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ellanarose'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Racism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Sexual content, and Grief
Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Minor: Ableism
aprlshowers'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racism and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Minor: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Animal death, Body horror, and Death
larareads's review
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Murder, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Slavery
peytonktracy'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? It's complicated
4.0
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with this last book. I liked the character growth throughout, their roles in the ongoing battle for good. I liked that they were all able to work together while individually motivated by their own aspirations and fears. While all the still large cast of characters got bigger (rather than smaller) over the course of this book, the author did a good job of not letting the narrative get too chaotic. I was able to keep track of everyone for the most part. The author also did a fairly good job of tying up most of the loose threads by the end of the book, though I felt like some of them didn't get the due attention I thought they might have gotten, or perhaps even deserved to receive. Without going into details, I felt this story went a little off the rails (did not expect to spend time with a traveling circus, let's put it that way), and I also feel like the fight against the big bad... was barely a fight against the big bad. I think I expected it to be much more difficult than it was, but it also felt fitting as was so, I guess it worked out?! It was a fairly good if occasionally perplexing finale.
As a series, I enjoyed these four books overall. The characters are diverse in so, so many ways that will never not be appreciated for me. I loved how the big bad grew and grew with every book, and the world and characters grew with the challenges. While the reckoning with the beautiful ideals and the horrific history of the United States was perhaps overdone at times, the number of angles and perspectives that were incorporated into this fixated examination was intriguing enough that it was easy to forgive for perhaps even the fixated honesty in it. And it's a creative idea overall - I certainly haven't read anything like it. And these characters are definitely going to stick with me past this series. And if that's not successful storytelling, I don't know what is!
Moderate: Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia
The KKK is regularly mentioned in this book. Most of these tags are allusions to these topics, not a primary feature of the plot.