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greenxora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture, Suicide attempt, and War
cas_reads_anything's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
maria_silv_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Three different plots in same storyline made it slightly difficult to follow and some of the characters did make me question their intentions (not for being intriguing but due to their immaturity). However the middle-endish of the book was a pageturner of a section. Not the best fantasy that I have read but not the worst.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
mellamaron's review against another edition
DNF at 72 pages.
I won this arc in a giveaway and was very excited to read it because I thoroughly enjoy dark ya fantasy but… this one I just didn’t vibe with.
It just feels SO basic? The FMC is pained that she has to kill animals for power - which is the most interesting thing in this book so far. The MMC is a generic thief who infiltrates the palace and pretends to be a servant. 🤷♀️ His “banter” with his friends is very 13yo kid. Which honestly is fine but NOT upper YA at all. And when the two finally meet… there is legitimately nothing witty in their conversation. It was SO plain. 😢
And her father is just a villainous coward who is forcing his daughter to kill animals. 🤷♀️ I don’t see any evidence of him having any deeper feelings. She’s likely going to throw him off his pedestal and yay, how inventive….? Mara, the sister, is pretty interesting but she’s the only one who is imo.
Like I said, the magic system is the most interesting thing in this book. The realms are legit named the Coast realm, the Swap realm, the Forest realm… etc. So far, I haven’t really gotten much world building that made me care. It, again, feels basic.
Also, I did skip to the end and read a few chapters there - it’s exactly what I would have predicted from the first five pages of the book with one small detail in the epilogue that is likely going to be the “conflict” next book. I just can’t bring myself to care at all about this after 70+ pages. 🤷♀️ So I’m out.
I won this arc in a giveaway and was very excited to read it because I thoroughly enjoy dark ya fantasy but… this one I just didn’t vibe with.
It just feels SO basic? The FMC is pained that she has to kill animals for power - which is the most interesting thing in this book so far. The MMC is a generic thief who infiltrates the palace and pretends to be a servant. 🤷♀️ His “banter” with his friends is very 13yo kid. Which honestly is fine but NOT upper YA at all. And when the two finally meet… there is legitimately nothing witty in their conversation. It was SO plain. 😢
And her father is just a villainous coward who is forcing his daughter to kill animals. 🤷♀️ I don’t see any evidence of him having any deeper feelings. She’s likely going to throw him off his pedestal and yay, how inventive….? Mara, the sister, is pretty interesting but she’s the only one who is imo.
Like I said, the magic system is the most interesting thing in this book. The realms are legit named the Coast realm, the Swap realm, the Forest realm… etc. So far, I haven’t really gotten much world building that made me care. It, again, feels basic.
Also, I did skip to the end and read a few chapters there - it’s exactly what I would have predicted from the first five pages of the book with one small detail in the epilogue that is likely going to be the “conflict” next book. I just can’t bring myself to care at all about this after 70+ pages. 🤷♀️ So I’m out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
bookrecsbyjess's review against another edition
I didn’t really care about the characters or plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
sydnienovareads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
THAT EPILOGUE!!!!!
This was an absolutely fantastic magical YA fantasy!!!! (EXTREME TW if you are an animal lover...)
Mancella has been through so much at the hands of her father all to be named his second and to obtain power under the pretense of "peace" and "protecting the people from impending war" that is a constant threat. In order to obtain her power, she must do unspeakable and horrifyingly violent acts to innocent creatures to obtain their power and drawn them within her. This is an absolutely traumatizing experience for Mancella and as much as she grows to love her animal "companions", she is tormented by what she has done. When plans are put into motion that threaten the realm and her father, the Prime's, position--she teams up with unlikely allies who seem to be part of a resistance movement to ensure peace, something she wants more than anything, and will ensure she can stop using her powers in such a traumatic way.
This book is so hauntingly epic. On one hand, you have a very dark magic system that is violent and traumatizing and there is something to be said about that in a YA fantasy. The characters, however are so cleverly written that you can really feel their emotions, the turmoil, grief, anguish at the way their powers are used and the desperation to find an alternative route to peace. There is great commentary in this book about man's duplicity and the manipulitive way those in power abuse those who don't have it(and how those who don't have it manipulate others so they can obtain it).
It was a really wonderful book, despite being rather sad at times. Also, the romance is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW Burn.
**Side note: If you get the chance to listen to this on audio, the narration is so well done and the emotion is very clear in the characters/actor's voices.
This was an absolutely fantastic magical YA fantasy!!!! (EXTREME TW if you are an animal lover...)
Mancella has been through so much at the hands of her father all to be named his second and to obtain power under the pretense of "peace" and "protecting the people from impending war" that is a constant threat. In order to obtain her power, she must do unspeakable and horrifyingly violent acts to innocent creatures to obtain their power and drawn them within her. This is an absolutely traumatizing experience for Mancella and as much as she grows to love her animal "companions", she is tormented by what she has done. When plans are put into motion that threaten the realm and her father, the Prime's, position--she teams up with unlikely allies who seem to be part of a resistance movement to ensure peace, something she wants more than anything, and will ensure she can stop using her powers in such a traumatic way.
