Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

3 reviews

thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is so beautifully written. <3 It very much gave me fairytale feels. I love Nannerl, her drive to be remembered is very relatable. I can definitely see myself reading this again.

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rochallor's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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allyhoo811's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My admittedly disorganized thoughts after reading "The Kingdom of Back"

Positives (for me):

1) I don't feel this book should be marketed as YA. Yes, the protagonist is a teenage girl, but it feels much more general audience to me.

2) The writing style is beautiful and had a dreamlike quality. I found myself falling asleep on several occasions while reading this one -- not because it was boring, but the cadence of the words just kind of lulled me into dreamland lol

3) This book has some wonderful Dark "Peter Pan" vibes (reminded me a bit of Season 3 of Once Upon A Time in that way). If you enjoy that story, I'd try this.

4) Fans of portal fantasies should check this out.

5) The brother/sister relationship in this story is perfection.

6) I loved that I was never sure what the author intended the Kingdom of Back to be: was it a real place, a dream, I childhood game, or was Nannerl experiencing some kind of mental health issues (schizophrenia perhaps).

Negatives (for me):

1) The last 2 or 3 chapters (after the time jump to post-Mozart's death) really brought the book down for me. They didn't feel necessary to me and really left me confused (not in a good way this time) to the author's intentions for what the Kingdom was and what the theme of the story was. It should have just ended without these chapters included.

2) There are several historical inaccuracies (at least according to some very basic google research). It doesn't greatly affect the story, but if you like researching your historical fiction/fantasy you will find it is there. 

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