't care about at the start at all actually became quite interesting and the plot line with Tame at the end was pretty cool. I also enjoyed the final battle although I think it was too short (it was only like 20 pages after about 700 pages of build-up. Generally, I don't feel like this was a very action-heavy story.
Now I must talk about something else, the quote on the back claiming this is a 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. Now I can see some similarities between this story and the Lord of the Rings including the ancient evil that hasn't really got any motivations for being evil, the magical items that will save the world, and the large cast of characters but really, it's nothing like it at all. I hate these kind of quotes on books. And just because it has a cast of characters including some strong women and a queendom, it doesn't make it necessarily feminist. Sure there were a few good quotes and one-liners but mostly this was about a woman running a queendom still in the wake of a patriarchy. The ideas of religion and how religious views can conflict with others I thought were pretty interesting. I just felt there needed to be more, more 'feminist' stuff, more character development.
Overall, I was going to rate this book 3.5 stars, but I decided to lower it to a 2, which on goodreads equates to: 'it was ok'. And it was. It was just ok. And considering this long rant review I really just couldn't justify giving it 3.5.
Firstly, the characters. For the first half of the book, the only character I vaguely cared about was Niclays, the alchemist, because he had some interesting backstory and potential villain arc. He also had a few witty one-liners and was a pretty funny character at the start. My main problem was that we were introduced to like 100 characters in the first 100 pages. The beginning was so incredibly slow and boring, despite having a good opening couple of chapters, because every page damn it I was introduced to another 5 characters, with long, uninteresting and complicated names that I couldn't even remember. Now half of these characters are important for the later story, and half of them never show up again. This slows start made some of the plot reveals later completely uninteresting and almost irrelevant,
Now that brings me on to character deaths... Now, I feel quite mixed on this front. Some of them were good, and some of them were not. Most were used for shock value, and again, most of them I didn't really care about because I had no strong connections to any of the characters in the story,
Eg: When I thought Nayimathun had died (cause she was bleeding and just fell in the ocean after saying her last words or whatever) and just springs out magically alive to save Tame's arse again. Okay fine, the water saved you and now you're alive again. Great.
Or Margaret's fella, did he die? I don't think he did because it said he would live with a scar, but then Loth bursts in and says 'He's gone' or something and I'm like who? I think he meant the Nameless One but I was just confused.
And then that ending. WHAT THE HELL. Is Tame dead or not? Why has she woken up with a bloody great gash in her side? With absolutely no explanation at all! This is meant to be a stand-alone! What? I was pissed off.
Action: there was some, most of it came when the 'wyrms' decided to show up out of nowhere because the author felt like she needed to make the plot more interesting. However, the pirates that I didn't care about at the start at all actually became quite interesting and the plot line with Tame at the end was pretty cool. I also enjoyed the final battle although I think it was too short (it was only like 20 pages after about 700 pages of build-up. Generally, I don't feel like this was a very action-heavy story.
Now I must talk about something else, the quote on the back claiming this is a 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. Now I can see some similarities between this story and the Lord of the Rings including the ancient evil that hasn't really got any motivations for being evil, the magical items that will save the world, and the large cast of characters but really, it's nothing like it at all. I hate these kind of quotes on books. And just because it has a cast of characters including some strong women and a queendom, it doesn't make it necessarily feminist. Sure there were a few good quotes and one-liners but mostly this was about a woman running a queendom still in the wake of a patriarchy. The ideas of religion and how religious views can conflict with others I thought were pretty interesting. I just felt there needed to be more, more 'feminist' stuff, more character development.
Overall, I was going to rate this book 3.5 stars, but I decided to lower it to a 2, which on goodreads equates to: 'it was ok'. And it was. It was just ok. And considering this long rant review I really just couldn't justify giving it 3.5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Gore, and Miscarriage
Minor: Cursing and Sexual content
liaandersson's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Where to begin?..
This could quite well be the best fantasy that I have ever read. There are tons of aspects which I adored and it is easier, for both you and I, if I take it in order.
