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theliteraryhooker's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I love Howard's writing, but the pacing was a bit off with this one. Certain pieces dragged while others felt way too rushed, especially towards the end of the book. An interesting magic system though and I enjoyed the characters quite a bit, especially Sydney!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder
Moderate: Vomit
clarabooksit's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Vomit
booksthatburn's review against another edition
I stopped reading because I’m concerned that this book where a secret and powerful group of magic users whose power is propped up by a secret location where children (and some adults) are tortured and killed in New York City might be antisemitic. It’s at least playing way more into blood libel than I’m comfortable reading.
I hated almost every character. Sydney and her employer are the most sympathetic characters among the magicians, and it seemed like most of the other magicians were meant to be somehow repulsive. Sydney are her employer are also the only magic users who are in the competition but not part of the established houses. At least as far as I got in the book, the members of the houses are varying degrees of unpleasant, from just generally complicit in the pain caused by their magic, all the way up to one being a serial killer who thinks his method of direct murder is better than the secret torture dungeon. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but I’m uninterested in the debate.
I hated almost every character. Sydney and her employer are the most sympathetic characters among the magicians, and it seemed like most of the other magicians were meant to be somehow repulsive. Sydney are her employer are also the only magic users who are in the competition but not part of the established houses. At least as far as I got in the book, the members of the houses are varying degrees of unpleasant, from just generally complicit in the pain caused by their magic, all the way up to one being a serial killer who thinks his method of direct murder is better than the secret torture dungeon. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but I’m uninterested in the debate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Self harm, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Slavery, Sexism, Murder, Torture, Racism, and Child death
Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, and Death of parent
e_len's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I honestly liked this book. The world was interesting and I liked the dark undertones, bleak atmosphere and the undercurrent of social critique.
The writing style was nice, easy to read as it is YA and the poetic descriptions of spellwork were nice to read, even if I could not understand the mechanics of it.
I liked the ending. Howard does not shy away from showing the consequences of decisions.
But it had major flaws:
1. It was not immersive. We do not get to be in the head of the characters, their thoughts and emotions were only shown sparingly. The reader has to guess from that, which was not said. But we do not have enough information nor have a reason to care for any of the characters.
2. Ties in into one. There are too many point of views, it was difficult to keep track of them, especially since some of them are really similar and have the same backgrounds.
The only one I cared a little about was Sydney, the main character, but even then we never zoomed in into her head.
3. World building problems. What about the magic outside New York? How come, it's not important? Why are the Houses Merlin and Dee in New York and not in England?
4. The fight between Sydney and Ian was really built up to be a fight for the death (which I cared nothing about because their romance didn't make sense to me anyway, but it was solved in a couple sentences and Sydney just gave up, (it was stated earlier that she could not, would never give up) and both walked away unharmed. All that built-up, all for nothing.
The writing style was nice, easy to read as it is YA and the poetic descriptions of spellwork were nice to read, even if I could not understand the mechanics of it.
I liked the ending. Howard does not shy away from showing the consequences of decisions.
But it had major flaws:
1. It was not immersive. We do not get to be in the head of the characters, their thoughts and emotions were only shown sparingly. The reader has to guess from that, which was not said. But we do not have enough information nor have a reason to care for any of the characters.
2. Ties in into one. There are too many point of views, it was difficult to keep track of them, especially since some of them are really similar and have the same backgrounds.
The only one I cared a little about was Sydney, the main character, but even then we never zoomed in into her head.
3. World building problems. What about the magic outside New York? How come, it's not important? Why are the Houses Merlin and Dee in New York and not in England?
4. The fight between
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism, Slavery, Stalking, Murder, and Child abuse
Minor: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Slavery, Torture, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit
Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Racism, and Stalking
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