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brickwall27's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Cursing, Death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, and Trafficking
Minor: Self harm, Suicide, Cannibalism, and Vomit
tenshiwing07's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Physical abuse
ednapellen's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I intend to give a more cohesive and thorough review later, for now I'll just say this:
I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't my favorite of the trilogy. The conclusion was satisfying and well done for the most part. I continued to like the characters and the magic systems, and the plot was decent. Ceony drove me crazy at times because of the decisions she made but oh well. The villain could be underwhelming at times, but at others he could be quite intense.
Overall, it was a pretty good book. 3.75/5, or perhaps 5.5/10.
I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't my favorite of the trilogy. The conclusion was satisfying and well done for the most part. I continued to like the characters and the magic systems, and the plot was decent. Ceony drove me crazy at times because of the decisions she made but oh well. The villain could be underwhelming at times, but at others he could be quite intense.
Overall, it was a pretty good book. 3.75/5, or perhaps 5.5/10.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Cursing
I have marked "blood" as graphic, for one of dark magic system in this book is the manipulation of the human body in dark and disturbing ways. For instance, the villain can turn blood into throwing stars, use eyeballs as lights, hearts power his magic, and other such things. These things can come at unexpected times, the situation going from zero to a hundred quite quickly, so I would advise my fellow readers to be prepared to skim if you have difficulty reading such things.lucinotlucy's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture
whirl's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Blood
annettewolf's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The ending of this book really had me questioning my decision to read all of them after I didn't like the first one. But a friend gifted them to me and I figured since they're quick reads, I could get through them fast. And I have, but wow, I could've been reading something way better.
Friends, the racism gets WORSE in this one. Our sole character of color is the primo villain in this one, and literally described at one point as a "dog". Not directly cause of his race, it's supposed to be because of the heinous acts he's committed (murdering babies), but come on, the optics here are NOT good when every other character is white.
The ending left me supremely unsatisfied, because the mentor/apprentice relationship was just...never fully challenged? Even with a literal character questioning it and trying to throw wrenches into the whole process, our protagonist just always manages to yell and storm off and get exactly what she wants. She reads as spoiled, entitled, and really really frustrating for lacking depth. Oh, I'm sorry, the childhood best friend who died of suicide, and the friend who died more recently in front of her, those are her sole claims to depth. And they don't read as genuine, because instead of getting depressed about it, the protagonist just has nightmares and then she is comforted by another character and like...that's it? Cool.
One more book to go, since the fourth one which isn't connected to this trilogy but is told in the same world was gifted to me at the same time. I'm too far in to stop now, but for the love of the gods please go read The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman instead.
Friends, the racism gets WORSE in this one. Our sole character of color is the primo villain in this one, and literally described at one point as a "dog". Not directly cause of his race, it's supposed to be because of the heinous acts he's committed (murdering babies), but come on, the optics here are NOT good when every other character is white.
The ending left me supremely unsatisfied, because the mentor/apprentice relationship was just...never fully challenged? Even with a literal character questioning it and trying to throw wrenches into the whole process, our protagonist just always manages to yell and storm off and get exactly what she wants. She reads as spoiled, entitled, and really really frustrating for lacking depth. Oh, I'm sorry, the childhood best friend who died of suicide, and the friend who died more recently in front of her, those are her sole claims to depth. And they don't read as genuine, because instead of getting depressed about it, the protagonist just has nightmares and then she is comforted by another character and like...that's it? Cool.
One more book to go, since the fourth one which isn't connected to this trilogy but is told in the same world was gifted to me at the same time. I'm too far in to stop now, but for the love of the gods please go read The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman instead.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Body horror, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Grief and Suicide
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