Religion: Virtudom and the South have religions stemming from the same historical people, the differences being how these people are portrayed and what their acknowledged accomplishments were. These religious differences put a strain to the fragile relationship between the South and Virtudom. I think this is a terrific analogy of how for example, the real world has countries fighting over which is the one true religion, when the truth is there is no single right one. All of them are right, if they are right for a certain individual. I hope you will understand my sentiment once you have read it, I have a hard time conveying the message through writing.
Mislabeling: There are several instances where foreigners (in relation to the ethnic group discussed) call certain groups by derogatory terms or even slurs. It is, in my opinion, a well-executed representation of modern slurs as well as the misgendering of queer people. The reoccurring scenario where one 'foreign' individual calls another by a negative slur/term, which is then corrected as if someone was misgendered.
Queer: There is plenty of LGB representation among the main cast, as well as scattered information about historical figures and secondary characters. Still, there are no canon trans characters, even though I imagine some of them to be such. Other than the L, G AND B there is not much representation to see in regards of ace/aro, polyamory, intersex, trans and so on.
History: I loved how the history of the fictional world was incorporated as storytellings between characters, and other creative solutions. It took me a hundred pages or so to connect the dots between all the historical people and their relevance, but a bit of switching from the index back to the story here and there eventually solved all of those problems. It was all very much worth it before I even got halfway through the book.
Worldbuildning: Shannon managed to incorporate western, eastern and African fantasy. I loved to see how they all interacted with each other and enhanced one another. I don't believe I can have much to say about whether it was well represented or not, but I do hope it was done as best as could be.
A fair warning that this book, at least in my opinion, is more driven by the characters than by the plot. Due to this, I have heard the common opinion that the ending of the book is quite abrupt, while I think it is quite satisfactory, from the perspective of the character's developmental arcs.
Have a fun read!
Religion: Virtudom and the South have religions stemming from the same historical people, the differences being how these people are portrayed and what their acknowledged accomplishments were. These religious differences put a strain to the fragile relationship between the South and Virtudom. I think this is a terrific analogy of how for example, the real world has countries fighting over which is the one true religion, when the truth is there is no single right one. All of them are right, if they are right for a certain individual. I hope you will understand my sentiment once you have read it, I have a hard time conveying the message through writing.
Mislabeling: There are several instances where foreigners (in relation to the ethnic group discussed) call certain groups by derogatory terms or even slurs. It is, in my opinion, a well-executed representation of modern slurs as well as the misgendering of queer people. The reoccurring scenario where one 'foreign' individual calls another by a negative slur/term, which is then corrected as if someone was misgendered.
Queer: There is plenty of LGB representation among the main cast, as well as scattered information about historical figures and secondary characters. Still, there are no canon trans characters, even though I imagine some of them to be such. Other than the L, G AND B there is not much representation to see in regards of ace/aro, polyamory, intersex, trans and so on.
History: I loved how the history of the fictional world was incorporated as storytellings between characters, and other creative solutions. It took me a hundred pages or so to connect the dots between all the historical people and their relevance, but a bit of switching from the index back to the story here and there eventually solved all of those problems. It was all very much worth it before I even got halfway through the book.
Worldbuildning: Shannon managed to incorporate western, eastern and African fantasy. I loved to see how they all interacted with each other and enhanced one another. I don't believe I can have much to say about whether it was well represented or not, but I do hope it was done as best as could be.
A fair warning that this book, at least in my opinion, is more driven by the characters than by the plot. Due to this, I have heard the common opinion that the ending of the book is quite abrupt, while I think it is quite satisfactory, from the perspective of the character's developmental arcs.
Have a fun read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Infertility, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Abandonment, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Excrement, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Vomit, Colonisation, and Confinement
Minor: Confinement, Torture, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and Cursing
storykath's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
I ended up having very mixed feelings about this book, but overall I enjoyed it enough to give it a high rating.
