Reviews with content warning for Blood - One Dark Window

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

141 reviews

not_another_ana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

"The girl, the King..." I breathed. The Nightmare's voice burned through my mind. And the monster they became.

The city of Blunder is cursed. Not only is it surrounded by a mist that drives people mad, but its inhabitants also have to contend with "the fever", an ailment that either kills the child that contracts it or bestows upon them magic. However, all magic has a price, and anyone who survives this is bound to "degenerate" in violent or fatal ways. For this reason, all magic is forbidden, except for the use of these magic cards (in possession of the nobles) that keep the user safe from degeneration, and any survivor of the fever must be executed.

Elspeth Spindle survived this illness and managed to hide this fact from the public. She now lives a mostly normal life and is seemingly powerless, except for the Nightmare, a shadowy monster that lives in her head and lends her his strength in times of need. One day she runs into the king's nephew and, when her secret partially gets out, is dragged into a mission that could potentially cure her as long as she manages to collect all the magic cards before the solstice. But magic always comes with a price and the degeneration might find her first.

Is this book good? Debatable. Did it keep me reading? Yes, I will give it that. The action in this is very compelling and something is always happening, forcing the reader to keep turning the pages. At the same time it's a plot that is both contained and empty. If I had to describe this book in one word, I would say it's serviceable, it knows exactly what it is and executes it in a sufficient way. The plot is a vehicle for the romance so a lot of world building and interesting ideas get sidelined in favor of the relationship between Elspeth and Ravyn. This brings me to my first point: everyone's names were soooo bad, I wrote "unmoanable" in my notes. Is this a petty grievance? Yes, but it did bother me.

Now to my biggest gripe: the world building. As I mentioned before, the author didn't put any care into weaving the setting of this book. I have no idea what Blunder looked like or its geography, somehow they were able to quickly travel from the King's castle to any other place on the map by riding a horse really fast. It seems like the setting is vaguely medieval, at least culturally, yet Elspeth (the oldest daughter of a noble) walks alone in the middle of the night, stays at her suitor's estate without any sort of maid or chaperone, and spends time alone with men who aren't related to her, with no damage to her honor. We see almost nothing of the average citizen's experience, it's all from the noble's point of view, and this makes the environment feel fake like a Hollywood set. I also find it odd that in a place with magic and superstition there doesn't seem to be any kind of organized religion around either the providence cards or the spirit of the woods.

The romance was fine, a bit instalove-y but not the worst thing I've come across. Ravyn is a bit of a generic dark haired love interest, but I did like their interactions and at least they had something in common.

Ngl I kinda thought the Nightmare and Elspeth had chemistry LMAO. I blame reading too many Venom fics for this ok, but I genuinely thought they had something going on and then Ravyn turned up and I was like ah. Curse my active imagination!

The other characters were there, the only one I felt got a bit more depth was Elm and it still was quite superficial.

Was the prose flat? Yes. Did the rhymes suck? Absolutely. Is the author quite heavy handed with what she's trying to say? Correct. And yet I read this whole thing in like a week, and I just started reading book two, so she won and I'm a fool.

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neffypants's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

The world building of this book is absolutely fantastic, from the way the magic system is set up to the way it is used throughout the whole. How Espeth talks with the nightmare is fantastic and really gives a certain kind of perspective to the FMC than just a 'damsel in distress' . Also, I wouldn't call this a enemies to lovers, but it has that vibe.

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payton_layne's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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gracemcbee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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amy14's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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alba_1994's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This had a great premise. I just felt the character design was very shallow which resulted in inconsistent actions and undeep relationships.

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abbyweber's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

This was a great start to the duology. The world building was clear and the characters so well developed. I’m just glad I don’t have to wait for the second book to come out because that was quite the cliffhanger! I can tell the author took the time to develop this story. The care and attention she gave to the characters and their roles to the story is evident and I really appreciate that. This, my friends, is how you write a gothic fantasy romance.

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druzyquartz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cherry_bloom's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Sooo this is basically fem Naruto and shadowy Kurama story in the world of magic cards, knights and magical ghosts.

I'm kinda disappointed because these characters have deep backgroud stories but they have no personality traits whatsoever.

Also the main girl isn't strong or cold like author wants us to believe she just always cries and she isn't even cry baby she just cries for aesthetics... 😭

Moreover the love story...... WHERE IS THE TENSION??!! It's bland probably 'cause of bland characters...

Anyways I thought it's gonna be 5 stars read but sadly it's only 4 and I would probably rate it 3 stars if I wasn't reading trashy books recently and this book is well put together just wasn't entertaining for me .

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yilliun's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I ate this up. I’ve been in a reading slump for the past few weeks and this officially rescued me

not unlike Ravyn trying to save Elspeth

.

Although the magic system is not completely an original idea, I like how the author developed it. I would have appreciated a glossary at the back of relevant terms and characters because I found myself often forgetting which card bestowed what power.

I appreciated that the romance was more a side plot than the main focus. The story would be able to stand on its own without the romantic elements. Out of all the characters, Hauth and Nerium both felt a little cliche to me and the most cartoonish villain figures. Besides that, I think all the other characters were well fleshed out.

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