Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Between Two Fires

I jumped into this book with no expectations, and I was blown away. This novel has just the right amount of action and reflection. I teared up more than once and found myself laughing audibly at some of the more ridiculous moments. This book was amazing, and I feel it deserves 5 out of 5⭐.

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chrschn's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

This is for sure going to be a clunky review, it’s super late and my eyes hurt and I dislike this book for reasons that are difficult to put into words. As a disclaimer though I will say that I’m very likely not the target audience for this one because most of what I disliked about this book are the same things that make it successful at what it was trying to do.

Between Two Fires reads appropriately for its subject matter, in as much as it’s reminiscent of biblical writing. It’s oddly paced, moving glacially most of the time and then extremely quickly at others. It feels feverish and everything has a dreamlike quality, never sitting quite right, which I assume was intentional but didn’t make it any more endearing. People’s words, their actions, everything feels weirdly performative and ethereal and like you’re reading a parable. Appropriate, I guess. The book is somewhat episodic and doesn’t connect the pieces well, while at other times fails to adequately describe what it intends to, which left me feeling confused more than I expect I was supposed to, which took me out of the story a fair bit. This was only made worse by how frustratingly anachronistic the book was at times.

The world in BTF is filthy, cruel, and full of bad people, our protagonist included. Every character is unlikable, but there are moments of decency when the story calls for it. I never did really warm to anyone in the book, but found them a bit more sympathetic by the last 30 pages, having experienced at least some growth. There’s a really creepy fascination with

rape, particularly centered around the pre-teen deuteragonist

which was handled very poorly.

The character in question never is SA’d in the book, but the subject is approached an uncomfortable amount, and never well. At one point the primary protagonist resists demonic influence to rape his adolescent surrogate daughter, and upon successfully fighting it off, the book treats it like it’s a bonding moment for them, going so far as to have another character be jealous over the newfound closeness the two share over the ordeal.

Felt very fucking gross on the author’s part. Above all though, for the handful of very interesting and creepy ideas it has, everything feels just kind of pointless. Things happen just to happen. There’s a difference between establishing how fucked the world is and just throwing in a creepy idea you had without knowing how to tie it to anything significant. There’s not really a reason for most things that take place, and events don’t have much bearing on the central story. There’s a character that’s introduced later in the book that could have been removed entirely and nothing would have been different.

My dislike for the book wavered slightly throughout, losing its intensity somewhat as we went on but never managing to go away. I will give BTF one full star for managing to finish on a high note with a well crafted ending. Still feel like I need to brush my teeth after the whole thing though.

Content Warnings

colleen_corleone's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I wasn't aware how much I loved these characters until the last 35% of the book where I started crying during different emotionally charged scenes.

The humor is wonderful and much needed as more horrific events unfold. I love their banter. I want to use cunting more often in sentences going forward. It's such a fun word to help break up the normal American swearing I do.

I love going into a book relatively blind, but for anyone who needs more context:

There is a cunting lot of gore, assault, death, dismemberment, cannibalism, unintentional necrophilia. That's in most chapters and part of the ever-present background of the world.

The relationship between Thomas and the young girl (whose name you learn later) is beautiful and bittersweet. He takes good if reluctant care of her.

For a general spoiler

Thomas and the girl make a friend whose death was the first time I cried, surprising myself. I didn't realize until that moment how much I loved loved these characters.

I cried three other times during deaths and hard battles. The general feeling of dread and/or terror keeps a low hum that built when I least expected it.

I am buying a physical copy to reread in the future.

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nashley's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

gringolet's review

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dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well researched, succeeded in capturing the feel of the period and really excellent for anyone who likes religious horror, medieval settings, and the plague, which is me. It is weirdly Catholic on a fundamental, foundational level, however I think writing anything set in medieval Europe kind of requires that headspace and it was Catholic in a "cool with gay people" way, so it didn't bother me too much. The characters were grounded in the period and yet still dynamic, interesting and likeable, and the horror elements were well done with some fun messed up creatures and gore.

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typo2d's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is a difficult book to review. While the overall writing and creativity is fantastic, too much of the novel is focused on detailed explorations of the sexual habits of essentially every minor character that shows up. That focus takes a lot away from the drive of the plot, muddying the narrative and removing strength from the theme of the story.

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carodunn's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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chrisdurkee98's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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