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sage_alexandra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Pretty extraordinary book, and the narrator, Kit Griffiths, is phenomenal!
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism
Minor: Confinement, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
a lot of graphic knife/blade injuries,gen_wolfhailstorm'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
clairelikesbooks95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Vomit, and Cannibalism
18soft_green's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The mystery in this story was good. Who was out killing witches and stealing their demon tattoos? I was curious. The characters of this story were also good. Emer is my favorite character, with how very Eldredge she is. Zara is interesting to me with how her practicality clashes with her separation. Jude is not interesting to me. And neither was the sexual/romantic side plot between her and Erer.
What bothers me about this book is how shallow it is and exclusive its message is. I love a rage story. I love when characters get ugly and break shit and go mad, almost nothing makes me as excited as a deranged character going apeshit. I love revenge stories! Sutherland has an obvious weakness that seems to have only grown from her last book into this one.
Sutherland writes for white girls and women and them exclusively. It's not just that they are her audience, they are the only important characters in her books. Everyone else in her books either don't exist or are bad. In the House of Hollow, there was only one person of color and she killed them. In this book the only important characters that aren't white women are men and they are the bad guys. Sutherland tethers herself to the queer community by making her characters queer but then doesn't acknowledge queer men or nonbinary people. Her message is very gender essentialist but she doesn't even include those that challenge the gender norms the most in her story. The farthest she went was lesbians and clearly stated that trans women should be included but then didn't include them. Because, unfortunately, if she had included the rest of the queer community then her whole story would fall apart in several different ways.
This story relies on the idea that men are evil and weak and bad for women. Men are harmful to women one way or another, they are predatory and selfish, and all men want to devour women. The story stresses more that men = bad than women = good. If Sutherland were to include queer men and nonbinary people she would have been forced to ask if the evil of men lay in their gender and acknowledge that men do not = bad. For some reason finding the actual root of the problem of violence against women was too complex for her. The story demands that the reader care about that women are abused in this culture several times and at one point passively admits that men are under patriarchy and that makes them the way they are, but the rest of the story shows men harming but blames these men individually. The story doesn't explain why women aren't bad, it just states over and over again that women are victims of male violence and apparently that makes them not capable of true evil. Meanwhile, it can be assumed that boys and men will inevitably do some injustice because they are boys and men. This steals all men and boys of agency and brinks on the argument that it is not what you do but who you are that is evil. This argument is used against all queer people. Our crime isn't that we are trans or differ in sexuality but that we exist. If we cannot change what defines us then we shouldn't live because we are abominations.
Sutherland can't include people of color in stories like this one because European gender stereotypes have defined people of color's gender differently than they did their own. And people of color have always suffered more under Western rule than white women have. To include them would require Sutherland to be more nuanced in her gender-essentialist story and acknowledge that other people suffer. She could have included women of color but that would require her to challenge colonization and capitalism as well as patriarchy and that would threaten white women's privilege and how highly valued they are among the demographics.
To be clear, white women do suffer under patriarchy. But so do white men. And nonbinary people suffer more than both. Queer men suffer more than cis het white women. Even more than most white lesbians. White women have always been the most protected demographic, this protection was what disabled women in modern societies. White women do have reason to be angry for their own suffering but white women's biggest struggle isn't physical or sexual violence, it's the belief that they are in constant danger of being assaulted that makes them so powerless. Queer people are women of color and especially queer women of color are physically and sexually assaulted much more than white women are and it isn't talked about nearly as much as white women's stats are. As long as white women believe as they do that they are each in constant danger they will uphold the current social hierarchy and thus continue to be just as powerless as they are now.
As for witches: The European witch hunts were horrific. Those who were burned alive, drowned, and stoned to death were just people who acted a little differently than the rest of their communities. They weren't at all medically trained, they were not scientist seeking knowledge, they were widows, disabled people, and older women with no prospects. The "witches" that were killed during the American and European witch killings were those with less power than those around them. The witches of the past were not independent women, they were women that relied on their community to survive. The symbolism that witchery has taken recently can be inspiring but the history of it is tragic. Women have always suffered because of systemic patriarchy, not because men are evil. The system requires women to fear and hate men. It isn't until you see that men are victims just as you are and see them as potential allies against the system that you will truly disrupt it. Patriarchy wants you to separate yourself from the other genders because you are weaker without them.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ilaxaria's review
3.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Rape, and Sexual harassment
kris386's review
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Alcohol
jaedia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I enjoyed The Invocations a lot. At first I worried the purple prose was going to fall on the wrong side for me but quickly fell in love with the way Sutherland describes everything and paints pictures with words. And the three girls: Jude, Emer, and Zara, felt pretty 3-dimensional to me, to the point that Jude in my mind looked quite different to the Jude on the cover art, the other 2 as well, actually - I struggle to visualise characters at all, usually. I also just adore dark witchy stories. This one has gore, and demons, and dark power, and women who are angry. It really really hit the spot.
There were a few points that bothered me, however, though they were small niggles rather than outright problems. For one... quite a few typos. I maybe noticed 7 or 8 throughout the book? Which isn't great for a traditionally published book. Not the end of the world though, they don't make it unreadable. Also without spoilers, one character has a magical injury, you learn about it right away when they are introduced, and the extent of the injury and the pain it causes... it really bothered me that they could walk around and do things. Like, yes there were times if they were running or doing manual labour they'd be visibly struggled or just bow out completely, but it's never made into much. I experience some minor pain at times and can't walk when it gets really bad, and there are others who need to constantly use crutches or a wheelchair. Pain like that isn't something that you grin and bear, get used to, magical or not. It wipes you out. I would have at least liked for them to have a walking stick, you know? Would have felt more real. Also: disabled representation, we could always use more.
Aside from that, the rest really are just small things here and there. Perhaps a person feels too much like a walking cliché, something feels a little too convenient, that kind of thing. These are generally things I notice when I read young adult fiction, however, and I tend to just brush them off. The instances in this book where they came up just didn't affect what I was reading. The overall writing and excitement of the story and what was happening to these characters was solid enough that it more than made up for any issues I had.
If you don't mind a little gore and enjoy dark stories about witches and the occult, with queer leading ladies, nonetheless, you might really get a kick out of The Invocations. And if you do, I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, as it is horror.
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Excrement, Car accident, and Pregnancy
devynreadsnovels'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Medical content, Cannibalism, Stalking, Abortion, and Pregnancy
nerdybookqueen's review
- 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
5.0
What an amazing adventure. If you enjoyed this author's other work, you'll enjoy this one.
Featuring three povs, these female leads must join together to achieve their goals and solve the mystery underlying the story. I found all three women to be very interesting and compelling characters, featuring unique motives and personalities.
Jude is working to fix the botched deal with a demon, and along the way starts investigating a string of murdered women, all with a similar signature. She meets Zara, a woman trying to find a way to bring her sister back from the dead. Together, they find Emer, the woman who, as it turns out, has written deals-invocations- with demons for all the murdered women so far. And she's not pleased they're turning up dead. Together, they work to discover whose been murdering these women, while trying to find a solution to both Jude and Zara's problems.
This story kept me hooked, every twist and turn in the tale creating an exciting adventure that had me hanging on every word until the end. I also loved the addition of sapphic main characters, enjoying their story and the evolution of their relationship through the tale.
I was so sad when the story ended, but so satisfied, and surprised, by the final act. I've already preorder the book, I loved it so much.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Stalking, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death