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slow-paced
This book to me has too much going on. I skimmed a lot of this already short book. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time for me to read this but it felt like it was dragging on.
A lot of Ayla’s chapters could have been trimmed down to better devil other areas of her plot line that are central to the main story- like the human revolution being only her and her 5 friends and by the time we meet her it’s only the 3 of them. They didn’t do anything with her brother in this book, which I felt like they could have expanded upon more. Her whole journey is to get revenge for his death but sparsely shown how that impacts her choices. The only time it does is when she is trying to prove somthing to her rebellion friend and even then it’s a lie. I just felt like in this book we didn’t need her chapters to be that long and not have more new information that Crier already didn’t know. A lot of the main two interactions was Crier sharing what she knows and Ayla just thinking “oh our rebellion could use this” like girl.
The enemies to lovers is probably more prominent in the second book as at the end of this one it just started to get developed, now that the lines have been drawn in the sand so to speak at the end.
In this one it was just passing fancy of not deep attraction or longing but more surface level, at least on one side. For one of the love interests being a Cyborg that isn’t suppose to feel love or attraction it was set up as well as it could be- It was gradual from Criers end, the more she experienced the more it changed her behaviour and thinking patterns. Which was cool.
The ending of the book is a cliffhanger, so nothing got resolved and I don’t know if I’d want to read the sequel.
A lot of Ayla’s chapters could have been trimmed down to better devil other areas of her plot line that are central to the main story- like the human revolution being only her and her 5 friends and by the time we meet her it’s only the 3 of them. They didn’t do anything with her brother in this book, which I felt like they could have expanded upon more. Her whole journey is to get revenge for his death but sparsely shown how that impacts her choices. The only time it does is when she is trying to prove somthing to her rebellion friend and even then it’s a lie. I just felt like in this book we didn’t need her chapters to be that long and not have more new information that Crier already didn’t know. A lot of the main two interactions was Crier sharing what she knows and Ayla just thinking “oh our rebellion could use this” like girl.
The enemies to lovers is probably more prominent in the second book as at the end of this one it just started to get developed, now that the lines have been drawn in the sand so to speak at the end.
In this one it was just passing fancy of not deep attraction or longing but more surface level, at least on one side. For one of the love interests being a Cyborg that isn’t suppose to feel love or attraction it was set up as well as it could be- It was gradual from Criers end, the more she experienced the more it changed her behaviour and thinking patterns. Which was cool.
The ending of the book is a cliffhanger, so nothing got resolved and I don’t know if I’d want to read the sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Blood
Minor: Genocide
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, War
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
LOVED THIS. If you are struggling to read it, please try to wait until the halfway point. It REALLY picks up from there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, Classism
Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Blood, Death of parent
Minor: Gore, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Alcohol
Repedative exposition. Nonsense world building.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Has a bit of a slow start, with all of the world building necessary for the story. This is a queer sci-fi fantasy duet, focusing on a “forbidden love” aspect of our couple, war, overturning powers, deception, betrayal, and so much more. These topics can get a little heavy and possibly confusing, however, the author does a wonderful job of adding a map and a timeline to the book for easier tracking!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol
This book deal with some heavy topics such as war, colonization, genocide (using this term loosely, will explain), and death
This book contains two races: the Humans and the Automae. The automa were created for the humans, and were treated mostly like pets for the ultra wealthy. The tides changed, there was an uprising, subsequent war, and the Automa winning said war. The scripts flipped for the humans and Automa, and the humans are now treated as “less than”, with forced labor, mass deaths, raids, and the like. With topics like these, other smaller aspects (I.e. blood, injury, etc) are bound to be prevalent too.
Despite the heaviness of the history, the book is very LGBT friendly with no apparent homophobia
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was one of the first queer books I read so it holds a really special place in my heart. I reread it for a book club and it's even better than I remembered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
emotional
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
I enjoy this book and the characters in it. It's fun that the main characters are the most humane robot and the most robotic human. Both Crier and Ayla are always concerned about their emotions getting in the way of their goals as they develop feelings for eachother. Throughout the book Crier thinks she is flawed because her fiance showed her false designs saying that she was designed with passion. It makes you think what separates human and non human beings, if passion is perceived as a weakness from the outside but is still capable what makes an intellectually sufficient creation non human. This can also be said for understanding one as "greater". If one can form a sense of ego what is to prevent skewed perception. This book focuses a lot on the political climate of its world and although fascinating and raises questions like previously stated, its wasn't what I was expecting and it hasn't left me compelled to read the second book despite the emotional intelligence put into this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood