Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Qicksilver

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Qicksilver by Callie Hart

126 reviews

jefferz's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Desert dystopia, war-waging fae courts, hordes of the undead, metal-crafting and a dark, snippy otherworldly savior, Callie Hart incorporates a lot of appealing elements from all-across the fantasy genre and melts them together into the romantasy epic Quicksilver. Featuring a strong-willed and resourceful FMC cast into a magical multi-dimensional and vast world, there's a lot to like in Quicksilver and the intertwined fates of its main characters paired with steamy scenes feel directly catered to what most romantasy readers are looking for. Unfortunately despite being full of ambition, demonstrated through its overarching plot, the actual execution of its various fantasy elements doesn't feel connected and at times, the rules of magic and world-building to be quite wild and unhinged. With less than graceful transitions between its fantasy and romance scenes and near incoherent magic rules towards the end of the story, Quicksilver was unfortunately a miss and an overhyped booktok influencer pick for me.

Depending on how you look at it, Quicksilver can either feel like a nod to many popular fantasy books that came before it, or a manic combination of everything trendy thrown together haphazardly. Taking the romance element out of the equation temporarily, the fantasy-filled story of Quicksilver has lot of things going for it. The FMC Saeris is akin to Aladdin, struggling to survive with her brother Hayden in a desert-set dystopian city. Drawing ire from the Queen, Saeris then finds herself transported to another world of the fae, sharply transitioning into a dark academia style story as she discover the extent of her metal-manipulation related powers along with her dangerous and dark savior Kingfisher. As the story progresses, Saeris and Kingfisher move to the frontlines of inter-kingdom battlefront and the dangerous land nearby that's full of undead "feeders".

Even in my brief, spoiler-free summary, it's impossible to notice where Callie Hart likely drew many of her literary inspirations from. The dystopian colony feels like a callback to the 2010's era where dystopian YA's were everywhere while the dark academia and magic setting is very on-brand at the moment. The undead/evil entity kingdom Saeris finds herself against are the cursed fae that are essentially vampires (with Saeris and Kingfisher's own romance echoing familiar areas loosely connected to Twilight) and for good measure, there's even a shifting labyrinth that is clearly inspired by the Maze Runner. There's lower magical beings, magical swords and relics, vampires, healers, witches, Quicksilver has so much going on. While on one-hand the story certainly will have something for everyone, these elements don't feel like they're properly connected to each other, the story constantly shifting between these inspirations every hundred pages or so. Each section on their own is quite good, but the overall story feels messy. As the story's intensity and stakes start to stack up, the world-building becomes increasingly incoherent, with new magic rules, oaths, or beings unveiled on the fly with zero prior setup (the book doesn't even try to explain all of Kingfisher's random magical powers that seem specific to him and no other fae). While most of these are utilized to explain and justify many of the unexpected plot twists in the back-half of the story, the execution causes the developments to feel utterly chaotic rather than surprising (I'm still not quite sold on the concept of fae being cursed to be vampires and only some being cured of the curse and being described as another type of being...).

While the fantasy side of the romantasy genre has quite a lot going on, the romance side is far more straight-forward and successful. I generally liked the chemistry between the two characters and the spicy scenes were varied and well-done, but I often found myself baffled at the lack of transitions between the romance and fantasy-based chapters. While I haven't read many romantasy novels to compare to (which will be changing soon!), for me Quicksilver often ping-ponged between sex scenes or eye-undressing moments expected for the genre, then have almost no trace of it for multiple chapters. The first sixty pages of the book largely felt like a standard fantasy adventure novel, then without warning it's like a lightbulb went off and Hart remembered it's supposed to be a romantasy book, laying it on thick and abruptly. Additionally, despite how much is going on in the story, the novel somehow still feels quite slow and repetitive. There are brief moments of the book that are exciting and quite compelling, particularly the action and combat scenes at the start in the desert city and near the end of the book. I've read a lot of classic fantasy adventure epics back in the day and at times, Quicksilver reminded me of those favorite reads. Unfortunately they are few and far between surrounded by so much lackluster fluff that neither enhances the romance, nor expands the workings of its world. This story really needs far better development of its multiple fantasy elements or a more consistent romance to justify its unnecessarily long 600 page count.

Another subjective issue I had with Quicksilver is its main character Saeris. Confident, strong-willed, stubborn, and rough around the edges, you can tell that Hart was shooting to make Saeris a feisty female lead meant to go toe-to-toe with the brooding and edgy Kingfisher. While there are moments where Saeris's character gets it right, she spends the rest of the book complaining, grimacing, and throwing child-like tantrums at every new development she encounters. When the story is taking place in the initial desert dystopian city, her character is mildly irritating but at least has moments for her street-smart skills to shine and to justify her cockiness. Once Saeris ends up in the land of the Fae however, it's an endless cycle of bickering with Kingfisher and co. and making a fool of herself through the various rules and customs of the fae. The first few times are fine, but this repetition gets old really quickly and Saeris's narration largely comes off like a moody and volatile child. It's actually quite baffling why Hart wrote the plot and Saeris/Kingfisher's dynamic in this way as it exacerbates the gap in physical age, maturity, both magical and physical power, and their places in the fae society. From the get-go Kingfisher feels considerably more experienced, wise and proficient at everything and Saeris's constant outbursts make the romantic interest from his side seemingly unlikely at best, creepily interested in a teenager (18+ ofc) at worst. The book addresses this by making them pre-destined by fate as per the expected and tired norm for the genre, but it's still weak explanation and there's very few opportunities for Kingfisher to actually fall in love with Saeris from a narrative standpoint.

While there's a lot of good elements included in Quicksilver, the overall execution and story is all over the place and incredibly inconsistent. At first I thought perhaps I was the problem, being a male reader less than experienced with the romantasy genre, being more familiar with standard fantasy or contemporary romance reads. However, it seems other reviewers or other female readers seem to have similar opinions of the novel's notable drawbacks so perhaps my opinion is valid. And that's quite a shame since I fully believe Quicksilver had a great story had it focused on a few chosen fantasy elements rather than its throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach. The last 100 pages in particular have such wild plot twists and connections that truly stretch what's believable (Carrion and Madra in particular), not to mention the villains having completely improbably alliances or a complete lack of compelling motivation (merely wanting pure power is fine for a kids book but this is certainly not that). I think if subsequent books focus more on Saeris and Kingfisher's growing relationship or more of the fantasy action that was quite good in places, this can be an excellent series. Unfortunately I probably won't be sticking around to find out, though I will be picking up Fourth Wing soon to see if my bafflement at Quicksilver is mostly limited to this book or the bigger romantasy genre as a whole.

Content Warnings

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

WOAH WOAH WOAH.

Ok that was a fun read. Took me 13 years to actually get through it because the chapters were so FRIGGIN LONG, but it was a super duper fun read nonetheless.

Saeris was a pretty cool FMC. Her power was quite unique and really added to the plot. (After reading the book “the Alchemist” I felt like a smarty pants “oh yes, alchemy, I’m aware of what that is!” 🧐) I really enjoyed Saeris’ overall scrappiness and she was pretty badass for most of the book. I liked her character growth a lot too. Even though, I felt she was a little too easily swayed by Fisher in the beginning (I honestly can’t blame her, though).

Speak of the devil, I went through waves of liking and disliking Kingfisher cause he was quite a bitch in the beginning, but in the end, that man made his way into my good books. He’s one spicy lil (7ft tall) fella and I understand why he did what he did.

Now for the actual star of the show, Carrion Swift. The man that you are. The comedic relief and the man-whore of the century coming in with the hot goss. Masterful. Loved him. He was the absolute best. King.

Now plot-wise, something that surprised me in this story, was that this wasn’t just a book about FAE, but it also has VAMPIRES?!?! My Twilight girlie heart LIT UP with excitement when I read that part, although these bitches are far less hot (BOOOOOOOO!!!!!).

Anyhoo, I have to admit, Quicksilver did live up to the book tok hype. I had so much fun reading it.

(Callie, just please make shorter chapters for the next one, I beg you.)

(I’ll still read it either way)

Content Warnings

gasbolina's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

is it another acotar variant? sure. is "century years" a little annoying despite being grammatically correct and yes i did look it up? yeah. is some of it kinda corny plus they get together way too fast? definitely. was i way too distracted by kingfisher and his fangs and the audiobook's male narrator's voice to care about any of this? yep! it almost makes up for the ugly weird book cover. i am begging for a special edition.

Content Warnings

ekka's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

drjoannehill's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

*finger wavering over the star rating* I am not quite sure ... I can quite ... hit the 5 star button ...! for a laugh out loud 5-chilli spice romantasy that rips off loads of the world building from ACOTAR (I mean I don't know?? maybe these things are canon and pre-date ACOTAR?) while also making a totally new world and cool set of characters -

Very readable (600 pages in 4 days?!)

