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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
4.75
Who let me sleep on this book for so long??!! A dark YA adventure novel with a gender-bent Count of Monte Cristo premise! Dual POV! Opulent city-street parties and tea houses, coupled with sinister gambling houses and a spreading plague! Now I need to get my hands (or ears) on the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Slavery and Trafficking
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, and Physical abuse
clarabooksit's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Murder, Trafficking, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Vomit, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Drug use
Minor: Suicide
guessgreenleaf's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Violence, and Slavery
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
SCAVENGE THE STARS is a Count of Monte Cristo retelling which uses the source material as inspiration and a loose outline, but diverges from the plot and precise premise in way that is delightful to those who are unfamiliar with the inspiration, but delicately balances reference and surprise for those who know it well.
There are two main characters, Amaya (known early on as Silverfish), and Cayo (son of a nobleman who wronged her). Amaya is working with a man named Boon, who helped her find a fortune and offered it for her use as long as she helped him with his aims. Cayo is a recovering gambler who is trying to get back in his father's good graces after losing a large portion of the family fortune to games of chance.
Amaya and Cayo's sections have distinct narrative voices and it was pretty easy to track what was going on. There are some well-laid surprises in the structure of the chapters, especially for someone like myself who has read The Count of Monte Cristo (or someone who has seen one of the movie versions).
The repeated missteps as Cayo and the Countess kept assuming things about each other's actions worked well and made a lot of sense in context. They never built enough to be extremely stressful for me when reading, but they were a completely understandable level of small but well-intentioned miscommunications which would result from these characters getting to know each other when they haven't yet put all their cards on the table.
The worldbuilding is pretty good, it feels like there's a lot of political ground laid that will pay off in the sequel. At times the asides discussing politics with other countries felt a bit distracting because they mostly didn't go anywhere until the very end. None of the characters (so far) were at a level to affect international politics, and while their actions gradually built so it might be possible in RAVAGE THE DARK, it made it harder to know what details mattered to the main plot. I like the handling of the quarantine and plague, there's an excellent payoff for it, as well as ongoing impacts to the main characters.
This was good overall and I'm looking forward to reading RAVAGE THE DARK. I'm happy to read a retelling which had room to surprise me with its plot, using the bones of one of my favorite books in a new way.
There are two main characters, Amaya (known early on as Silverfish), and Cayo (son of a nobleman who wronged her). Amaya is working with a man named Boon, who helped her find a fortune and offered it for her use as long as she helped him with his aims. Cayo is a recovering gambler who is trying to get back in his father's good graces after losing a large portion of the family fortune to games of chance.
Amaya and Cayo's sections have distinct narrative voices and it was pretty easy to track what was going on. There are some well-laid surprises in the structure of the chapters, especially for someone like myself who has read The Count of Monte Cristo (or someone who has seen one of the movie versions).
The repeated missteps as Cayo and the Countess kept assuming things about each other's actions worked well and made a lot of sense in context. They never built enough to be extremely stressful for me when reading, but they were a completely understandable level of small but well-intentioned miscommunications which would result from these characters getting to know each other when they haven't yet put all their cards on the table.
The worldbuilding is pretty good, it feels like there's a lot of political ground laid that will pay off in the sequel. At times the asides discussing politics with other countries felt a bit distracting because they mostly didn't go anywhere until the very end. None of the characters (so far) were at a level to affect international politics, and while their actions gradually built so it might be possible in RAVAGE THE DARK, it made it harder to know what details mattered to the main plot. I like the handling of the quarantine and plague, there's an excellent payoff for it, as well as ongoing impacts to the main characters.
This was good overall and I'm looking forward to reading RAVAGE THE DARK. I'm happy to read a retelling which had room to surprise me with its plot, using the bones of one of my favorite books in a new way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Addiction, Blood, Violence, Child death, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Drug use, Child abuse, Slavery, Terminal illness, Medical content, Excrement, Vomit, Gun violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism
eleanorefiore's review against another edition
3.0
⚔️ wonderfully queer
⚔️ kinda boring but also not?
⚔️ probably would have liked it more if I'd read The Count of Monte Cristo
TW: descriptions of violence and abuse, one scene of a character being drugged
This book is so wonderfully queer. There's so many LGBTQ+ characters and inclusion and I just loved it. One of the main character is bisexual, there's at least one trans side character, ace side character, and more.
