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moonchild_cos's review
- 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: Animal death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury
c_dmckinney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Infertility, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
immovabletype'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
3.25
idk. there were things that happened in the latter part of the book that i liked and i think were necessary to forward the narrative and themes. however. it just could've been done better. i will also say, this is sold as adult fantasy. i would argue it feels a lot more ya. the heroine is almost a classic ya heroine, the tropes are very ya tropes. these aren't necessarily bad things, but that's not gonna work for everyone, so i wanted to make a note of it.
i did enjoy this for the most part, i'm glad i read it because now i know that ava reid is gonna knock it out of the park for me someday (this was a debut). i'm quite looking forward to reading more from her.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: War
Genocide istriley'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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Racism, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: Physical abuse, Vomit, and Grief
srze's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Gore and Religious bigotry
archiveofrasa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
But I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy this book as much. It did take me quite a while to finish it and I grew pretty exhausted, which might be the reason why my enjoyment dwindled over time. I'm not sure if that is the book's fault or mine. The ending was really nice, linking all the stories Évike told to her being able to write them down. Very sweet.
This is also a pretty gruesome book. It doesn't really hold back, so check the content warnings.
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Antisemitism and Death of parent
bookmarkmyword's review against another edition
i did enjoy what i've seen of the lore/world building so far, the stories about deities thar the main character tells were interesting. and i liked the allegory on religion as a supremacist tool of oppression. but other than those, i haven't found anything else riveting enough to make me keep going. and the further i went into it, the more i lose interest so eventually i decided to just stop.
one of the major points of the story is to show that despite the main character's glaring differences with the love interest, they do have similarities and that they're significant enough for them to somehow be able to build understanding and even trust off of. but try as i might, i'm just not convinced.
my main issue with this is that gáspár and his people's views and treatment of évike's community is decidedly *not* on equal playing field as her people's contempt (and fear!) of the woodsmen, yet the narrative treats these two things as though they are. the woodsmen by order of the king literally aims to commit (if not already are committing) genocide on evike's people when all they want is to be left alone to live freely just like everybody else. her resentment and fear of him come from a real and valid place while his views and contempt of her come from lies propagated by power-hungry and bigoted people like the king and his brother who's seeking the throne. there is power at play in this world at large that is in favor of gáspár. no matter how badly he is being treated by his own blood and people, he will *never* experience the same cruelty that his king of a father and he himself as a woodsman bestow upon évike's community, at least not for the same reason. that's privilege and yet he never even deigns to acknowledge it.
also the "difference" they have? i wouldn't call it that, as they're not matters of personal taste on some frivolous thing. évike *belongs* to an oppressed group (shunned though she was within it) while gáspár is an *active agent* of oppression against said group. that this keeps being *glossed over* every time the "similarities" of their personal situations are brought up doesn't sit right with me. maybe it will be addressed later on but at this point, i don't want to wait and see if it will be different farther down the line anymore.
which brings me to my next point: those things considered, i don't get how évike was already entertaining thoughts about how attractive gáspár is so soon into the story. his behavior and views of her community are not something one simply gets past behind, no matter how aesthetically that person might be. i can kind of get the idea of forced proximity playing a part on their "mutual attraction" but i just can't wrap my head around how soon she was entertaining thoughts of how handsome he is, considering he hasn't even yet shown that he's trustworthy or at the very least open-minded enough to be willing to listen and learn from her experience of his people. yet somehow she already looks at him somewhat favorably,
anyways, comparing this book to naomi novik's spinning silver and katherine arden's the bear and the nightingale—both my all-time favorites!—is certainly... a choice. all i'm saying is whoever came up with that idea doesn't know what they're talking about. this is as similar to those two books as flipflops are similar to dress shoes.
Graphic: Xenophobia and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Gore
squids_can_read's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I thought that this book was pretty good. The world-building was amazing and the magic system was interesting. I would have liked a greater description of how people got their magic but that's okay. The main thing that I didn't like was that the main character was hypocritical because she believes that gods of other religions can exist just not the gods of the Woodsman. It just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Overall, I thought that this book was well written and I'm excited to read more by this author.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, and War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry
averi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War
Moderate: Ableism
marleywrites'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
Évike’s character has been through so much trauma, that when she finally grasped the truth of her magic, I was cheering for her. When she finally was able to wade through her trauma and get a handle on it later in the novel, I was so happy for her. The journey was rough, but we really see a lot of growth in Évike in this story. She experiences countless betrayals and is bullied relentlessly by not only her wolf-girl family, but also by the king and Nándor.
I really appreciated the comparison to Christianity, from a Jewish perspective. Reading this story made me want to dig into the stories and learn more about this religion.
Another aspect I really enjoyed was the travel involved. The journey itself was very engaging due to the beautiful depictions of nature, but I I loved meeting all the different creatures in the story. It was fascinating to see these mythological creatures come to life on the page.
Ava Reid’s writing really impresses me- it’s lyrical and lush and I can really feel every emotion and see everything just as the character sees it. I read their book <i>Juniper and Thorn</i> before this book, so I wasn’t sure if I’d find it as good. But honestly I loved both novels a lot and look forward to reading more books by Reid.
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Torture, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Body shaming, Sexual harassment, and War
I’m not sure if racism was the best word to use but they were discriminating against the Yehuli people based on their religion and blood. Wasn’t sure what to call that other than religious bigotry and racism/ethnicity based discrimination.