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ellornaslibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-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
4.0
While the digital/ebook version has some formatting issues that I hope will get fixed in future, it didn't distract from me being able to enjoy this novella. The magic and lore was good, but I really liked the characters. I did wish it was just a liiiittle bit longer which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 stars. I love the setting, the characters, and the story we got to experience. They were all really interesting. Also found family is my favorite trope. I loved too how it felt almost like a standard medieval magic fantasy, but the elements that made it own gave it that fresh feel. I also really enjoyed that it was a queernorm setting too - don't see this nearly enough.
I really hope to read more from this author soon. Perhaps we'll even get more stores from the characters/places in this book cause I'd really like that a lot.
I really hope to read more from this author soon. Perhaps we'll even get more stores from the characters/places in this book cause I'd really like that a lot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: War, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Sexual content, and Addiction
bingsoojung's review against another edition
5.0
Stone and Steel is a novella about Aaliyah, the champion of the Queen Odessa, killer of the old king, and hero of the people, and how she comes to terms with the fallacies of her adopted sister and lover Odessa and reasserts her title as hero of the people. It explores themes of corrupt monarchs, loyal knights, and, of course, tragic lover stories.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
bingsoojung's review
5.0
Stone and Steel is a novella about Aaliyah, the champion of the Queen Odessa, killer of the old king, and hero of the people, and how she comes to terms with the fallacies of her adopted sister and lover Odessa and reasserts her title as hero of the people. It explores themes of corrupt monarchs, loyal knights, and, of course, tragic lover stories.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
So let’s make something clear, I am not sure what to rate this book. Although I’ve rated it a 5/5 that’s not actually my rating, it’s more a ‘I am genuinely unsure what I want to rate this book, so I’ll give it a 5/5 because I think the author deserves the applause. As other reviews have stated, I’m not sure this novella was well-written, and that is not for lack of the authors technical skill or prose, which was wonderful, but because this should’ve been a book series and not a single novella. In fact, every issue I had with this novella could’ve been fixed if it was a book series I think. Or even just an entire novel. The pacing of this was far too quick, it felt like we went from issue to issue at a breathtaking speed that made it far too hard to enjoy the story at any given time. Characters came to realisations far quicker than they should’ve. Betrayals, travel, love stories, all happened far faster than they should’ve. But literally all of that could’ve been fixed with a novel or a series of books. Which this wasn’t. I don’t think even with better writing that could’ve been fixed for a novella though. Which lead me to giving this a 5 star rating.
To begin with what I enjoyed though, I really enjoyed the structure of this story and the characters. While Aaliyah had frankly shit taste in women, her fallacies and faults, as well as the fallacies and faults of all the characters, truly felt like a central part of the story. No one in this was perfect, and yet they were still all delightful to read about. The relationship with Odessa and Aaliyah was weird as shit, between the psuedo-incest (I say psuedo because they’re adopted, not because it’s not incest), and over-dependance Odessa had fostered Aaliyah. It truly felt toxic and purposefully so on the part of the author. In fact, much of this story is driven by the imperfect relationships between people and how they’ve failed each other, and Dunbar writes these relationships incredibly well. Dunbar’s dialogue, distinctness of characters, an ability to explore them is, by far, the strongest part of this story, and helps the story along fantastically. However, I would’ve liked more exploration of the characters outside of Aaliyah and their motivations. But, once more, that would’ve required more words.
To give critique of it though that’s not about it’s length, I felt as if the magic system and worldbuilding was lackluster. While interesting, it felt, in many ways, hollow, as if it were only a facade for the characters and the story they were trying to tell. I would’ve liked more exploration of the world, though I’m not sure more could’ve been given without breaking the speed of this book even more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
librarycatnip's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Definitely a novella, I would have loved to read a full length version of this story. Nonetheless, the character development is strong, and plausible. Loved the queer black ladies!
gealach's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
lady_moon's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Rep: Black cast, lesbian MC, sapphic side characters, achilliean side characters, enby side character
Well, well, well. Look at this gem shining on my all time favorite shelf.
Well, well, well. Look at this gem shining on my all time favorite shelf.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Cursing, Abandonment, and Confinement
chayote's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
2.75
jashanac's review
I can't do the incest. I get that they are adoptive siblings... but they were raised together as siblings and call each other "sister" (not in a friend way) and have that foundation of family dynamics and bonds together... so yeah I'm uncomfy with them then being lovers. Can't do it.
shunsicker's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- 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? No
5.0
downroad's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.25