I picked up the book for the ace rep (I'm doing a project for my blog) and I really liked the rep. The character wasn't around for super long (side character) but there were a couple of lines that indicated they were ace that I really appreciated. I wouldn't put it up towards my favorite ace rep, simply because there wasn't a ton of personal detail about them, but it was nice to feel included.
I won't lie, I got bored in the middle. I wonder if it would be more interesting for those who have read Count of Monte Cristo. You might have more fun dissecting what was inspired by what, but for me it kind of dragged.
I was invested in the mystery but struggled with the characters. I liked Cayo a lot more, and I felt more invested in his story with his sister and his character. I didn't dislike Amaya. But thinking back on the book, I can't find a specific character trait to assign to her. I don't think she was defined enough for me to remember (or maybe I've just read a ton of other YA protags like her) and I was way more interested in her family mystery than in her.
Again, I wonder if I'd read the original book if I'd have more of an idea who her character was supposed to be.
I'm not sure if I'll read the next book. The ending made up for the sagging middle and I'm invested in certain characters, but I have a lot of books to get through this month. I'll have to wait and see if it'll keep my interest after a month.
⚔️ kinda boring but also not?
⚔️ probably would have liked it more if I'd read The Count of Monte Cristo
TW: descriptions of violence and abuse, one scene of a character being drugged
This book is so wonderfully queer. There's so many LGBTQ+ characters and inclusion and I just loved it. One of the main character is bisexual, there's at least one trans side character, ace side character, and more.
I picked up the book for the ace rep (I'm doing a project for my blog) and I really liked the rep. The character wasn't around for super long (side character) but there were a couple of lines that indicated they were ace that I really appreciated. I wouldn't put it up towards my favorite ace rep, simply because there wasn't a ton of personal detail about them, but it was nice to feel included.
I won't lie, I got bored in the middle. I wonder if it would be more interesting for those who have read Count of Monte Cristo. You might have more fun dissecting what was inspired by what, but for me it kind of dragged.
I was invested in the mystery but struggled with the characters. I liked Cayo a lot more, and I felt more invested in his story with his sister and his character. I didn't dislike Amaya. But thinking back on the book, I can't find a specific character trait to assign to her. I don't think she was defined enough for me to remember (or maybe I've just read a ton of other YA protags like her) and I was way more interested in her family mystery than in her.
Again, I wonder if I'd read the original book if I'd have more of an idea who her character was supposed to be.
I'm not sure if I'll read the next book. The ending made up for the sagging middle and I'm invested in certain characters, but I have a lot of books to get through this month. I'll have to wait and see if it'll keep my interest after a month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Child abuse and Violence
Note on the "drug use" trigger warning: There is a scene where one of the main characters is drugged in order for others to steal from them. I used "drug abuse" because I didn't see a trigger warning for being drugged.brookey8888's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed this. I’m not going to lie it was a little slow at times and I didn’t fully connect with the characters and the story. I do love the revenge plot. I also have never seen or read the count of monte cristo so I have no clue if this is a good retelling. I do love all the different representation in this(asexual,bisexual,trans, gay, nonbinary). I also think mostly everyone wasn’t white which is great. I did like silverfish for the most part and Cayo but he was a little boring. I also wish there was more of the water bugs.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit
plumpaperbacks's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I’ve been eager to read more from Sim since the Timekeeper trilogy ended a few years ago. While Scavenge the Stars was good, it didn’t hook me the way Timekeeper did. I liked Amaya and Cayo and was interested in their stories, but not truly invested. The world was interesting, but could’ve been developed more. As for the story, though it was intriguing, it was also slow, and didn’t truly pick up until the final third of the book. The characters are the main, maybe only, reason this is getting more than three or three and a half stars from me. However, I think the sequel could be good given where this one left off, so I’ll read it at some point.
Edit, the next day: I lowered my rating from 4 stars to 3.5 stars because it felt more fitting.
Representation
Edit, the next day: I lowered my rating from 4 stars to 3.5 stars because it felt more fitting.
Representation
- biracial demisexual protagonist
- bisexual protagonist
- side characters of color
- queer side characters (includes asexual, trans, and sapphic rep)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Murder, Slavery, and Violence
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