Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Ruinsong

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Ruinsong by Julia Ember

11 reviews

venti's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

just eh

also i thought the social commentary of a rebellion for the oppressed upper class was a little funny. like this would be far more interesting if it was from elene’s pov and/or was the story of how she overthrew the government to torture rich people. pure comedy

also the tulip at the end feels like a sequel hook but if it isn’t it feels weirdly reductive to the whole conclusion of the story? like i got the vibe it was from

elene and was to show she still had her powers and could potentially be evil again (ooh scary) but like why did we need that? the story was fine with her just being in prison. we could gather from the idea that the expelled mages using magic that she had a possibility to use magic again, that was already established, and cadence literally says so herself. so the tulip feels a little unnecessary to me.

maybe i’m reading too much into it tho lol. also the romance was boring

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kolbier's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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arieloley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This book has so much potential. I loved the concept and it was clearly a highly developed world. Some of the descriptions were really beautiful and drew pictures, while others felt forced, especially the automatic and brusque description of everyone’s skin colour. Overall, there was a sense of virtue signalling, which isn’t bad but felt like the author reallyyy wanted her audience to know where her politics lie. I think it’s great, I would just prefer it to be written in more smoothly. Also, parts of the plot felt quite rushed, and information sometimes seemed to pop up completely out of no where.

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samsonian's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-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

EEHAJSHSHSHAHAHA THIS BOOK IS LESBIAN YEARNING IN UNDER 400 PAGES PLS LET THERE BE A SECOND BOOK 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

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bunnykisses's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book was a fun quick & easy read. I loved the idea of a magic system based on singing, and the changes in power (minor spoiler)

from non-mage, to the mage. There was not much in-depth discussion on what this meant to the characters ie. was it justified for the oppressed to then turn into the oppressors? It was mentioned but only surface level.

The only reason why I am not rating it any higher is that the romance did not have much build-up. It's like an old-friends-to-lovers plot but the friendship isn't really developed and the romance is very quick. I love that it is LGBTQ and it was a very fun read. Just not super complex. It was almost too easy seeing them fall for each other. Overall if you want an easy read with magic, revenge, overthrowing the government, and lesbians, this is a good book to pick up.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought this was a really fun idea for a story, and the singing magic was cool. Everything was tense and the stakes felt high. Most of the characters were interesting.

However, the characters we spend our time focused on are probably the least interesting of the bunch. They spend a lot of time complaining and making impulsive decisions (and then complaining that people don't trust them not to make impulsive decisions) and you only kind of hear about other characters doing cool things in the background. The ending wraps up extremely fast so a lot of the victories don't really feel earned. I get the idea of noting every character’s skintone instead of making special note of who wasn't white, but it really drove home how white the core cast still was so I don't know if it helped.

Also this is a nitpick but if you're retelling Phantom of the Opera and you drop ZERO chandeliers? You're doing it wrong.

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starccato's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.25

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iorelyn's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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caidyn's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I've been excited about this book since I started hearing about it. A dark, queer story about magic and breaking out of an abusive realm? Sounds fantastic. It fell a bit short of my expectations, but it was still a good read. I'm not quite sure exactly what I expected, but I felt that the book could have used a bit more polishing. Such as, with the worldbuilding and pacing. At times it was an infodump and that really jacked with the pacing. Still, it's a good standalone fantasy that I would gladly revisit one day!

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yoda32's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

2.0

Ruinsong tells the story of both Cadence- a mage for the queen who works her magic through song. We’re told multiple times throughout the book how powerful she is; but we don’t really see it until the end.

On the outside she’s terrifying but on the inside, she’s an orphan who did the only thing she could to survive and hates herself for bowing to the ruthless queen. Cadence didn’t get as much growth as I expected from a stand alone. She hides and appears weaker than the queen but yet at the end she can miraculously perform a spell through a song that “just comes to her”. Okay..

Remy- born into nobality Remy had it all until Elena took the throne, and her family fled to avoid her wrath. However every year they’re forced to attend a lethal opera in which, the queen gets her starred mage to torture the nobility while they sit. Remy is fierce, brave, and the ex best friend of Cadence.

I think Remy is my favourite and yes it’s totally to do with the fact that she’s both a lesbian and fat. However, she makes the most idiotic decisions. I rolled my eyes so much because of her actions.

The romance develops slowly- which I did like- but it seemed unrealistic and bland.

The ending was meh and felt really modern in comparison to the 90 percent fantasy novel.

For example- Remy’s mother- who is sick by the way, so she’s better??- is running for president and she’s handing out flyers. Hmm, okay

Ruinsong had an interesting magic system, that I did like reading about, and characters that were fun if nothing else, but the plot and concept just weren’t executed as well as I expected. It sometimes read like the beginning of a series and for a stand alone novel- that’s not good. Furthermore,- this is a personal pet peeve- it took WAY too long for the events of the blurb to occur.

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