Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

25 reviews

jjjreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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bruisedtigers's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was disappointing after seeing it so highly praised and discussed. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half falls flat, and the conclusion didn't land for me at all. There are too many characters, very few of which are unique enough to easily tell them apart, and that made all the war games difficult to follow. I kept mixing up who belonged where, what they offered, and their personalities didn't stand out. It might've been better if (major ending spoilers)

Baru's betrayal wasn't a 'surprise twist' -- and the reader experienced her struggle more directly through the whole war. Instead, since it's all her POV, she abruptly just becomes less insightful as a narrator, and you can put two-and-two together. Justice for Tain Hu, the only really good character. If I didn't already know she died, this would've probably made me much more upset about it. I think they needed to actually be together for more than one night for that betrayal to really cut deep. Instead, it feels gaudy.

I probably won't pick up the sequels, unfortunately. Highly suggest looking up content warnings as well.

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dwellordream's review

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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eegekay's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

5.0

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fe_lea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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? Yes

3.5

“What would it mean if Aurdwynn looked to a foreigner for its salvation? How could we reject all the Masquerade’s notions of heredity if we needed foreign blood to free ourselves?”

Baru Cormorant’s island gets invaded by the Empire of Masks and they kill one of her fathers. She decides to join the Masquerade, to learn their secrets and master their ways so she can later destroy the empire from within.

This book is far from perfect, but I generally enjoyed it. The pacing is slow, much slower than I’m used to, but I was fascinated in its focus on fiscal and monetary policies in starting/stopping a rebellion. I read this for the geopolitics and economics, and while it didn’t exactly deliver on the geopolitics part, I was pretty much satisfied with the economics part.

“It’s not what the Masquerade does to you that you should fear (…) It’s what the Masquerade convinces you to do to yourself.”

What I liked: If you haven’t guessed it yet, my favorite part about this book is the economics and finance part, lol. As an econ grad and former civil servant who worked on fiscal policies, this wasn't surprising, lol. I really liked that this focused more on the use of economic policies over military strategies because the latter would just fly over my head. The fiscal and monetary strategies were easier for me to follow. Sure, the concepts were basic and not really how they would work so some suspension of disbelief had to be done, lol, but I had fun reading. Another thing that really hooked me was the use of culture as a tool of empire and colonialism. I liked how that was written. It was brutal and so, so relatable.

What I didn’t like: The worldbuilding felt lacking. I couldn’t picture the world and the book could really use more descriptions. I couldn’t tell the duchies apart and I had a hard time following who’s allied with who. Basically, the geopolitics was clumsily written. Another thing I didn’t like was that the characters were indistinguishable from one another. Aside from Baru, Tain Hu, and Muire Lo, I don’t remember any of the other characters now, and I couldn’t tell them apart. I did like Baru though, she was cold, calculating, and very distant. I can see how people will hate this kind of writing but it kinda worked for me. One last thing is the writing style, there was a lot of telling and minimal to no showing. I think the author got carried away with the minutiae of the economics and accounting that the other parts got forgotten, lol, good thing this worked for my selective brain. I probably won’t reread this book in the future, as I have a feeling I won’t like this the second time around 😅

For a debut novel, this was a pretty good start. I do hope it improves from here.

“I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood.”

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