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kylieqrada's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.5 ⭐️s. This one took a sec to get into, just because the writing is so next level. But once I got on a roll with it, it really shone. Gorgeous world-building, amazing characters, interesting gender dynamics. I felt like the pacing was spot on with this one as well. Will definitely be picking up the next one.
Read for Beautifully Bookish Bethany's Tordotcomathon 2022
Read for Beautifully Bookish Bethany's Tordotcomathon 2022
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury
orchidd's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, War, and Child death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy
adoto's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? Yes
3.25
I loved the world and lore in this book but I felt like I read a prologue rather than a complete story and had no opportunity to get invested. I wish I liked this enough to seek out the second book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia, Death, Gore, Child death, and Blood
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail
The book itself is not xenophobic, but there are clear real-world xenophobic parallels that I feel are worth mentioning, especially if you are South Asian or Middle-Eastern (I'm Indian myself). The book's treatment of these characters and these issues is absolutely fine. I had no problems reading it; just putting it out there in case someone might. The blood and gore mentions are very brief, contained within a few sentences, but occur multiple times during the book and are described graphically. Blood/gore invoke physical reactions in me and I was definitely affected by those parts in this book so be warned!lucystolethesky's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Adult/minor relationship
charlieleelee's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really wanted to like this book. It's written by a queer Asian author, a perspective I've been wanting for decades.
The worldbuilding is very interesting, and I'd love to see more of it, but my biggest problem is that there doesn't really feel like there's a story here. Instead, it reads like a series of events, fast forwarding through Akeha's life without taking any time to really delve into any of the consequences of what he's experiencing. The story skips so much time, it doesn't let you see any character development.
And each section is so limited that there's no stakes established to give any emotional weight to the rebellion going on. It's clear the Protector is a tyrant, but you only get hints at the societal unrest that's happening.
You also don't get the chance to see the characters' relationships develop. You see Mokoya and Thennjay meet, and next chapter they're married and have a child. Akeha saves Yongcheow, next thing you know they've been together 10 years.
This is already a series, so it's weird that this first book feels so rushed. It's really disappointing because there's hints at the potential for a really compelling story from a perspective you don't get very often, but it just falls flat.
The worldbuilding is very interesting, and I'd love to see more of it, but my biggest problem is that there doesn't really feel like there's a story here. Instead, it reads like a series of events, fast forwarding through Akeha's life without taking any time to really delve into any of the consequences of what he's experiencing. The story skips so much time, it doesn't let you see any character development.
And each section is so limited that there's no stakes established to give any emotional weight to the rebellion going on. It's clear the Protector is a tyrant, but you only get hints at the societal unrest that's happening.
You also don't get the chance to see the characters' relationships develop. You see Mokoya and Thennjay meet, and next chapter they're married and have a child. Akeha saves Yongcheow, next thing you know they've been together 10 years.
This is already a series, so it's weird that this first book feels so rushed. It's really disappointing because there's hints at the potential for a really compelling story from a perspective you don't get very often, but it just falls flat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Child death
flameoflareon'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? No
5.0
This book was an amazing tale of fate vs. free will, sibling bonds, and magic. The magic system is wonderfully fresh as long as you don't mind picking up its rules from context clues. More so than just the magic system, but the world building around it, how magic existing affects religions and society and the people who can't do magic is creative an interesting. The main character(s) are compelling and the way the book handles gender is fascinating. I love this queer magic book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Murder and Police brutality
Minor: Child death
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
When I was a teen, I fell in love with Octavia Butler's Imago. I loved that some children in that world were born genderless and later chose their genders. I enjoyed finding that again in this world, as well as a combination of magic and science. Overall, I was not captured by this book. I felt like I missed important parts of the story that connected earlier events to later ones, and earlier emotions to later ones. It is entirely possible that I did miss them, of course.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Genocide, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
catsy2022's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Death
Minor: Child death and Child abuse
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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
4.5
I LOVED THIS A LOT!!!
In this dystopian fantasy world, the Protector rules the land. When she makes a deal with the Grand Monastery, she ends up giving them her twins. At the age of 6, Mokoya and Akeha are sent to live and train with the monks. In the monastery the twins develop different gifts: Mokoya gets visions of the future and Akeha can see strings that move people to action. Years later they are sent back to their mother and the two become aware of unrest in the Protectorate.
This silkpunk world was so freaking cool. I loved the magic system, but my favorite thing was the way gender worked. All children are assigned gender neutral pronouns (they) at birth. As the kids age, once they're old enough they choose their gender. While our twins do eventually pick genders, i wondered if there were any characters who chose to stay nonbinary.
I loved the bond between Mokoya and Akeha, seeing them grow apart after they left the monastery made me so sad! The ending was pretty wild and I really am excited to see where this will go. Both twins have very clearly sided with the rebellion and I do love a good rebellion story. There is a bit of romance in this for each twin, and I enjoyed it while it also broke my heart a little!
In this dystopian fantasy world, the Protector rules the land. When she makes a deal with the Grand Monastery, she ends up giving them her twins. At the age of 6, Mokoya and Akeha are sent to live and train with the monks. In the monastery the twins develop different gifts: Mokoya gets visions of the future and Akeha can see strings that move people to action. Years later they are sent back to their mother and the two become aware of unrest in the Protectorate.
This silkpunk world was so freaking cool. I loved the magic system, but my favorite thing was the way gender worked. All children are assigned gender neutral pronouns (they) at birth. As the kids age, once they're old enough they choose their gender. While our twins do eventually pick genders, i wondered if there were any characters who chose to stay nonbinary.
I loved the bond between Mokoya and Akeha, seeing them grow apart after they left the monastery made me so sad! The ending was pretty wild and I really am excited to see where this will go. Both twins have very clearly sided with the rebellion and I do love a good rebellion story. There is a bit of romance in this for each twin, and I enjoyed it while it also broke my heart a little!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic relationship
victorianrogue's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Grief, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Animal death, Genocide, and Gore