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noellegrace8's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
While I love Thorne SO much, and understand Cress and her lack of social interaction and therefore knowledge even if I personally find her to be a little exhausting, the *way* their romance is written really irks me. It's entirely limmerance from Cress and nothing from Thorne until random moments. These random moments are thrilling, with scenes written better than even Cinder+Kai or Scarlet+Wolf, but they're not enough to make up for the underlying underdevelopment of their actual romance throughout the rest of the book. The entirety of them crashing in the desert fell flat for me. My personal "I hate the miscommunication trope!" is, "I hate the 'I don't want to hurt her' trope!" And that's (sort of? It's unclear, and therefore infuriating, at times) what we're given from Thorne.
Hoping the 4th book quickly clears up the limmerance from Cress and intermittent apathy from Thorne. It's a WONDERFUL series.
I don't factor audiobook performance into my star ratings, but I would give Rebecca Soler a 4.5/5. At this point, I've gotten very used to her narration and voicing. As previously stated, she can be a bit too flat at times or have a tone that isn't quite right for what's described, but she's generally good at differentiating voices in scenes with accents and tones. I really like the way she voices Iko haha. It's perfect for that android! I don't understand why Soler wasn't asked to re-record a couple places where she says "kAY-toe" instead of "kEYE-toe" though.
Graphic: Classism, Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and War
Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Trafficking
As this series is very political and based around a clear power imbalance, the things I sorted into "Graphic" are fundamental in this book. "Moderate" listings have mostly to do with plotpoints such as the classic Rapunzel-and-her-abusive-guardian retelling, the events that led to Cinder's current cyborg state, Thorne losing his vision, the tortured nature of Wolf/ his genetic alterations, and the general tension between Lunars and Earthens. "Minor" labels are due to Scarlet and Cress both being taken (separate contexts), the push and pull between most of the relationships in this series thus far (but particularly Wolf+Scarlet), and our brief encounter with Princess Winter. Lastly, the only reason I warned of adult-minor relationship is because I believe most of the male love interests in this series are quite a few years older than their female, teen counterparts. More importantly, Cress is said to be 16, and Thorne is most definitely an adult, likely about 20 (has served in the military and is a well-known criminal at this point) so... a bit gray.taque's review
3.5
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Medical content, Slavery, Racism, Mental illness, Genocide, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, War, Abandonment, Mass/school shootings, and Blood
kenna13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and War
Minor: Grief
anielabooks'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
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Torture, and War
Minor: Death, Blood, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical content, and Death of parent
jerry_pov'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
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping and Terminal illness
Minor: War
tkatt20'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
This easily could have been a 5 star read for me but I can’t ignore all the questions the first 2 books left me with. While a few of my curiosities were satisfied with this story, I still wish I knew more about the androids and the war that is talked about so much in this series, and I don’t think I’ll be getting that with the next book that follows this one either. I also found myself wishing for a chapter or two from Wolf’s POV, especially after what happened with Scarlet right in the beginning. I think it would have been so interesting to know what he was thinking through that situation and it would have given the opportunity for more information on his past and his emotions, aside from what we learned in Scarlet.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this book and I can’t wait to read about Winter in the next one. I love how you get a taste of her story in the books prior, just like with Cress in the first book, and I already find her so interesting. All in all, I will definitely be finishing this series and I may even be motivated to read the short stories that were also written for this series.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Torture and Trafficking