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shae_purcell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.
Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Outing, Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death
Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Incest, Islamophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Classism, Homophobia, Self harm, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and War
There is a lot of intentional misgendering in the chapters told from theraccoonteeth's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Death, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, and Transphobia
Moderate: Genocide, Vomit, Classism, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, Toxic relationship, Racism, Toxic friendship, and War
flashandoutbreak'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, Dysphoria, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, War, and Outing
rideauriverreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Graphic: War, Violence, Death, Transphobia, and Outing
cumminsn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While there is very positive transgender, and LGBT in general, representation here, there is also rampant transphobia that I could see being very triggering to some. Also, the overuse of swearing and pop culture references took away from my immersion as well. For a book that has different characters that it switches perspectives between, I sometimes found myself having a hard time remembering who was who, with no very large differences in tone from one character to the next. Other than the antagonist, of course. The fact that she was evil was about the most obvious thing in the whole book.
I guess what disappointed me is that there wasn’t quite enough Fantasy to balance out the in-your-face politics that were constantly surfacing. I was more interested in the lore of the world, but the story seemed to stumble over itself to try and include as much political-correctness as possible that some of the characters didn’t even feel like genuine characters and more like just stereotypes being included for the sake of it, which was sad to read. Some of the language used, particularly internet-type wording and references, will likely not age well either.
I forced myself to finish this one. I was invested enough to want to do it, but I don’t know that I’ll be reaching for the sequel right away, if it all. In the end, I felt underwhelmed.
Graphic: Hate crime, Blood, Car accident, Transphobia, Cursing, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol and Body horror
Minor: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Outing
sfdogmom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Gaslighting, Racism, Outing, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Kidnapping
batbaby's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.5
Minor spoiler
——————————
3/4 way through I was sure I wouldn’t read the sequel but then when the action finally begins and the last chapter!! Maybe I will 🤔
Graphic: Transphobia and Child abuse
Moderate: Hate crime, Car accident, Emotional abuse, War, Body horror, Deadnaming, Murder, and Outing
lizbefann's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Outing and Transphobia
elys3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Not enough witchy vibes. This feels like X-Men super powers in every fight scene. I want more spells, cauldrons and the actual 'craft' in witchcraft.
Way to many PoVs and characters all at once. 35% of the book just to establish the story and characters.
Even after reading the whole book I'm confused about the organisational structure that is HMRC and how it functions.
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Racism and Outing
Minor: Self harm and Eating disorder
blacksphinx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
(I am also very tired of books that go "covid happened but we used magic to make it go away" ugh! And blaming the anti-vax movement on warlocks is so distasteful.)
Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Hate crime, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Grief, and Misogyny
Moderate: Car accident, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Bullying, Cursing, Medical content, Classism, Lesbophobia, Racism, Confinement, Dysphoria, Violence, and Gaslighting
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, War, Ableism, Abortion, and Emotional abuse
TW: transphobic, misogynistic, and ableist slurs. Internalized misogyny. Mention of drowning.