Scan barcode
muffin_mouse's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Vomit
ari_wolffs's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Confinement, Slavery, War, Toxic relationship, and Addiction
dalek_caan's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: War, Sexual harassment, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Vomit, and Torture
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
boyname's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Genocide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
Moderate: War
Minor: Vomit, Trafficking, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Slavery
aurora4847's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Sexual content, Death, Violence, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Torture, Sexism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Cursing
Minor: Child death and War
nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Blood
Moderate: Vomit
purplepenning's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.25
"Good and evil are real. They always have been. Yet the weight of the realm has always fallen on those in-between. Ones neither good nor bad."
My experience with A Fall of Ruin and Wrath is that it's like the beginning of a Sarah J Maas story written by Katee Roberts. It leans into the theme of "morally gray" like it was the assignment and plays with the push-pull of "fated mates" and "star-crossed lovers" in a way that could get interesting if a lazy "chosen one" trope doesn't get in the way.
Parts of it were kind of a mess for me — sometimes in ways I didn't mind and sometimes in ways that I did. The world seems like standard high fantasy at first but then it's also sort of post-apocalyptic and maybe less fae and more seraphs and demons? I don't need the world building to be completely nailed down in the first book in a series so I wasn't too fussed about this. If anything makes me pick up book two it'll be wanting to figure out this fantasy world and system. I mean I did not have
Graphic: Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Torture
Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, and Vomit
Physical compulsionanoelle896'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexism, Gore, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Violence, and Cursing
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Vomit, Classism, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse
kayanoelle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Calista is a great protagonist! She asks the right amount of questions (*cough* Poppy) and I feel like her character is very realistic. She’s brave and sometimes even bold when her intuition tells her to be but she has a sense of self-preservation, too (which I loved).
Thorne as a love interest is… something. I LOVE him. At the beginning, I was a little put off by his bluntness and how he just decided things but after finding out how other Hyhborn behave, he seemed mellow in comparison lol. Anyway, I enjoyed how he actually listened to Calista and tried to respect her wishes after she explained why it’s so important to her. And I genuinely just love men who simp for their love interests👀
The story was perfectly balanced in my opinion, it was heavy on the romance especially in the middle (which I liked though) whereas the beginning explored the characters & world and the last third focused on the plot. Also, we didn’t get a lot of info dumping concerning the world building which is something that bothers me in FBAA, especially the Crown of Gilded Bones and the War of Two Queens. Instead, it was incorporated into the story in a way that made it seem natural but we still get all of the information we need in order to understand the world.
I also feel like the world building isn’t too complex and there’s things that are revealed throughout the book or still unclear at the end (in a good way).
I liked the writing style, it was very easy to read and had a flow to it that made it hard to stop. I also noticed that there weren’t any typos as opposed to some of her other novels, so that’s an improvement.
Every scene that JLA included felt necessary and that also added to the flow of the story. None of the conversations or scenes were too long or seemed forced which made this really fun and I was never bored while reading. We got the perfect amount of information about the characters, their relationships and the world while simultaneously leaving enough room to elaborate in the sequel.
One minor thing that bothered me was that I found two inconsistencies within the storytelling.
1) At the beginning of one chapter, Lis said that several weeks had passed since she saw Thorne in the garden but then when she went to see Claude, she referred back to his “earlier outburst” which to me sounded like the outburst happened on the same day (because why would she still be referencing it as “earlier” if it had been several weeks ago?)
2) When Thorne asked Lis to sleep in his bed, she said that she’d only ever shared a bed with Grady but later in the story (when she was looking for Claude in his chambers before the attack) she talked about a memory of hers in that chamber where she woke up with Claude and they had breakfast in bed??
Apart from that, I loved this book and I can’t wait for the second one! I wouldn’t say the ending was a terrible cliffhanger but I wouldn’t mind having the next book in my hands right now:)
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Violence
maxinesf's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Child abuse, Blood, Torture, Gore, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use
Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, and Sexual violence