This book is so hauntingly epic. On one hand, you have a very dark magic system that is violent and traumatizing and there is something to be said about that in a YA fantasy. The characters, however are so cleverly written that you can really feel their emotions, the turmoil, grief, anguish at the way their powers are used and the desperation to find an alternative route to peace. There is great commentary in this book about man's duplicity and the manipulitive way those in power abuse those who don't have it(and how those who don't have it manipulate others so they can obtain it).
It was a really wonderful book, despite being rather sad at times. Also, the romance is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW Burn.
**Side note: If you get the chance to listen to this on audio, the narration is so well done and the emotion is very clear in the characters/actor's voices.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Violence
Moderate: War
lindag25's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
For me, a three star review has met the following qualifications:
• The book has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• I didn’t hate reading/listening.
That’s basically it.
It’s just kinda - meh.
Was it bad? No. But was it good? Also, no.
Will I recommend it to others? Maybe?? If you’re looking for a very specific trope or vibe, some people might enjoy it. I’m just not one of those.
Honestly, this book kind of confused me on who the intended audience is supposed to be. It reads veryyy YA. The romance is basically two barely adults having their first crush and some sloppy making out at the end. That’s it.
However, this book deals with some pretty heavy themes.
***TRIGGER WARNING:
Animal suffering/harm/death ON PAGE.
Parental psychological/emotional abuse of a child ON PAGE
Physical abuse of a child ON PAGE
***SPOILER WARNING***
The FMC is tasked with mindlessly killing animals practically her entire life. Her father forces her to kill animals because she’s able to absorb their essence/powers into her own magic. She starts by being conditioned to kill tiny insects as a very young child - her father rewards her with cupcakes for killing bugs. This gradually grows to rodents, birds, then A KITTEN, and eventually large predators like a bear, jaguar, and wolves.
For a lot of people, death and harm of animals is a major trigger. Had I known it was a main theme of this book, I probably would have skipped it.
Then there’s the child abuse/grooming/conditioning aspect of this plot that basically gets no real attention in the story. FMC loves her father despite all of the horrible things he’s done and has made her do. There’s no real exploration into how this has affected her long term or any healing from a literal life time of trauma. Ick.
There’s also an orphanage/school where children are literally tortured. Literally. They have secret torture chambers hidden away where they strap children down and do gods know what until the children are screaming in pain and submission. They’re also forced to strap rocks and boulders to their ankles and walk around 24/7 as punishment for disobeying or talking back. The older children are even tasked with assigning these punishments to the younger children. It’s really f’d up.
So yeah, maybe you see why I have a hard time believing this is YA or even New Adult. It’s dark. It’s mentally hard to digest.
The loose, fluffy plot of saving the realm just isn’t really worth all of the icky dark triggers to me.
• The book has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• I didn’t hate reading/listening.
That’s basically it.
It’s just kinda - meh.
Was it bad? No. But was it good? Also, no.
Will I recommend it to others? Maybe?? If you’re looking for a very specific trope or vibe, some people might enjoy it. I’m just not one of those.
Honestly, this book kind of confused me on who the intended audience is supposed to be. It reads veryyy YA. The romance is basically two barely adults having their first crush and some sloppy making out at the end. That’s it.
However, this book deals with some pretty heavy themes.
***TRIGGER WARNING:
Animal suffering/harm/death ON PAGE.
Parental psychological/emotional abuse of a child ON PAGE
Physical abuse of a child ON PAGE
***SPOILER WARNING***
The FMC is tasked with mindlessly killing animals practically her entire life. Her father forces her to kill animals because she’s able to absorb their essence/powers into her own magic. She starts by being conditioned to kill tiny insects as a very young child - her father rewards her with cupcakes for killing bugs. This gradually grows to rodents, birds, then A KITTEN, and eventually large predators like a bear, jaguar, and wolves.
For a lot of people, death and harm of animals is a major trigger. Had I known it was a main theme of this book, I probably would have skipped it.
Then there’s the child abuse/grooming/conditioning aspect of this plot that basically gets no real attention in the story. FMC loves her father despite all of the horrible things he’s done and has made her do. There’s no real exploration into how this has affected her long term or any healing from a literal life time of trauma. Ick.
There’s also an orphanage/school where children are literally tortured. Literally. They have secret torture chambers hidden away where they strap children down and do gods know what until the children are screaming in pain and submission. They’re also forced to strap rocks and boulders to their ankles and walk around 24/7 as punishment for disobeying or talking back. The older children are even tasked with assigning these punishments to the younger children. It’s really f’d up.
So yeah, maybe you see why I have a hard time believing this is YA or even New Adult. It’s dark. It’s mentally hard to digest.
The loose, fluffy plot of saving the realm just isn’t really worth all of the icky dark triggers to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship