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captainghafa's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, War, and Domestic abuse
emmyb's review against another edition
3.0
The story quickly sucked me in and was very engaging throughout the first 100 or so pages, but I started to get bored and speed read the second half of this book. If the trials aspect of this book appealed to you most, prepare to be disappointed. They were extremely anticlimactic, required no actual effort or skill from Kiva, and she only survived them because one person directly helped her all four times (I'd hardly call this a spoiler--it's the first book in a series, the main character was always going to make it out alive).
The four trials were incredibly lackluster:
trial 2: survive for 10 minutes without burning alive inside a crematorium. The princess gives her a magical necklace that keeps her from burning.
trial 3: tied to the bottom of a water pit for 15 minutes. surprise! Jaren has magic and saves her.
trial 4: escape a tunnel maze. Jaren gets thrown in with her as punishment and uses his magic to literally just show them the path out.
A lot of this book felt very flimsy. Even though life in the prison is harsh for the prisoners, they have a LOT of freedom--they're allowed to roam around the grounds however they please, are never subjected to pat-downs or security searches of any kind. There were never many guards around, and when they were present, the inmates weren't handcuffed or bound in any way. It also felt way too convenient that this infamous traitor queen was so casually placed in the infirmary with only a few healers and one guard at a time on watch. With her importance and high number of enemies she's said to have, why didn't anyone try to break in and harm her? Kiva was also always conveniently saved or favored by powerful people without much reason.
With all this being said, the reveals at the ending shocked me, and the cliffhanger was good enough to make me interested in giving book 2 a try.
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture
Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, Rape, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death
jessannderson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma
mybookishlife2's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The twists, the turns!!!!! One of them I knew about but the rest!? 😭😭😭 I highly recommend it but do look out for the trigger warnings!!! This was just fantastic. Definitely one of my new favorites.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Self harm
Minor: Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Drug abuse
annacolb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide