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willow1113's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Addiction, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Confinement, Deadnaming, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical trauma
ohmage_resistance's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
The plot felt a bit out of control the entire time, and there are definitely parts about the world building that don't make much sense. It's also a bit too sweet/preachy for me at times. I liked the message, though, and the anxiety representation was pretty good.
I read this book for the asexual representation (Regan is ace), and it wasn't too much of a focus so far, but I’m curious to see what will happen with it in future books.
I read this book for the asexual representation (Regan is ace), and it wasn't too much of a focus so far, but I’m curious to see what will happen with it in future books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Transphobia
bluejayreads's review against another edition
This book has been on my TBR list for literally years. It came across my radar a long time ago and I heard it had polyamory in it, so I put it on my list. And it managed to stay through several years of sorting and culling the list because the back cover information was so sparse on details that I didn't feel like I could make a good decision. And the ideas here are really cool. There's the city itself, slowly crumbling into the cavern beneath that used to be a river and is now an eternal fire, and the violent military/paramilitary group invested in keeping everybody there. There's the people themselves, changed in strange ways by a "miracle drug" that gave fantastic powers, but often with horrible consequences. There's our protagonists, a lizard-man with the power to turn invisible who had his memories stolen by a ghost and a singer with a super-powered voice, plus other characters like the ghost, a person who's been Frankenstein's monster-ed together out of other people, and the singer's two wives, one of whom is mostly made of plants. People just are queer and are polyamorous and use they/them pronouns and nobody thinks anything of it. There's perhaps an underground rebel organization, and there's definitely weird stuff going on. There are so many good things in this book. But there's also a mental illness/trauma angle that was so overwhelmingly heavy-handed. The characters are okay, but the only aspect of them that's really developed is that they have anxiety and/or are traumatized in different ways. The singer and her family are the most "trauma informed" characters I've ever read, and somehow they became that way while still actively living through that trauma. Every few pages someone else has an anxiety attack and someone else has to talk them through it. I'm not saying that the stuff they're going through isn't traumatic, because it is. But the story keeps interrupting what could have been a truly interesting adventure to shoehorn in stuff about trauma and anxiety. It really feels like one of those thinley-veiled Morally Edifying Literature stories from like the Victorian era, except instead of promoting Modesty and Virginity it's promoting Trauma Is Real and Be Compassionate With Anxiety Attacks. These are not bad things to promote, actually. But the way they're done here is so overwhelming and heavy-handed. If you're here for a good fantasy story, it's going to yank you out of the story repeatedly to go back to preaching about anxiety and trauma. If you're actually here for a Moral and Instructive Tale on Trauma and Mental Health, you're probably going to find much of this very triggering. There were really good ideas here and I did want to read the story. I just got so, so fed up with the excessive mental illness and trauma preaching.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Torture, Gun violence, Violence, and Death
Minor: Addiction, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Murder
Unrealityfinley's review
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Violence
Moderate: Addiction and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Transphobia
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