Things I loved:
Dragons!! Good and evil dragons! Yes! Any story with dragons is going to capture my imagination, and I loved the variety of dragons and the characters' attitudes towards them, which felt real and engaging.
Multiple POVs: with this being such a long book with so many things happening, it was refreshing to cycle through multiple characters/locations/plots. This also meant that it took longer to feel like I had a good handle on all the moving parts in the novel, but it came together seamlessly enough as I went on.
Going along with that point, I found the pacing to be smooth and engaging. I've seen mixed reviews about the pacing of Priory, but it all felt natural to me. Of course the pace varied depending on what was happening, but it rarely felt out of control.
I have mixed feelings about:
The worldbuilding. Some aspects of the worldbuilding had wonderful nuance and ingenuity; I loved the concept of the dragonriders and the division of the East from the rest of the world. Other areas came across as more hastily put together. While kingdoms like Yscalin, the Erysr (really anything that wasn't Seiiki or Inys) are less relevant to the story, we only really learned surface-level details about them, and it often felt like they existed in service of the more central locations. The naming of places and characters was a mixed bag for me too - there are wonderfully unique names like Eadaz and Sabran alongside names like Margret and Arbella that jarred me with their similarity to real-world names. Additionally, the themes of politics and religion swung from 'insightful and nuanced and thought-provoking' to 'simplistic and rushed and unrealistic', although I will say that they fell into the former category more often.
On a similar worldbuilding note, the queer representation was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I was very much looking forward to reading a queer-inclusive fantasy, and we did get established M/M and F/F relationships. Minor spoilers ahead in my issues with these relationships. I was disappointed that both queer romances fell into a 'forbidden love' trope. If Shannon wants to establish that queer relationships are normalized in this universe, it would have been effective to have at least one character in a current, non-secret, same-gender relationship. I think there was one nobleman who made a passing mention to his husband, but I can hardly count that. I often found myself getting confused about whether it was the power difference between the partners that was the issue, or if it was the queerness, since the latter is a more accessible example in the real world. The relationship between Ead and Sabran was wonderful to read and very sweet, and while I know the book wasn't focused on the romance, I wish that more time could have been spent developing their relationship beyond just being romantic/sensual together. I feel like we missed out on seeing them just...being people in a relationship in the everyday sense.
The writing style itself. There was some absolutely beautiful prose in this novel, and I generally quite enjoyed the descriptions of architecture, nature, sensations, etc. At other times, especially in the description of emotions or characters, the writing felt clunky and tell-y (as opposed to show-y). I was immersed in the narrative one minute, and the next I was completely removed by a sentence or description that felt glaringly juvenile or simple. In a novel as long and complex as this one, there are a lot of opportunities for inconsistencies in character behaviour and writing style to come in and cause issues, and I feel that Priory fell victim to this at times.
Deaths for the purpose of other characters' development. I can understand that character death was inevitable in this novel, given the events of the story. However, many of the deaths of supporting characters felt like they occurred purely as a device to advance the plot or provide some kind of fuel for a main character. See Arbella dying to free up a spot among the Ladies of the Bedchamber, Kit dying in a random avalanche to harden Loth up, Susa dying to weigh Tané with guilt. Before their deaths, I had interest in these characters, where they'd go, what they'd do, but their deaths felt out of place and made me feel as though those characters had little purpose in the actual narrative.
Final thoughts
This is a beast of a book (approx. 16 hours of reading for me), and while it didn't meet all of my expectations, it was an accessible fantasy with an engaging premise, diverse characters, and a dynamic plot. I couldn't always totally lose myself in the story as a result of some of its shortcomings, but it's one that I would read again in order to pick up on more details and see more clearly how the strings of the narrative pull together.
Things I loved:
Dragons!! Good and evil dragons! Yes! Any story with dragons is going to capture my imagination, and I loved the variety of dragons and the characters' attitudes towards them, which felt real and engaging.
Multiple POVs: with this being such a long book with so many things happening, it was refreshing to cycle through multiple characters/locations/plots. This also meant that it took longer to feel like I had a good handle on all the moving parts in the novel, but it came together seamlessly enough as I went on.
