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ailsaod's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
2.0
I reread this because I bought the sequel after reading this book the first time and then never got around to it and then I forgot what happens in the first book. I am now somewhat questioning why I liked this so much and if I can be bothered to find the time to read the sequel.
This book has a lot of very promising ideas - I really liked the parts about the Jeradine and some of the other background world building although some of the most tantalising aspects of the book are not explained satisfactorily. The main example of this is the city, Thaiburley, we never get a particularly good explanation of its structure and it took me quite some time to figure out the City Below was underground as this is never really said. Even the scene that is pictured on the cover is never elaborated on in any way - though I suspect it is a topic for later in the trilogy. There are also 'The Blade' who are introduced towards the end as a bit of a deus ex machina and while it is explained why everyone is terrified of them there is no explanation at all of what they actually ARE?!
The characters are where things start to get sticky - the main points of view are from Tom (a 'street nick' - in other words a member of a gang of teenagers), Kat (a survivor of 'the pit'), Tylus (a member of the kite guard - basically a police officer from a very privileged background) and Dewar (an assassin). Tom is a pretty generic main character and I would be pretty ok with him if he could hold off simping over first Jesmina and then Kat all the time. I would say a more serious problem is that Tom's decisions are never what saves the day - other people do that and maneuver him into the position his powers will be most effective in so he never gets any opportunity to show initiative. I quite liked Kat - or at least the idea of her as she was kind of bland to be honest but Tom simping over her when she constantly refers to him as 'kid' was not what I really wanted? Tylus is actually probably the best character and the only one to have an actual arc despite sounding rather spoiled when he starts. (He is also the only male character that isn't a simp so maybe that's why I like him?) Finally we have Dewar. I am not a fan - he is a thoroughly nasty character whose first resort is torture or some other form of violence. He also has some pretty sus interactions with women/teenaged girls that were nowhere near as bad as they could have been but still wasn't wonderful - although he does have the self awareness to be a little embarrassed.
The way that some of the characters viewed Jesmina and Kat was pretty yikes to he honest. Every scene that Jesmina was in was painful because she was ridiculously oversexualised - at one point a whole watch station is practically drooling over her - when she is at most in her mid-teens. There is a whole mine of uncomfortable things when it comes to Jesmina, which I shan't get into but Kat has a much better time overall. The exception being that Dewar - with 0 provocation or reason - decides to kiss her against her will on one occasion. Dewar is a massive creep and should go straight to horny jail!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
The sexual content (+ violence) and assault refer to two separate, very brief instances, although the first becomes assault?
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