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aroseb'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
4.5
Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Homophobia
Minor: Death of parent
theprettiestpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
- Sophia: I strongly disliked Sophia,and it was because she was as bland as rock soup. She is the main character in our book, and I can’t tell you a single thing about her beside the fact that she hates society. To be fair, I can see why, but I wanted more from her. Katniss hated her society, but we got to see complexity from her. This fell flat.
- Luke: A round of applause for the fan favorite, because he gave me life almost every time he was on the page. He was honestly the only character who I enjoyed, Liv was cute and in second place. I want a whole book about Luke and his secret boy lover, and I want it to end in him creating a secret society of gays who married each other as a beard plan while they also planned to take down the king.
- Erin: She annoyed me, but also I could see where she was coming from. Erin was in an abusive relationship, and that relationship was society. She like many others way just going through the motions of life. She told Sophia that she didn’t want to be with her, and Sophia didn’t accept that.
- Manford: I saw a piece of paper today and it had more dimension than this character did. I mean he was the big bad, and apparently he was the root of all that was wrong in society. He wasn’t threatening in the least. I wanted to see him kill people. I wanted Game of Thrones level murder, but alas I didn’t even get a percentage of that. He just locked people in rooms and assaulted them with his rank breath.
- Amina: She was completely unnecessary, and her presence in this book was confusing. She was playing both sides and it didn’t make any sense at all. The surprise that she was charming mother did absolutely nothing for me. She spewed some good lines, but she left much to be desired.
- Constance: I wrote this whole review and almost didn’t notice that I didn’t write about this character. That’s how little I cared about her. She didn’t do much, but be there as a rebound.
- The book is around the length that I like my books to be, but it was slow then rushed to accomplish everything.
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Trafficking, and Violence
quinn24'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? No
3.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Blood
Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Homophobia
bookcaptivated'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? No
4.0
Graphic: Sexism, Death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Trafficking
Minor: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Torture, Lesbophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Classism, and Confinement
knunderb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Moderate: Slavery and Death of parent
neighborhoodbeanreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Murder
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent, Outing, Animal death, and Confinement
toadsandtales's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Outing, Pedophilia, Slavery, Trafficking, and Vomit
michellemaas'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
2.0
In terms of this being a fairytale retelling, I will give props to Kalynn Bayron in saying that the premise was quite creative, but the execution ended up lacking. My biggest caveat is that I found the story dragging along often, especially in the beginning (keep in mind that this is a relatively short book, with my version having only been 299 pages). When your short book isn't fast-faced it is a recipe for disaster.
Another problem I had was with the foreshadowing being so heavy-handed. I can appreciate the author focusing on certain aspects so that big developments don't seem to come out of anywhere, especially when you are setting up a big plot twist at the end, but I feel that it was written so obviously that the ending lacked some of the impact it was aiming for.
The last thing I want to mention is the representation. I haven't seen many fantasy books with LGBTQ+ characters as the leads and that aspect was beautifully done. Sophia and Constance were just so perfect and had me fangirling since their first encounter. I also enjoyed the parallels of Erin and Constance since it is a parallel a lot of queer people have to deal with. Some more representation comes from our lead, Sophia, being a person of color. Again, I don't find that many books come out and say: My lead is a POC and I'm proud of that (it's always "olive-skinned") so I thought that was cool.
Ultimately I would recommend you read this because the representation is something else and it's important to support stories/authors with representation, but if you're just reading it for the plot you might be disappointed.
Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
bedtimesandbooks'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
3.75
Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Outing, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, and Slavery
martereadsbooks's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, and Body shaming
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Hate crime