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iamsammie27'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Infidelity, Genocide, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty and Homophobia
lastcomment314's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Genocide, Excrement, Colonisation, Violence, Cursing, Death, War, Classism, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Alcohol, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Torture, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Grief, Death of parent, Racism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy
meecespieces'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
5.0
Graphic: Death
martin27's review
- 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
5.0
The characters are lovely, though how much they actually have in common with their medieval counterparts varies a lot. One of the plot twists near the end is simply that Merlin was wrong about which role
The relationships are the highlight of the book in my opinion. The friendship between Merlin and Ari is wonderful and such a joy to read, and the fiery romance between Ari and Gwen is captivating. The slow burn romance between
The world building isn’t super strong but it is interesting most of the time. The hook for the sequel kind of comes out of nowhere, but it does set up an interesting premise and I definitely will be looking at book two.
Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, War, Infidelity, Violence, and Death
Minor: Sexism, Homophobia, and Racism
I can’t think of anything that’s just implied or alluded to. Everything I tagged occurs on page, but I don’t want to make it sound like the book is a lot heavier than it is. It’s still overall a very hopeful adventure story, it just also talks about a lot of intense themes.marioncromb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
It relies a lot on telling us with expositional dialogue why characters are doing what they are doing/thinking without actually doing the work to give those characters natural 3d character development. Having a bunch of LGBTQ+ characters with varying skin tones doesnt "good representation" make if that's the sum total of their characterisation. Any themes/links/etc are often spelled out in dialogue rather than giving the reader some respect, deep thought, or credit.
The book made me cringe and roll my eyes a lot, especially the way the relationships were handled.
There was a point just after halfway through where it kinda picked up a bit pacewise and i thought it might be doing something interesting but i quickly got bored again. I thought it was kinda interesting that Merlin's character arc ran the opposite way to the bbc show (guess the aging backwards makes sense)- initially overprotective and unwilling to trust anyone he thought might hurt arthur, to being more chill and embracing friendship and honesty, but honestly i found the rest of his characterisation irritating. I did enjoy the initial recurring gag in the first half of Ari just spearing excalibur into the ground or the nearest hard surface for storage.
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Genocide
Minor: Rape
just_one_more_paige'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? No
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Pregnancy, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Genocide, and Sexual content
Minor: Colonisation and Confinement
qteabeans's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Infidelity and Genocide
miles'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
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, and Animal death
Minor: Rape, Pregnancy, and Genocide
delz's review
- 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: Death and Animal death
Moderate: Death of parent
paperbacksandvinyl's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Death