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adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I found the synopsis for this book at some point, added it to my to-read list. Put it on hold on my library about 2 years later when i came across it again, forgetting what it was. When I picked it up, I saw the tome that it was... and it simply sat not being read for 50 days.
Having read it now! Nothing really grabbed me, it was okay, but it really didnt deserve to be 660 pages. It had an interesting concept and the children were the biggest things holding the book together, their stories were just far more interesting and vast. Jacob Marber got close to being interesting during the segment of his background but not enough for it to matterespecially because they killed? him . The true villain was obvious because the book just kept essentially telling you straight up. So there weren't any fun dots to connect.
It doesn't bother me personally but it was very dark. The writing style was actually decent which is about its only saving grace because it needed a lot more editing. Stuff was repeated too frequently and the book spoiled itself. Had potential, honestly, if edited far more and written differently it could have been a wonderful one-off. I'm simply tired of sequel series, and I do not have the patience to put my energy into knowing the rest of this series. I don't recommend this book
Having read it now! Nothing really grabbed me, it was okay, but it really didnt deserve to be 660 pages. It had an interesting concept and the children were the biggest things holding the book together, their stories were just far more interesting and vast. Jacob Marber got close to being interesting during the segment of his background but not enough for it to matter
It doesn't bother me personally but it was very dark. The writing style was actually decent which is about its only saving grace because it needed a lot more editing. Stuff was repeated too frequently and the book spoiled itself. Had potential, honestly, if edited far more and written differently it could have been a wonderful one-off. I'm simply tired of sequel series, and I do not have the patience to put my energy into knowing the rest of this series. I don't recommend this book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Blood
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Miscarriage, Rape
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gore
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love multiple POV stories, but this one felt a little too disorganized. The story switched between several characters so frequently that it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was going on. A lot of the character backgrounds & sub plots often felt forced in ways that didn’t feel natural to the story. I think this book would have benefited from focusing on fewer characters , involving less character backgrounds, or being split into 2 books. I enjoyed the story, but most likely won’t continue the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Body horror, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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
knocked off 0.25 due to pacing and writing issues (too many adverbs), and i wanted to see more of the school! otherwise a great story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Child death
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Terminal illness
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed this book, but it started so slow. There were several triggers right up front that made it hard to get through and really didn't add to the story. The world was unique, and the magic was interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Racial slurs, Rape
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Miscarriage, Rape
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed the premise and the idea of this book. It was unique and it had a lot to give, keeping me interested and reading. But I felt that it was incredibly long. My copy was 660 pages which I felt was just unnecessarily long. There were a lot of time jumps to fill in gaps - gaps that have could have been filled in other ways. And some of the time jumps just felt like they weren't entirely necessary to be as long as they were. It was a lot of rehashing the same thing over and over - giving the different POVs of the same situation. But it wasn't so long and dragging that it didn't keep my interested. But I did feel that easily 200 pages could have been cut off this book.
As for the story itself, it was interesting and I felt that it was unique. It was a dark book, with quite a lot of violence scenes, so something to keep in mind. But the story itself, the premise of it all and all of it was interesting.
Character development was kind of simple and I felt that sometimes the characters weren't realistic. Marlow who was one of the main character was supposed to be 8 in this book and he was very advanced for his age I felt. And then there were moments that I was kind of confused who the main character was as it kept jumping between all the characters.
Overall it was interesting, and I believe there will be a second book. I am torn on reading the second book because this one overall did end kind of neatly but, depending on how long the next one is, I may give it a go just to have that one part of the story that is left unfinished finished.
As for the story itself, it was interesting and I felt that it was unique. It was a dark book, with quite a lot of violence scenes, so something to keep in mind. But the story itself, the premise of it all and all of it was interesting.
Character development was kind of simple and I felt that sometimes the characters weren't realistic. Marlow who was one of the main character was supposed to be 8 in this book and he was very advanced for his age I felt. And then there were moments that I was kind of confused who the main character was as it kept jumping between all the characters.
Overall it was interesting, and I believe there will be a second book. I am torn on reading the second book because this one overall did end kind of neatly but, depending on how long the next one is, I may give it a go just to have that one part of the story that is left unfinished finished.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder
200+ pages in and while things have happened, the movement of the story is still really slow. A lot of repetitive and honestly quite disturbing violence/gore that doesn’t make me want to continue reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore