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viselik's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The characters were all very interesting to me except maybe one or two, even if I felt that five main POV characters were a bit too much. I would have personally preferred having either Phalue or Ramani not having POV chapters, as I felt they just took up space that could have been better used elsewhere. Having them be in a relationship is definitely interesting. Still, it just made me really dislike Ramani as a character due to how she treats Phalue. I just did not see any connection between them from Ramani's POV chapters. Sand, I just was not interested in, they brought interesting concepts but they felt a bit disjointed with the rest of the book, even more so with the ending of their arc.
This book definitely holds up as a standalone (excluding some minor things). I always prefer a book in a series that can be enjoyed just as a standalone and not have to rely on the other books in the series to have a complete plot.
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
Humans meltingthenexthing'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? No
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content
thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror and Gore
I'm not sure how to label it (I went ahead and tagged gore and body horror, but that's not exactly it), but the magic system here is bone magic so there's a lot of death-adjacent stuff going on with that. I didn't find it to be particularly graphic or icky, but you know...it's bone magic.caspian_the_pauper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
booksalacarte'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? No
4.25
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
kaziaroo'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? It's complicated
4.5
My only real criticism is that I felt the book would have been better without Ranami and Phalue's POV chapters. Their story had an interesting message and moral dilemma but it just didn't seem to fit and their chapters were quite dull to get through compared to the rest of the book. As a novella on their own, those chapters would have been fine, but I found myself skim-reading them to get back to Jovis, Lin and even Sand. Maybe more will come of Ranami and Phalue in the sequel, but I just couldn't get behind their relationship or find the point of their storyline or its impact of the overall plot.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: War
gatorademachinegun's review against another edition
- 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? N/A
5.0
Moderate: Body horror and Violence
Minor: Abandonment and War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
The plot has several threads, following each of the main characters. The blurb implies that Lin is the only main character, but Jovis plays an enormous role (meeting all but one of the other main characters at various points), and the romance between Phalue and Ranami felt complex and real. Lin is the daughter of the emperor, trying to get her father's approval by getting back memories she lost in a sickness several years ago. Jovis is a smuggler who is trying to find his wife who was kidnapped five years ago. He ends up rescuing children from having their shards taken. Phalue is the daughter of a governor on one of the islands, and Ranami is her girlfriend who keeps turning down Phalue's marriage proposals because Phalue doesn't seem to understand the enormity of her privilege in comparison to everyone on the island. There's a woman called Sand who is trying to escape her current situation, I don't want to spoil anything about her but she seems set up to do much more in the sequel.
Lin has spent years trying to get her father's approval, and is frustrated by his ableist insistence that she's not whole unless she can get back the memories she lost. Desperate to get him to pay attention to her as she is and not as she was, Lin starts copying his keys to get access to rooms that might hold knowledge of the magic he should be teaching her. She's in competition with her foster brother Bayan since he regained more of his memories and seems to continually be one step ahead of her in getting the emperor's attention.
The relationship between Phalue and Ranami briefly dips into some toxic territory as Phalue doesn't seem to understand or know how to take seriously Ranami's concerns. It definitely helps that both of them are narrators, so their perspectives are shown directly at various points.
Jovis ends up with an animal companion after he saves it from the water during a disaster early one. Mephi is pretty cool and not annoying, which is a relief because sometimes I end up detesting animal sidekicks.
The magic system is based on using bone taken from the empire's citizens as children. The shards can be used to power constructs, and once in use they slowly drain the life force of their original owner. The emperor uses an elaborate array of constructs to do all the imperial bureaucracy which could be done by people, but he doesn't trust anyone else to do it right. This setup means that the way the lower classes are exploited is more than just cruelty and resource hoarding by the rich, but that their very lives can be taken, slowly, by an emperor they'll never see, if he happens to pick their shard from a drawer and use it to fuel a construct. I love the way the magic system is inseparable from the political structure and brewing uprising.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Vomit, and Death of parent
gayghostprince'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
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Blood, Kidnapping, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Grief