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mollyelyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Excrement, and Vomit
maddiereadswords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
My biggest problem with it is that you can just tell this is the first adult novel by a YA author, and I don't say that to disparage YA at all!! It just feels like Leigh Bardugo wanted so badly for this to be an Adult Novel with Adult Themes, but rather than actually writing a story that engages on an adult level with complex themes, she just decided to throw in a bunch of drug use, body horror/gore, and graphic sexual assault to remind you that her characters are Adults in College. (Check the content warnings on this one if you need them!!) It was just way too much, and yet it did nothing? Like, Alex is a recovering drug addict, but at no point in time does that actually affect her as a character except to remind the reader of her fucked up backstory, even though she's constantly exposed to and using all kinds of magic drugs (and has no qualms about using them on others). Also, as an MC she's literally just so boring. All the characters kind of are tbh, and there's so much telling instead of showing about characters. We're told blatantly that Dawes likes taking care of people, like Bardugo doesn't trust the reader to put that together from context clues. We're told that Darlington's a gentleman, but he's really just a mediocre white guy with money (literally do not get me started on Darlington, he was such a nothing character to me and the fact that he's the fan favorite is disappointing, but not surprising.)
As for the plot, it's WAY too slow. I know even the people who love it say that it picks up like 100-150 pages in, but first of all, it should not take a third of the book for things to actually get moving. That's straight up just bad pacing. Also, the dual timelines were entirely too much. It took so long to catch up to the present, and the way the flashbacks were inter-spaced, it tended to disrupt any momentum in the actual story. Even when it did "pick up" it still felt like was crawling along at a snail's pace up until the very end. And speaking of the ending, it was SO unsatisfying. It was a mediocre resolution to a bad mystery because it wasn't like there was enough information thoughtfully woven into the story to encourage the reader to put together actual clues; it was all just withheld completely until the two (TWO!!) villain monologues at the very end which is just super frustrating.
This was such a disappointing read for me. I'm genuinely so glad that so many people love this book so much!! But it was definitely not for me. Literally the only thing that saved it from being a 1 star was that sometimes her prose was good when she wasn't beating me over the head with empty statements about characterization or waxing poetic about fucking New Haven. (I get it, you went to Yale! I do not care!!)
All of that being said, I am indeed still going to read the second book because the person who recommended it to me has insisted the second one is better, but I'm not optimistic it'll actually change my mind.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
reddragon07's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Pedophilia
jelliestars's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Classism
Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
csofi_najarro'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
4.25
2. Siento que, a pesar de ser dark fantasy, Bardugo menciona temas muy delicados a la ligera y en algunos caso podrían haber sido omitidos.
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Murder
Minor: Pedophilia
kllyholt'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
4.5
One other thing - content/trigger warning for an explicit scene of child sexual assault.
Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
patienceholmes'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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism
sydneybella913'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
4.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
lottiebrookes'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
4.5
All characters have fascinating development - I’m a particular fan of Dawes. FMC is fab, might take some warming up to but once understood on a deeper level she is daring, witty, and has real depth.
Has ghosts, magic, mystery, inter dimensional travel, drama, prestige, and a good few twists if that isn’t enough.
Would say to watch out for trigger warnings. These scenes can be a bit extreme. Is there a word for backwards necrophilia?
Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape
dwhiting's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, and Medical trauma