Going along with that point, I found the pacing to be smooth and engaging. I've seen mixed reviews about the pacing of Priory, but it all felt natural to me. Of course the pace varied depending on what was happening, but it rarely felt out of control.
I have mixed feelings about:
The worldbuilding. Some aspects of the worldbuilding had wonderful nuance and ingenuity; I loved the concept of the dragonriders and the division of the East from the rest of the world. Other areas came across as more hastily put together. While kingdoms like Yscalin, the Erysr (really anything that wasn't Seiiki or Inys) are less relevant to the story, we only really learned surface-level details about them, and it often felt like they existed in service of the more central locations. The naming of places and characters was a mixed bag for me too - there are wonderfully unique names like Eadaz and Sabran alongside names like Margret and Arbella that jarred me with their similarity to real-world names. Additionally, the themes of politics and religion swung from 'insightful and nuanced and thought-provoking' to 'simplistic and rushed and unrealistic', although I will say that they fell into the former category more often.
On a similar worldbuilding note, the queer representation was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I was very much looking forward to reading a queer-inclusive fantasy, and we did get established M/M and F/F relationships. Minor spoilers ahead in my issues with these relationships.
The writing style itself. There was some absolutely beautiful prose in this novel, and I generally quite enjoyed the descriptions of architecture, nature, sensations, etc. At other times, especially in the description of emotions or characters, the writing felt clunky and tell-y (as opposed to show-y). I was immersed in the narrative one minute, and the next I was completely removed by a sentence or description that felt glaringly juvenile or simple. In a novel as long and complex as this one, there are a lot of opportunities for inconsistencies in character behaviour and writing style to come in and cause issues, and I feel that Priory fell victim to this at times.
Deaths for the purpose of other characters' development. I can understand that character death was inevitable in this novel, given the events of the story. However, many of the deaths of supporting characters felt like they occurred purely as a device to advance the plot or provide some kind of fuel for a main character.
Final thoughts
This is a beast of a book (approx. 16 hours of reading for me), and while it didn't meet all of my expectations, it was an accessible fantasy with an engaging premise, diverse characters, and a dynamic plot. I couldn't always totally lose myself in the story as a result of some of its shortcomings, but it's one that I would read again in order to pick up on more details and see more clearly how the strings of the narrative pull together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, and War
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Medical content
marscantread's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
I really enjoyed this book! The world building and character development were amazing, but the narrative does have some inconsistent pacing (this didn’t bother me too much, but it would be a fault for someone who enjoys books with a very well developed plot). I also really liked the sapphic side romance and the cast of characters had great diversity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Cursing
josie9's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and War
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War
Minor: Child abuse and Cursing
mollyfour's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Murder, Violence, Cursing, and Death
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Dementia, Infertility, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Torture, and War
fiveredhens's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
favorite quotes:
"This Jannart—the man you loved,"
she said, looking him dead in the eye. "Do you think he would want you to give up, or carry on?"
"I don't want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? ls no one else haunted?" A quiver of wrath entered his voice. "Everything I did—everything I was—everything I am, is because of him. He was someone before me. I am no one without him. I am tired of living without him at my side. He left me for that book and, by the Saint, I resent him for it. I resent him every minute of every day."
i liked the setting and characters but imo it was badly underedited and i didn't feel like the final battle had any stakes :( the characters haddefeated the odds so many times that the outcome was obvious and reading what i already knew became a chore
"This Jannart—the man you loved,"
she said, looking him dead in the eye. "Do you think he would want you to give up, or carry on?"
"I don't want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? ls no one else haunted?" A quiver of wrath entered his voice. "Everything I did—everything I was—everything I am, is because of him. He was someone before me. I am no one without him. I am tired of living without him at my side. He left me for that book and, by the Saint, I resent him for it. I resent him every minute of every day."
i liked the setting and characters but imo it was badly underedited and i didn't feel like the final battle had any stakes :( the characters had
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Dementia, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia