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amightylittleread's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
marie_reads_shiny_books's review against another edition
1.0
I had higher hopes for this title considering it was selected by Illumicrate for an exclusive edition, and typically they try not to waste nice paper on trash writing.
This was a strange, rambling story. Broken up into sections by character POV, once the character has had their POV-in-the-sun, they fall back into a flatness so shallow an atom could puncture their character arcs. Not that the POV was that fantastic to begin with.
The relationships between the characters are severely dysfunctional - I’m assuming some of that is intentional due to the trauma of being abandoned children raised in an orphanage with the threat of being un-alived at any moment hanging over their heads. It could also just be poor writing as an attempt at plot. But the dysfunction was just bad. The MC trio has supposedly been together through all of these traumatic experiences, they consider themselves brother and sisters, and then you throw some outside conflict and power tripping in and BAM! One’s out in loopy land trying to kill another and then another one has up and decided they no longer love the other and are going to go and be in love with a character they met 5 days ago.
BUT LET’S ALSO HIT ON THE ICK OF SAYING YOU’RE SIBLINGS, REFERRING TO EACH OTHER AS SUCH, AND THEN INTERJECTING A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP INTO THAT. I’m sorry, just because GRRM and Pornhub say that incest is a thing, doesn’t mean it’s actually a thing. Authors, please stop flirting with this. It’s big ick. Rant contained, back to review.
The author kept harping on about power being corrupting and tried to do a surprise villainy twist at the end, and it just ended up invalidating the entire ‘premise’ - and I use that term so very loosely - of this novel.
This was like a whole bag of yuck filial relationships, extreme trauma & ptsd, manipulation, GASLIGHTING FOR DAYS, and some beautiful archetypes of ‘if your significant other is doing these things, you need to seek help immediately because you are not safe’ warped into the ‘passionately in lust’ tropes.
ALL WHILE HAVING NO PLOT. Like what was the point of this book beyond slaughtering trees and insulting their corpses by printing it upon them?
RIP trees.
This was a strange, rambling story. Broken up into sections by character POV, once the character has had their POV-in-the-sun, they fall back into a flatness so shallow an atom could puncture their character arcs. Not that the POV was that fantastic to begin with.
The relationships between the characters are severely dysfunctional - I’m assuming some of that is intentional due to the trauma of being abandoned children raised in an orphanage with the threat of being un-alived at any moment hanging over their heads. It could also just be poor writing as an attempt at plot. But the dysfunction was just bad. The MC trio has supposedly been together through all of these traumatic experiences, they consider themselves brother and sisters, and then you throw some outside conflict and power tripping in and BAM! One’s out in loopy land trying to kill another and then another one has up and decided they no longer love the other and are going to go and be in love with a character they met 5 days ago.
BUT LET’S ALSO HIT ON THE ICK OF SAYING YOU’RE SIBLINGS, REFERRING TO EACH OTHER AS SUCH, AND THEN INTERJECTING A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP INTO THAT. I’m sorry, just because GRRM and Pornhub say that incest is a thing, doesn’t mean it’s actually a thing. Authors, please stop flirting with this. It’s big ick. Rant contained, back to review.
The author kept harping on about power being corrupting and tried to do a surprise villainy twist at the end, and it just ended up invalidating the entire ‘premise’ - and I use that term so very loosely - of this novel.
This was like a whole bag of yuck filial relationships, extreme trauma & ptsd, manipulation, GASLIGHTING FOR DAYS, and some beautiful archetypes of ‘if your significant other is doing these things, you need to seek help immediately because you are not safe’ warped into the ‘passionately in lust’ tropes.
ALL WHILE HAVING NO PLOT. Like what was the point of this book beyond slaughtering trees and insulting their corpses by printing it upon them?
RIP trees.
gypdrop's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bexwalsh's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
jan_coco_day's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Contains very cool world-building. The downside of cool world-building is that I want to know more backstory than what is available in the text. Genetics are usually more complex (messier) than what is presented here, but the author's timeline only encompasses one generation (sort of), so perhaps there hasn't been enough time allocated for more complex genetics.
jane_kelsey's review against another edition
3.0
It was enjoyable, but it did not blow me away unfortunately. Review to follow.
holly1345's review against another edition
5.0
this book caught my eye mainly due to the cover, I mean it's truly eye-catching but then you hit the first page and the magic of this story dose grip you immensely from the world-building to the characters who literally feel like they're coming to life in front of you this book was beyond anything I could imagine and more, it quickly became one of my most loved books this year.
alongreader's review against another edition
2.0
I really tried to enjoy this. It's just the sort of story I like. But the action is so breakneck, and all the characters are so confused all the time, it's hard to keep a handle on what's going on, or who's who, or who's on what side for what reason. Even the (extremely hurried) relationship was hard to follow or believe in.
This could be a great story if it was expanded out, allowed to breathe, given better explanations. As it is, I'm afraid it's just messy. Even in the excerpt included below...taken from the ARC so it might not read like this in the finished book...the nun is described as 'beside the blackboard' and 'beside his desk' without any intervening movement. It's just confusing. There's a great idea here, but I feel like the book missed a round of edits to really bring it out.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I remember a boy called Janus disappearing from his bed one night when I was younger, long before I met Joshua and Kestrel. We were all curious about where he'd gone, but not scared, not yet, we were too small for that. No one but me was stupid enough to ask. The nurse who taught us arithmetic was young, and had a kind, open face. I asked her in the middle of the lesson, as she stood beside the blackboard. The room was cold, stone grey.
'Where's Janus?'
I must have been about four. She looked at me with that and empty eyes, so terrible a look I was scared to meet her gaze. Then she just said, with nothing at all in her voice, 'Who's Janus?'
She was standing right next to his empty wooden desk.
This could be a great story if it was expanded out, allowed to breathe, given better explanations. As it is, I'm afraid it's just messy. Even in the excerpt included below...taken from the ARC so it might not read like this in the finished book...the nun is described as 'beside the blackboard' and 'beside his desk' without any intervening movement. It's just confusing. There's a great idea here, but I feel like the book missed a round of edits to really bring it out.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I remember a boy called Janus disappearing from his bed one night when I was younger, long before I met Joshua and Kestrel. We were all curious about where he'd gone, but not scared, not yet, we were too small for that. No one but me was stupid enough to ask. The nurse who taught us arithmetic was young, and had a kind, open face. I asked her in the middle of the lesson, as she stood beside the blackboard. The room was cold, stone grey.
'Where's Janus?'
I must have been about four. She looked at me with that and empty eyes, so terrible a look I was scared to meet her gaze. Then she just said, with nothing at all in her voice, 'Who's Janus?'
She was standing right next to his empty wooden desk.
annabrewer972's review against another edition
4.0
A good choice if you want a stand alone fantasy. I loved the characters, even if some of aspects of the magic system and the plot details weren't totally rock solid. I also liked the ending and the questions it raised about the ethics of power and magic.
astrid9595's review against another edition
4.0
I had no high expectations as most of the reviews of this book weren't that great. But I actually quite enjoyed this book, especially the writing which I found nice and unique!
I understand that maybe some people struggle with the book because of this. The story was action-packed and filled with lots of fun characters. Though I found the ending a little bit rushed and abrupt.
I understand that maybe some people struggle with the book because of this. The story was action-packed and filled with lots of fun characters. Though I found the ending a little bit rushed and abrupt.