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duchh01's review against another edition
Currently not in the right mood for this book.
e_lace's review against another edition
I think i really wanted this book to be good but it was just really boring. This was an adult fantasy novel written as if the author is too embarassed to publicly inhabit a world in which she herself says she is very proud to have created. As most reviews point out, the strongest point of this book is the worldbuilding, but that doesnt really hold up when basically every other quality of the writing is bad.
The author is really bad about telling instead of showing so basically all world building elements are presented as exposition by characters to the main character that's designated as like the reader stand-in. Most of the characters are pretty flat which is a shame because there are enough of them that the author felt a dramatis personae was necessary. Because theyre so flat, sometimes characters have these sort of discordant feelings and actions. Like we learn early on that Reina's father, Juan Vicente, was once very close friends with a character we meet very early in the book but when they talk about him they only call him by his full name, Juan Vicente.
After Reina is attacked by monsters in the forest at the beginning of the book, her grandmother builds her a magic iron heart powered by an incredibly rare and expensive ore only found underneath her house. Reina goes back and forth almost every page, at first referring to the heart as her slaver (i wish i was lying), then remarking that it's finally given her freedom, and then going back to despising it. Even if we as a reader are to assume that she just has complicated feelings about the heart, she's way too flat of a character for us to even know why should would feel this way other than that we have established that her species is of the lowest caste due to imperialism by humans.
The dialogue is so stilted. Like so so so stilted. I noted multiple times that almost every conversation feels like you're reading the script of a jrpg translated by a group of amateur fans. Sometimes the flow of conversation literally feels like a poptropica dialogue tree where reina will sit upright, unfeeling just asking investigative poptropica-ass questions.
Anyway. I obviously couldnt stomach another 400 pages so I DNF'd. For what it's worth, I think that if you are a fan of Karlach in BG3, you are kind of new to fantasy, and you maybe want to try out some queer fantasy but you're not sure if you like more fantasy than Game of Thrones on HBO or like Harry Potter, I think you might like this.
Oh! Also, one thing I did really like was the author did her own character portraits and chapter illustrations which appear inside the book. So that was cool. I hate to dog on Gabriela like rhis I'm sure she's so nice but I really think this one could have spent like 5 more years in the slow cooker honestly...
The author is really bad about telling instead of showing so basically all world building elements are presented as exposition by characters to the main character that's designated as like the reader stand-in. Most of the characters are pretty flat which is a shame because there are enough of them that the author felt a dramatis personae was necessary. Because theyre so flat, sometimes characters have these sort of discordant feelings and actions. Like we learn early on
The dialogue is so stilted. Like so so so stilted. I noted multiple times that almost every conversation feels like you're reading the script of a jrpg translated by a group of amateur fans. Sometimes the flow of conversation literally feels like a poptropica dialogue tree where reina will sit upright, unfeeling just asking investigative poptropica-ass questions.
Anyway. I obviously couldnt stomach another 400 pages so I DNF'd. For what it's worth, I think that if you are a fan of Karlach in BG3, you are kind of new to fantasy, and you maybe want to try out some queer fantasy but you're not sure if you like more fantasy than Game of Thrones on HBO or like Harry Potter, I think you might like this.
Oh! Also, one thing I did really like was the author did her own character portraits and chapter illustrations which appear inside the book. So that was cool. I hate to dog on Gabriela like rhis I'm sure she's so nice but I really think this one could have spent like 5 more years in the slow cooker honestly...
aimeecait16's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
trancino95's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
bookshelfmonkey's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- 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
4.5
I was shocked by how low this book's rated on goodreads & storygraph. Like, I know it isn't perfect, but damn.
The main issue with this book (and pretty much the only criticism I agree with) is the pacing. It does get off to a good start: the first few chapters did a great job of getting me invested in the plot, laying out the basic worldbuilding, and introducing the characters. After that, I admit that it does stall somewhat. It took me longer than usual to get through this book (although this was partially due to other things unrelated to the book itself) but I didn't feel like I was struggling through it per se. Instead, I enjoyed taking things slowly as I absorbed everything about the world and the character dynamics. Sure, it could have maybe done with some editing down, but it was nice to have some time to get used to the world and everything in the status quo instead of having everything thrown at me at once. Once it did get going it was great. I could never fully predict how it was going to turn out with all the different characters holding their agendas and the ending hit that perfect balance of being surprising but also making total sense within the context of all I'd seen up to that point.
