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boba_nbooks'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? Yes
4.25
The Other Merlin is such a fun twist on the original King Arthur story that lovers of retellings, YA novels, banter, and magic won't want to miss.
Emry and Emmett are the legendary court wizard Merlin's twin children. When Merlin passes away, the court summons Emmett to come train as an apprentice wizard for Prince Arthur (yes, that Arthur). However, Emmett becomes indisposed, so Emry decides to go in her twin's place, disguised as Emmett, until he is able to go to court himself. Emry has always been the twin with a better knack for magic, but in a world ridden with misogyny, no one would ever accept a female wizard--especially in the king's court. Atop of keeping her disguise intact, Emry has to deal with the lies, scandals, and betrayals that come with living in the court. And, she may or may not be falling for Prince Arthur.
This book was so much fun! The tension and banter between Emry and Arthur is second to none, and I adored the large cast of side characters. The Other Merlin combines the King Arthur story with the movie She's the Man, and the outcome is fantastic.
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Outing
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
abby_can_read'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? Yes
4.0
While I thought this was cute and I had a good time reading it, I did struggle at times. Part of those struggles were ADHD brain and another part was the writing style. I know this book was fantasy and it was sat in a historic England, but the writing style included several slang terms. I loved Lance, he was by far my favorite character. I liked the development of Emmett. Arthur and Emry were cute. The plot was decent though I thought it was predictable.
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Blood
Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment
just_one_more_paige's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and War
emilywrayburn'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? No
3.5
Alas not.
This is set in some kind of alternate London/Camelot... around the 18th century? St Pauls Cathedral exists (it opened in 1710), but England/the UK is still split up into kingdoms such as Camelot and Lothia. But the language is completely modern, which jarred at times.
The plot is actually pretty decent, though it did often feel like things went wrong only to be easily solved in a chapter or two. The exception to that is the conflict with Yuriel and Morgana, which will clearly continue into future books.
I enjoyed Arthur's character development and how he started standing up to Uther, and I liked that he isn't a warrior by any means.
I liked Emry Merlin as a character but a lot of her development was basically mooning over Arthur. Also I couldn't figure out the relationship she'd had with her father. Half the time it sounded like he'd been pretty jerky towards her when she'd been growing up, but then it seemed to suggest that he was actually protecting her and they'd actually had a really loving relationship and she misses him greatly. It's clear that finding out for certain whether or not Dad is still alive is a plot point for the series gong forward.
spoilers for the various romances:
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Outing
Minor: Death of parent and War
maple_dove's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Under ordinary circumstances, she would have been quite pleased at the girl's interest, and would have flirted back. A person's gender made no difference to her. (pg. 81)
While bisexuality means two or more genders, I believe it's important to repeat that there are more than two genders.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Verbal abuse (graphic)kristincdugas's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
The voice this book was written in had me from the first page. It was immediately witty and fun, exactly what I needed after a previous heavier read! I find so often that YA fantasy is going darker, which don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the dark and creepy and the mysterious elements we have been getting recently. But it was so refreshing to read a retelling with so much lightness and teenage hilarity!
The characters were such an important part of the comedy (because they were each so great at laughing at themselves in each other in that way that is so much of what I love about YA), each of them was so lovable and even some of the ones we were led to dislike at first really came around and were shown to be deep and complex characters! *cough* except
Emry, our MC -- love her! She was such a fun character to follow with her goals and ambitions coupled with the warring feelings she was fighting and her fears of blowing her secret. It was so great seeing a bi female MC who just wanted to be herself and was so incredibly ambitious about learning!
Going off the spectacular cast of characters I have to give a huge round of applause to: THE BANTER. Wow it really just hit me so hard from that first chapter. The banter between friends, between enemies, between LIs -- it was all spectacular. Personally I would love to be as well versed at a verbal sparring as Arthur one day but for now I'll settle for reading and re-reading this book to live vicariously through him.
This will be a new favorite for me to re-read when I need something fun and light!
Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
explorer_of_legends_and_ink's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment
foreverinastory's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Rep: Pansexual female MC (possibly demisexual as well), bisexual male side character, gay male side character, questioning love interest, BIPOC side character.
CWs: Abandonment/suspected death of parent, alcohol consumption, blood, misogyny, outing, sexism, violence, sexual content (not graphic).
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Sexual content