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teadsreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence
maeverose's review against another edition
2.5
Disclaimer: I am very much an adult and not the target audience
I wanted to read this after hearing someone talk about the third book being a response to jk rowling’s bigotry, and from people calling it a non-problematic version of harry potter. I expected something better… it felt like hp fanfiction at times, and this first book at least had some minor bigotry of it’s own. Not as bad as the hp books but still…
Here were all the harry potter similarities I noticed:
I wanted to read this after hearing someone talk about the third book being a response to jk rowling’s bigotry, and from people calling it a non-problematic version of harry potter. I expected something better… it felt like hp fanfiction at times, and this first book at least had some minor bigotry of it’s own. Not as bad as the hp books but still…
Here were all the harry potter similarities I noticed:
- Morrigan has an abusive family that doesn’t care about her
- Said abusive family gifted her a terrible christmas present once
- The over-the-top magical world vs the normie world
- Jupiter reminded me a lot of dumbledore if he were young
- The trials
- Very ron-like best friend
- Very draco-like antagonist
- The Halloween and Christmas celebrations
- villain who’s name scares people
- Disfigured (slightly) villain
- Villain who mysteriously disappeared due to being weakened by a fight
Villain who kindly waited until after the trials to make his move Shadowy creatures coming after Morrigan (even once while they were stopped on a train…)
It has the ’bitchy preppy girl rival who hates the female mc for literally no reason’ trope. It has the withholding of information from the mc for no real reason trope. I’m not sure how I feel about the only two Black characters (one with the last name ‘Blackburn’) initially being bullies (also for no reason), even if they did both come around in the end. It was just an odd choice. And the whole ‘Jack faking a disability’ thing was also odd. It obviously was kind of resolved in the end but the whole ‘faking a disability’ idea is a bit questionable. A lot of actual disabled people get accused of faking their disability for one reason or another and that being in the book the way that it was just rubs me the wrong way. This is very very minor but at one point a character says ‘he or she’ instead of ‘they’ and that will never not be annoying to me. I’m also left feeling like the world wasn’t explained very well. It’s probably explained more in later books, but I feel like the first book should give you a decent idea of the world and I still have a lot of questions.
I was bored and mildly annoyed the whole book pretty much. I wanted to read it in full so I could form a full opinion on it in comparison to harry potter, but I don’t know if it’s worth it to continue in the series just for that. This might’ve put me in a reading slump.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, Bullying, Animal death, and Deportation
Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Medical content, Misogyny, Violence, and Pregnancy
Minor: Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, and Blood
Eye traumaashleycmms's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder, Abandonment, Bullying, and Violence
emily_mh's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
UGH, PERFECTION. This has all the creativity and and whimsy of A Series of Unfortunate Events, without the author having been accused of sexual harassment. The world-building is so fun and imaginative and has a steampunk vibe to it. I didn't want it to end, and I cannot WAIT to borrow the next book from my library.
As a side note, I listened to the audiobook. Let me just say that Gemma Whelan does an ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL JOB!! It reminded me of audiobook CDs I used to borrow from the library and play on my bulky CD player to get to sleep when I was a kid. Definitely my favourite audiobook of the year so far.
As a side note, I listened to the audiobook. Let me just say that Gemma Whelan does an ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL JOB!! It reminded me of audiobook CDs I used to borrow from the library and play on my bulky CD player to get to sleep when I was a kid. Definitely my favourite audiobook of the year so far.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Child death, and Violence
Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, Murder, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Ableism, and Vomit
Mass murder, flooding, toxic family, loss of a loved one, death of a pet, deportationrini's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, and Child death
Minor: Murder and Violence
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