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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
⭐️Three Stars at a push⭐️
"there are always voices that speak against an outsider." Page 35
"'The grand jeu is not game. It is the opposite of a game. It is our way of paying attention to something outside ourselves. And what is outside ourselves - whatever truly exists - is the divine. We remake the world so that we can submit to it; and what we encounter, in the act of playing the grand jeu, is the truth." Page 57
" 'Since You want to work on something risibly difficult . . . How about death?.' 'Death?' I repeated, like an idiot. "There's a lot of material. I mean, it's huge. Enormous. I think we'd be mad-' He caught himself and looked away, tensing, as he waited for me to make the inevitable comment about his family. There was a second's pause, and then he went on in a kind of rush. 'We'd be mad to do it. But ... there's a musical precedent. The Danse Macabre - Saint-Saëns, Liszt.' 'Shakespeare, Dante,' I said. '"I had not thought death had undone so many ..." He grinned. 'The structure of the Requiem Mass, the tension between an individual and infinity - asymptotes...' 'Yes! The rituals of mortality, decomposition and belief in the eternal.' // 'The impossibility of comprehending the magnitude of our own demise - our own insignificance.' He was teasing me, but he was excited, too, I think. 'The undiscovered country - the deepest mystery of existence itself!' " page 108/9
"We may not like each other, but it almost feels as though we understand each other better than anyone else." Page 113
"It's Midsummer Eve. The air is still, like glass. The valley holds the night like a bowl, frothy with stars. The silence is as thick as deafness." Page 332
"Equals, opponents, rivals, lovers." Page 367
"there are always voices that speak against an outsider." Page 35
"'The grand jeu is not game. It is the opposite of a game. It is our way of paying attention to something outside ourselves. And what is outside ourselves - whatever truly exists - is the divine. We remake the world so that we can submit to it; and what we encounter, in the act of playing the grand jeu, is the truth." Page 57
" 'Since You want to work on something risibly difficult . . . How about death?.' 'Death?' I repeated, like an idiot. "There's a lot of material. I mean, it's huge. Enormous. I think we'd be mad-' He caught himself and looked away, tensing, as he waited for me to make the inevitable comment about his family. There was a second's pause, and then he went on in a kind of rush. 'We'd be mad to do it. But ... there's a musical precedent. The Danse Macabre - Saint-Saëns, Liszt.' 'Shakespeare, Dante,' I said. '"I had not thought death had undone so many ..." He grinned. 'The structure of the Requiem Mass, the tension between an individual and infinity - asymptotes...' 'Yes! The rituals of mortality, decomposition and belief in the eternal.' // 'The impossibility of comprehending the magnitude of our own demise - our own insignificance.' He was teasing me, but he was excited, too, I think. 'The undiscovered country - the deepest mystery of existence itself!' " page 108/9
"We may not like each other, but it almost feels as though we understand each other better than anyone else." Page 113
"It's Midsummer Eve. The air is still, like glass. The valley holds the night like a bowl, frothy with stars. The silence is as thick as deafness." Page 332
"Equals, opponents, rivals, lovers." Page 367
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
I just found this so confusing and quite boring - eventually gave up at 65%. Read a summary with spoilers and I’m glad I stopped when I did. Not for me I’m afraid!
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The other is a TERF amongst other reasons
I have a lot to say about this book so i’ll try to condense my thoughts into bullet points.
- Read the Binding and loved the fantasy elements and storyline, though it was slightly melodramatic at times and the three part structure let it down.
- The Betrayals took everything I disliked about the Binding and amped it up.
- Low-rate melodrama at best.
- Characters sound and behave like angsty teenagers throughout the whole book, so there’s no real arc to their characters.
- No fantastical elements at all. Just a made up game that uses classical music and ‘maths’ (whatever the hell that means).
- The most repetitive book I’ve ever read, the same crap gets said so many times but re-worded. Author should look into being an SEO specialist.
- The forced themes of class, political agenda and oppression are just lazy and empty. They act as a tarpaulin backdrop to a tedious melodrama.
The descriptive language was poetic, her writing style is great if you look closely. I was hoping for a sequel or a book set in the universe of the Binding, but instead we got this. Perhaps this was a finished manuscript that was declined for publishing before the Binding? Who knows. I can’t believe the editor cut out 60,000 words from the original manuscript. I literally skipped chapters a couple at a time in the middle of the book out of boredom.
Unfortunately, if her next book isn’t a second Binding, I won’t be revisiting this author.
- Read the Binding and loved the fantasy elements and storyline, though it was slightly melodramatic at times and the three part structure let it down.
- The Betrayals took everything I disliked about the Binding and amped it up.
- Low-rate melodrama at best.
- Characters sound and behave like angsty teenagers throughout the whole book, so there’s no real arc to their characters.
- No fantastical elements at all. Just a made up game that uses classical music and ‘maths’ (whatever the hell that means).
- The most repetitive book I’ve ever read, the same crap gets said so many times but re-worded. Author should look into being an SEO specialist.
- The forced themes of class, political agenda and oppression are just lazy and empty. They act as a tarpaulin backdrop to a tedious melodrama.
The descriptive language was poetic, her writing style is great if you look closely. I was hoping for a sequel or a book set in the universe of the Binding, but instead we got this. Perhaps this was a finished manuscript that was declined for publishing before the Binding? Who knows. I can’t believe the editor cut out 60,000 words from the original manuscript. I literally skipped chapters a couple at a time in the middle of the book out of boredom.
Unfortunately, if her next book isn’t a second Binding, I won’t be revisiting this author.