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lemonwrlds's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Child death, Confinement, Blood, Excrement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Violence, War, Ableism, Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content
luxxltyd'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
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Grief, Blood, Murder, Rape, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
Minor: Cannibalism and Sexual content
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, War, Classism, Medical content, and Slavery
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Rape, Blood, Colonisation, Murder, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, Vomit, Police brutality, and Animal death
alvyv's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Similar to the Hunger Games on how they do have a competition and there is a very specific social hierarchy with clear separation, but I think it’s unique on how it is written and how the story builds. I’m excited to read the next book.
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Alcoholism, Violence, and Suicide
Minor: Cannibalism
st_ender's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Honestly tho, if I as an author took so much from Ender I would not go as far as putting the main characters surname right there as an Easter egg.
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Rape, and Suicide
astrea13's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gore, Cursing, Death, and Blood
Minor: Rape and Cannibalism
gailbird's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Slavery, and Torture
Minor: Cannibalism, Excrement, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
shaybro1728's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have been thinking about how I want to structure this review. I should start by saying I loved a lot of this book. I think the action scenes were dynamic. I thought the main character of Darrow was amazing. His character arc just in this first book was beautiful. But I hated the discussions of rape and the characterization of the women in this book.
In one of the first major battles of this book, our main character heard one of Titus's side characters sexually assault a woman. For me, I do not like it when authors use sexual assault as a narrative tool. Those discussions need to be done thoughtfully, carefully, and provide some direct and thoughtful justice to the character. In this first instance, I thought that the author brought up a good point. Darrow's main character asks the group what he should do and if they would care about the assault of the victim was not gold (the highest-ranking race in this world). And I think that does point to some important problems when we talk about sexual assault. We only care about it when it is against someone we deem worthy of grieving. However, there is another scene in which a sexual assault happened. The assaulter receives 20 lashes, and Darrow makes his troop give him 25 lashes saying that any wrongdoing he will share in the punishment. And the assaulted gets to be a ranking member, and the victim fades more or else into the background for me. There was no justice. Yes, the author talked about how the assault was about power. But he didn't take away power from the assaulted. Everyone moved on, and all was forgiven. This issue is still a large barrier for me in reading the next book in the series.
But second, the female characters in this book felt like props. The male characters definitely had more in-depth personalities. For example, all we know of EO is that she is pretty, she picked who she wanted to love, and she sang a death song. But we don't know anything else about her. Darrow constantly talks about how pretty Eo was. But nothing about her personality. Nothing about her character. Mustang, the new love interest, we know, is smart, pretty, and is wealthy. But she lacked any depth for me. It was just so frustrating to see Darrow have such a deeply thought-through personality and story arch, and all the women were merely props to motivate his next moves.
Graphic: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, Child death, Cannibalism, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, and Animal cruelty