The characters were messy, but compelling. Sure, they frustrated me a lot of the time, but that's definitely a lot better than them not making me feel anything. Their naivety and... questionable moral judgements all made perfect sense within the context of the book, which sometimes made everything even more frustrating, but in a way that felt intentional. There was also a lot of character development which meant that these frustrating elements were often realised and confronted by the characters themselves, which made for more significant growth. I particularly enjoyed how the interactions between the main four female characters led to them all growing as people and confronting their flaws and learning to communicate better.
The romantic relationships were... messy. There was incest, which, as always, begged the question of "at what point does this become unacceptable?" and, maybe this is my bad, but I didn't realise that two of the people involved didn't know that they were related, so I am going less harshly on that criticism. Honestly, in this aspect it just felt like a lot of darker fantasies that do have some morally dubious elements but don't condone them, in the same way that it doesn't condone the abuse in some of the other relationships.
Honestly, although the pacing was a bit of an issue, I really enjoyed this book and the worldbuilding felt really original. I definitely need more of this in fantasy.
The main issue with this book (and pretty much the only criticism I agree with) is the pacing. It does get off to a good start: the first few chapters did a great job of getting me invested in the plot, laying out the basic worldbuilding, and introducing the characters. After that, I admit that it does stall somewhat. It took me longer than usual to get through this book (although this was partially due to other things unrelated to the book itself) but I didn't feel like I was struggling through it per se. Instead, I enjoyed taking things slowly as I absorbed everything about the world and the character dynamics. Sure, it could have maybe done with some editing down, but it was nice to have some time to get used to the world and everything in the status quo instead of having everything thrown at me at once. Once it did get going it was great. I could never fully predict how it was going to turn out with all the different characters holding their agendas and the ending hit that perfect balance of being surprising but also making total sense within the context of all I'd seen up to that point.
The characters were messy, but compelling. Sure, they frustrated me a lot of the time, but that's definitely a lot better than them not making me feel anything. Their naivety and... questionable moral judgements all made perfect sense within the context of the book, which sometimes made everything even more frustrating, but in a way that felt intentional. There was also a lot of character development which meant that these frustrating elements were often realised and confronted by the characters themselves, which made for more significant growth. I particularly enjoyed how the interactions between the main four female characters led to them all growing as people and confronting their flaws and learning to communicate better.
The romantic relationships were... messy. There was incest, which, as always, begged the question of "at what point does this become unacceptable?" and, maybe this is my bad, but I didn't realise that two of the people involved didn't know that they were related, so I am going less harshly on that criticism. Honestly, in this aspect it just felt like a lot of darker fantasies that do have some morally dubious elements but don't condone them, in the same way that it doesn't condone the abuse in some of the other relationships.
Honestly, although the pacing was a bit of an issue, I really enjoyed this book and the worldbuilding felt really original. I definitely need more of this in fantasy.
zmuses's review against another edition
Dnf’d. A friend read this and we usually have the same tastes in books. I also didn’t realize this was sapphic and I’m not a big sapphic book reader. Just not for me.
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
Not connecting with it right now and based on reviews, I think I'm going to give it a pass.
quackthump's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
4.75
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The first 30% of this book was hard to get through. I was not invested in the story at all and the only reason I didn’t DNF is that it was a book club pick. Then the plot actually kicked off and the writing became infinitely more engaging. There were a few more lulls where I wondered if it had really been worth not DNF-ing, but the finale was incredible. So if only for that final pay-off, I’m curious about the next book.
The pacing problems combined with occasional awkward writing make me think the main fault of this book is that it was under-edited, which is a shame.
The pacing problems combined with occasional awkward writing make me think the main fault of this book is that it was under-edited, which is a shame.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Racism, Religious bigotry, Gore, Violence, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Genocide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Incest, Grief, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs
Racial slurs for fantasy races