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spaghettii's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved the depth added to the characters that were on an opposing side to the main characters. I never thought I would sympathize with the guy that was supposed to be the genocidal villain in book one. The main reason I didn't give fiv stars was the skipping ahead in the plot. I understand the practicality of it, but I hated going to the next chapter and seeing that it's set several months into the future.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Kidnapping, Mental illness, War, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Torture
grandiose_r's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gun violence, Gore, Child death, War, Violence, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Suicide, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts
pitchblackkoi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Blood, War, Violence, Body horror, Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Toxic friendship and Torture
emily_mh's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Oof, this sequel did not live up to expectations. Behold as I list my woes.
My main woe was what Mikuta did with Sona’s character. Sona would NEVER come to love Enyo of her own volition, for the same reason that she never came to love anybody in her 7-8 years at the academy: they all actively support Godolia’s tyranny and imperialism, while Sona’s character is built around her hatred and resistance of these qualities. Enyo is one of those active supporters, when he’s literally in the best position possible to enact change. I get that Enyo is a scared kid, and there is a lot of time spent in this book showing how these characters are just kids having to make impossible choices, so I’m not trying to condemn or not condemn him as a person. I am making the point that while Sona might see herself in Enyo, or come to understand him, she wouldn’t love someone who made the choices he did, and CERTAINLY not to the level that she loves her family and Eris. It conflicts with the core of her character, solidly established in the first book. Making Sona love Enyo felt like a lazy writing choice so that there was a reason why Enyo didn’t die in the first half, thus giving this book its existence.
The brainwashing trope was not done well here. What triggered Sona’s proper break in her corruption? Why was she not confused over what was real and what she could trust seeing as either side was telling her the other side was corrupting her? Why do we not get more of a reaction from Sona over having had her worst nightmare come true? Where is her panic over what’s been happening to her family, her desperation over seeing them?
Ironically, there is a deus ex machina element of this book. It was way too convenient that a whole contingency of mechas who had escaped Godolia and were hiding out were discovered in this book, providing the perfect force with which to rebel against Godolia. It would not have been hard to foreshadow their existence in the first instalment.
The world-building was again a bit naff. We were still lacking the bigger picture and the cultural element that I wanted to see, as explained in my review of Gearbreakers.
The issue I had plot-wise with the latter part of Gearbreakers unfortunately characterised the whole plot of Godslayers. It was a bit too predictable, a bit too repetitive to be engaging, especially with the litany of other issues I had with the book.
Something about the writing style didn’t click for me this time around. It felt like the tense would chance mid-sentence and I would often get confused about what was meant by the author. However, I still loved how emotionally raw the prose was, as it could realistically depict teenagers facing a dystopian world.
This is a lot of negatives, I know. 2.75 stars may be a confusing rating to give it, but there were 3-4 elements which pulled through. The first being the romance, which was still written fantastically. Mikuta also nailed the found family element with her scenes of domesticity. The mecha fights were again strong; I especially loved reading the underwater mecha fight as this was something I hadn’t seen before. Finally, even though she was a bit stagnant in terms of development, Eris was still an interesting character to read from and I still fully felt for her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Gun violence
Moderate: Grief, Gore, Cursing, Suicide, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Confinement, Physical abuse, Ableism, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Major: mind control, loss of a loved one Minor: gambling, drowningtjmcharg's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Gore, Murder, and War
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Grief
salemander's review against another edition
5.0
“Is it not so much easier to love when you know how it feels?”
this book fucking broke me. I will be billing the author for my therapy.
this book fucking broke me. I will be billing the author for my therapy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gaslighting, Suicide, and Grief
alouette's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
not as good as book 1 if i'm being perfectly honest, but still action-packed and exciting with plenty more of that awesome world-building. the side characters got more fleshed out while Eris and Sona fell a little bit more flat in this one, which really was a shame. i understand that they already had the "falling in love" part of their story but the synopsis really hyped up Sona's corruption to be a bigger, more irreversible deal than it was. this didn't feel as intricately plotted as the first book BUT it was still a great conclusion and i'm glad there were some happy endings to be found in all the war and loss.
and i even took pleasure in some of the supposedly sad endings! sona's love for enyo sat wrong with me for a lot of scenes so the turn it took for them was a relief to me lol
and i even took pleasure in some of the supposedly sad endings! sona's love for enyo sat wrong with me for a lot of scenes so the turn it took for them was a relief to me lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Religious bigotry
autumnrevisited's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I loved the first Gearbreakers so much and this was a very good addition to that story. It closed up a lot of the intentional loose ends while still leaving room for the world to expand in itself. It also showed the world of Godalia in a way that more expansive than the first book. My only critique would be it did some time jumps that, while necessary, made the flow stumble a little.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, and Grief
ramunepocky's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Child death, and War
zoiejanelle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
(Praying the author never reads this review because I desperately want to be friends with her, but I’m going to be honest here!)
Godslayers pales in comparison to Gearbreakers, but was overall a good book that brought much more depth to the overarching conflicts in the series. The main reason this book isn’t a 5/5 for me is the middle… it is just so slow… which I understand. This series is, at its core, about war, and war can be excruciatingly boring. I didn’t experience the same sort of thrill that I got from book 1. The payoff, though, was worth it!
I also got lost in Mikuta’s writing. In book 1, the poetic style was charming, romantic. In this book I was confused and had to re-read several very important passages to understand what was going on. I totally understood the point of the style. It lends itself to allowing the reader to have startling, emotional realizations and experience what the characters were experiencing through sensory detail, but I’m dumb and need action scenes to be very clear or I can’t visualize the scene.
As for the good stuff…
This book explored more of Jenny’s character as well as Eris’s crew which was really fun. I also loved the new characters — especially Enyo — and reading how they interacted with our original cast. The twists and turns were great, and I must have said “oh, shit!” at least ten times (especially towards the end). I was very scared that this would be an ambiguous ending, and in some ways it was, but please rest assured this is a hopeful ending and provided the much-deserved closure our characters needed. I still highly recommend this series and it will hold a very special place in my heart for years to come.
Godslayers pales in comparison to Gearbreakers, but was overall a good book that brought much more depth to the overarching conflicts in the series. The main reason this book isn’t a 5/5 for me is the middle… it is just so slow… which I understand. This series is, at its core, about war, and war can be excruciatingly boring. I didn’t experience the same sort of thrill that I got from book 1. The payoff, though, was worth it!
I also got lost in Mikuta’s writing. In book 1, the poetic style was charming, romantic. In this book I was confused and had to re-read several very important passages to understand what was going on. I totally understood the point of the style. It lends itself to allowing the reader to have startling, emotional realizations and experience what the characters were experiencing through sensory detail, but I’m dumb and need action scenes to be very clear or I can’t visualize the scene.
As for the good stuff…
This book explored more of Jenny’s character as well as Eris’s crew which was really fun. I also loved the new characters — especially Enyo — and reading how they interacted with our original cast. The twists and turns were great, and I must have said “oh, shit!” at least ten times (especially towards the end). I was very scared that this would be an ambiguous ending, and in some ways it was, but please rest assured this is a hopeful ending and provided the much-deserved closure our characters needed. I still highly recommend this series and it will hold a very special place in my heart for years to come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Blood, Mental illness, Torture, and Grief
Minor: Vomit and Suicide