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hannahs_library_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: War and Violence
Minor: Death and Rape
pixieslibrary's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
in relation to the content warning I listed for this book, there is a character who is mentioned to be a r*pist and he attempted to r*pe a main character when she was a teen. nothing graphic happens but there is a threat of it again and there is some threatening/tense undertones when he interacts with this character. but again, nothing happens to the character in relation to this warningjulesadventurezone's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
The first 200 pages were very slow and the characters could've been more vibrant, but I did like the later half and also Touraine's arc.
Also I the entire time I was reading kept thinking about how this and the Locked Tomb Series has a lot of similarities but that was a lot more compelling to me than this.
Also I the entire time I was reading kept thinking about how this and the Locked Tomb Series has a lot of similarities but that was a lot more compelling to me than this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Racism
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Rape, and Torture
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, and Self harm
siandee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Kidnapping, and Rape
thoughtsontomes's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Racism
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Rape
persephonefoxx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
She was as free now as she ever would be. She could choose what she fought for. She could choose who she was willing to die for
This book has me conflicted - while it tells a story that is both confronting and important, there are elements that fell flat for me.
This does an amazing job depicting the horrors of war and revolution, and the desperation of people fighting for their lands, their right to be treated as people, their freedom. It is confronting. It is raw. It is very real in its depiction.
My struggle in this book stems more from the characters. I love a flawed character, it is what makes them real. However, the plot of this book ruminated on the constant backsliding and poor decisions made my Touraine and Luca. And while I believe Touraine completed a character arch, growing and changing (albeit it with constant side switching). Luca almost started and finished in the same place, just with a plethora of poor choices in the middle.
Lastly, there are intricacies when depicting a coloniser/colonised relationship that I do not believe were hit. I am interested to see how the relationship and romance is handled and develops over the rest of the series.
TL:DR - What this book has to say is very important. And Clark doesn’t sugar coat the horrors of colonisation and war. However, some marks outside of action and conflicts were missed. I am tentatively going to pick up the next book, and am curious to see if these marks are hit in the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Vomit, Violence, Colonisation, Blood, War, Death, Gore, and Confinement
Moderate: Torture, Classism, Sexual harassment, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Rape and Gun violence
heather667's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Chronic illness, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Torture, and Vomit
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Excrement
Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Rape
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
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? Yes
4.0
Representations: https://trello.com/c/bM9pBrla/82-magic-of-the-lost-1-the-unbroken-by-cl-clark
If you're looking for fast-paced action, this isn't it. If you're looking for deep world building and complex characters, this is very much it. It's a lot more "political" than the regular political fantasy, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.
The plot is mainly just about the characters, and their places in the war. It's complex, messy and has so many small details throughout for both the overarching plot and the characters' own progressions and developments. I honestly absolutely loved the way character progression was done. At first, they're all pretty walled-up and seem flat, but the more the book progresses, the more they all start to open up as they start to find their places and find their motivations. The small changes to the characters, the way new info changes them, it's so great. I normally dislike really long books, but I feel like for the most part this did use the pages well as so many of the "smaller" parts still provide a lot for the characters as a whole.
I did find the POV switching to be a tad confusing at times. At first I thought it'd be every chapter swapped POVs, so like chapter 1 would be touraine, chapter 2 luca, chapter 3 touraine, etc but instead it just seems to kinda swap at random. It's jarring at first, but it does make sense the further in you get and you just kinda get used to it.
It's certainly a slow-burner. There's a lot of talking, a lot of politics, a lot of silent strategies rather than constant action to solve everything. It's a proper political fantasy that really dives deep into the contrasting politics between the colonisers and the indigenous. The difference in beliefs, tactics and more shine so brightly and are written so well.
The influence of the French colonisation of Northern African countries is quite obvious, but it still manages to create it's own world, lore and history around it and builds off fantasy roots from the history. I think that's a pretty hard thing to do, using actual history quite heavily while still allowing for a fantasy world to thrive, but I just love how it's been done here!
It's not a romance though. It has romantic elements, but I wouldn't call it a romance at all. They got a hell of a lot more important things to do than slink off to a dark corner to be romance-y lmao. There is a set up for a couple romances, there's ofc some good gay representations, but yeah nothing over the top. It's nice to have a fantasy that isn't fully/only around romance so that's a big positive for me, but understandable if that's something you want from your fantasies!
If you're looking for fast-paced action, this isn't it. If you're looking for deep world building and complex characters, this is very much it. It's a lot more "political" than the regular political fantasy, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.
The plot is mainly just about the characters, and their places in the war. It's complex, messy and has so many small details throughout for both the overarching plot and the characters' own progressions and developments. I honestly absolutely loved the way character progression was done. At first, they're all pretty walled-up and seem flat, but the more the book progresses, the more they all start to open up as they start to find their places and find their motivations. The small changes to the characters, the way new info changes them, it's so great. I normally dislike really long books, but I feel like for the most part this did use the pages well as so many of the "smaller" parts still provide a lot for the characters as a whole.
I did find the POV switching to be a tad confusing at times. At first I thought it'd be every chapter swapped POVs, so like chapter 1 would be touraine, chapter 2 luca, chapter 3 touraine, etc but instead it just seems to kinda swap at random. It's jarring at first, but it does make sense the further in you get and you just kinda get used to it.
It's certainly a slow-burner. There's a lot of talking, a lot of politics, a lot of silent strategies rather than constant action to solve everything. It's a proper political fantasy that really dives deep into the contrasting politics between the colonisers and the indigenous. The difference in beliefs, tactics and more shine so brightly and are written so well.
The influence of the French colonisation of Northern African countries is quite obvious, but it still manages to create it's own world, lore and history around it and builds off fantasy roots from the history. I think that's a pretty hard thing to do, using actual history quite heavily while still allowing for a fantasy world to thrive, but I just love how it's been done here!
It's not a romance though. It has romantic elements, but I wouldn't call it a romance at all. They got a hell of a lot more important things to do than slink off to a dark corner to be romance-y lmao. There is a set up for a couple romances, there's ofc some good gay representations, but yeah nothing over the top. It's nice to have a fantasy that isn't fully/only around romance so that's a big positive for me, but understandable if that's something you want from your fantasies!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, War, and Death
Moderate: Gore, Torture, and Sexual assault
Minor: Rape
aseel_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
3.75
This one is a hard one to rate because I found it super engrossing and something I wanted to constantly read but at the same time, I found that some of the betrayals just didn't make any sense and were quite unbelievable, so I couldn't rate this as a four.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Gun violence, War, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Slavery, and Toxic relationship
changbinslemonade's review
dark
emotional
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Racism