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elfaz's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Classism
caitlinkm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail
strawberrytheauthor'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Cursing, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Torture
thaliareads'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
4.5
I thought the magic system was incredible and so was the world that this magic existed in. I can't even begin to summarize all the action, so all I'll say is that you'll have to give it a read yourself.
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Confinement and Kidnapping
This book is fairly dark and does have a decent amount of detailed violence and all that goes with it. The religious bigotry is all dealing with fictionalized religions that are a part of this world.blynecessity's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Trafficking, Stalking, and Death of parent
michelleleistadravelet's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Genocide, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry
padme's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
However, it falls into the trap many fantasy books fall into of having a whole bunch of characters and then never developing them. Kell and Vin (and maybe Saze) are the only characters we really spend a substantial amount of time with. Nearly everyone else is extremely one-note, and there isn't a lot of investment in them as people.
Take Dockson, for example. He's Kell's right-hand man and one of the leaders of the rebellion. And what do we know about him? We get one scene in which he exposits his backstory to Vin, though this is really moreso to remind Vin that not all noblemen are good than to actually provide some depth to his character. He explains that he was a slave, that he was in love with a woman, that she was taken from him, and then he ran away and came to the city. And that's all we really end up learning about Dockson, even though he's a major figure in the rebellion.
Most of the characters are simply defined by their roles, with the exception of Vin and Kell. Dockson is a bureaucrat. Marsh is interested in the inquisitors. Ham is a soldier. Yeden is a rebel leader. Breeze... wears fancy clothes.
Nothing about these characters really inspired anything in me. So many characters died or potentially died without me caring at all about them or their situation. And so many major character deaths were fairly anticlimactic.
And that doesn't even get into the gender and race dynamics in this book: let's discuss.
In terms of women, we have Vin! And that's great. She's a reasonably well-rounded character, with a fleshed-out backstory, an interesting point of view. She has motivation, she's interesting, and she's not there to further anyone else's plotline - she's undeniably the main character of the story.
However, my issue comes with the other women in the story. Or, rather, the lack of them. You'll notice above that every single character I've mentioned so far, every single member of the rebellion is male. And there are very few female characters in this book that is filled with a ton of characters.
The first female we meet isn't given a name, as far as I remember. She appears in the prologue, and she exists so that Kell can save her, we can be introduced to Kell, and he can go on his way.
The next female character we meet is around... 150-200 pages in? It's the hairdresser that does Vin's hair. The woman barely speaks, and most certainly isn't a character. As far as I can recall, the only thing she talks about is how ugly Vin's hair is.
But wait, Vin goes to balls! Certainly there were women at the balls! Yes, yes there were. Most are nameless, most do not speak. The only two women other than Vin that I can remember having any impact on the story are Shan, a jealous and vindictive woman who is nothing but cruel to Vin and everyone else and who is undeniably a villain, and a girl whose name I can't remember who gossips a lot.
There's also Kell's dead wife, but since she's dead before the story begins, I'm not really sure she counts as a second well-rounded female character.
And that's it! That's the grand sum of all the female characters in this massive book with a ton of characters. We have Vin, a nameless slave that Kell saves from a terrible fate, a hairdresser who barely speaks, a one-note villain who is nothing but antagonistic to Vin and appears in around four scenes, a gossip who shows up a few times at the balls, and a long-dead woman who is defined by her relationship to a man. This is an issue. I know Brandon Sanderson is a man, and I know it was considered somewhat revolutionary to have a female character like Vin be the lead in a high fantasy series such as this one. But it's an issue that she never has a meaningful interaction with a female character other than Shan, with whom her relationship is antagonistic. There are around six rebel leaders, and a fair number of other minor characters in the book, and all of them are male. Every single one.
And I haven't even gotten into the race dynamics yet. Now, I'm no expert on the subject, so I'll leave it to people who know better than me to speak more expansively on this topic, but this book reeked of "what if white people were treated like black people?" to me. There isn't a single person of colour in the book to my knowledge (given that Vin and others are easily able to pass as nobles despite being Skaa, and certain Terrisman characters are also able to pass as non-Terrisman). And yet it deals with topics like oppression and genocide and slavery. It was weird to me, to say the least.e
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Religious bigotry