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sparkletits's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Incest, and Body shaming
h4ppycupcake'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
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Confinement, Bullying, Grief, Racism, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide
ladythana'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
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, Child abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Dementia, Sexism, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Misogyny
Minor: Miscarriage, Kidnapping, and Racism
ellen_is_reading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Grief and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Child abuse, Death, and Classism
littki's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Suicide
Minor: Chronic illness, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders
saturdayreaderinpink'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
Compared to other books I’ve read as of late, I took a longer time with this. The pacing is relatively slow. But, what really struck me is the excellence of the writing. Sarah Monette has a clear and precise literary voice. Some books will linger on realizations or experienced the character has to emphasize how profound they sound. Monette has no need to do that. She has a story to tell and doesn’t waste time indulging in her own genius. Instead, this profound and clear literally voice flows austerely swift through a slow and even narrative.
I would give The Goblin Emperor five stars because it’s one of the best written books I’ve ever read but I rank based on personal experience. The slow even pacing I like so much about this book made the end drag a bit for me. Not much! But the dense descriptions and obscure fantasy name/references (which the Kindle search feature helped wonders with) could sometimes feel bothersome.
What kept me engaged was not only fondness for the lovable main character Maia, but his relationships with those around him. Particularly with his nohecharis, Idra, the Avar, Csevet, and Dach’osmin Ceredin. Watching Maia grow into a more capable and capable leader so so satisfying. I loved his internal monologue and I loved the slow, tentative, and rewarding build of his relationships.
The Goblin Emperor also goes into some detail about the impact a patent can have on you and the impact an abuser can have on you, and the lingering of both.
Favorite Quotes
She was not at all pretty, her nose too long and her chin too weak, but her eyes were sharp and full of light, and even of kindness.
Perhaps canst meditate with one other in the room? he offered, aware of his own doubtful tone, like a man offering a screaming child a sweet.
“Serenity,” Cala said, “you do not have to do this. No one requires it of you.”
“I do,” Maia said tiredly, and Cala retreated again.
After a time, he felt a deeper rhythm, the rhythm of the stone and water, not the rhythm of his words and heartbeat. He breathed into this deeper rhythm, let it teach him a new mantra, a wordless mantra that waxed and waned, ebbed and flowed, moon and stars and clouds, river and sun, the wordless singing of the earth beneath it all like the world’s own heartbeat. He laid his palms flat on the stone beneath him and listened in quiet rapture to the mantra of the world’s praying.
He took her hand carefully. There was nothing, he thought, that needed to be said, and he remembered from his own mother’s death that she had not wanted to speak very much in the last two or three days that she was cognizant. She had wanted to look at him, to hold his hand. To know that he was there. And he thought there was a light of relief in Osmerrem Danivaran’s eyes when she realized he wasn’t going to make her struggle either to speak or to listen. He held her hand and thought about how kind she had been to him when he was eight, and thought about Thara Celehar saying the prayer of compassion for the dead with the same attention the last time as the first. And when he could see that she was beginning to fade away from this moment of clarity, he stooped and kissed her forehead.
She folded her hands together and bowed to him across them, an old-fashioned gesture of respect and grief. “Varenechibel was like a killing frost.” They were silent a moment, in token of having survived Varenechibel IV
Graphic: Death of parent
sashahc'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Abandonment and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent
izzywoo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Racism, Grief, Violence, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders
tasseomancie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Suicide
The main character reminisces on the death of a parent and abuse by a guardian within the first 50 pages. There is a ritualistic suicide of a side character depicted in the latter half of the book, and ritualistic suicide is briefly mentioned in a few other places.pearrots's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Abandonment