At first, I felt like the plot could be anything, it just existed as a vehicle for the flirty sniping banter between two of the characters. But, it developed

Carrion is ace, he is a lovable Cockney in my head and has the best one liners

Loved the blacksmithing and alchemy, the lesser fae, the sentient quicksilver, the zombie vampire bad guys

Enemies to lovers tropes can get lost for a bit, though. Stop bantering and grow up! Especially if you are supposedly an 1800 year old Fae prince!

Also less sure on some of the not quite consensual slightly S&M spicy bits but that is probably more personal preference

Thanks Bridges Book Club for your most excellent pick!

Content Warnings

turidt's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

mrs_gale's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark 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: No

I didn't want to put this down after the first few chapters. An utterly mesmerizing dark romance, with gripping tension throughout and a fascinating magic system in a great world - perfect!

The characters are so well developed, I just want to learn more about them. Saeris, Fisher, Ren and even Carrion won me over! The ending was a real surprise- i cannot wait for book 2!

Content Warnings

nweasel's review against another edition

2.5

dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

tyras_bookshelf's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I had so much fun!

I wasn’t feeling great about it at first but by the time my loan expired and had to wait for this book for several weeks, I was very invested. So maybe the waiting is swaying my review a bit but this was a great book!

The story starts out in a rough and tumble desert civilization crushed under the power of an undying despot but we’re quickly swept up into a fae war on a different world, similarly in the grips of an undying evil maniac.

We have a strong, caring female lead—that’s not 19 thank goodness—and her sole focus is survival in her terrible world. All she wants to do is live her best life and take care of her egg-head brother. She’s got so much duty on her shoulders from a young age and buckle up, because it only gets worse. I think she was really interesting from her sword skills and motivation for violence, to her fiery spirit in every situation. Girl is funny and deserves the world. I am a Saeris Fane fan.

She has this whole accidental chosen one thing going on when she pulls a sword from a pool of quicksilver (mystical, mercury stuff) and Kingfisher, as we come to know and love, rescues her.

Now mostly his deal is quicksilver madness and a bad temper. His magic—super cool shadow daddy stuff—only makes him more interesting as a main character because it’s such an epic collection of powers. He’s grumpy (again quicksilver madness but also fighting against one’s destiny for thousands of years will do that to you) but I love that his true character is revealed as we get deeper into the story. And it’s not just because of his love interest, we see him soften slowly because of his friends and true family too. It’s precious.

And they start out hating each other bc he’s so gruff and rude and she wants nothing more than to get back to her brother. I guess you’d call it enemies to lovers but people have strong feelings about that if the leads don’t literally want to kill each other. I would call it that though and I shall. Enemies to reluctant partners to lovers to soulmates. The tension is everything.

They slowly come to an understanding of each other and the trust builds (nevermind that blood oath is a really big deal at first). Then the respect and then (my favorite part) the realization that Fisher can’t fight his fate and suddenly she’s “the moon” and “the oxygen” and “the most sacred” and honestly if a man doesn’t look at me like I hung the stars, put him back in the bucket.

As much as I’m a fan of Saeris and Kingfisher by themselves, I’m an even bigger fan of them together.

I saw the mate thing coming from a mile away and loved every second. But to find out that his mom was an oracle and saw them together way before it came to pass but even more importantly that the god of chaos changed her path so that Saeris would be born human.

It was almost too much.

What I didn’t see coming was how important Carrion’s character would become and I think book two will hinge on his bloodline thing more.

I didn’t fully get why it was important for him to be the son of the last king—like last fae king or human king? Idk, but

either way I’m ready to see him lead an army into battle against Belikan or Madra or both bc they suck.

I will have nightmares about the Labryinth

and I cheered out loud when Saeris killed Malcom bc hate that guy.

This thing was stuffed full of twists and important little things you might miss if you were reading too fast. But there were a few plot points that felt unnecessarily long at times like Lorreth’s entire 16 bar ballad about Fisher or all that drama with homegirl that lost her hand for touching the newly remade sword. Not all the time, obviously, but at times it felt like Hart was trying to fit too much into one book. I mean it’s 600 pages, sister put a lot in here.

And there are still so many unanswered questions!

This book was a wild ride to say the least.

I only hesitate to read the next one bc I know we still have to face those other tyrants but I really want to see Fisher and Sareis grow closer

as she figures out this new queen stuff because of course she’s a queen now. Why not?!

But three projected books!? Idk man.

Good read, do recommend. Only not giving it a 5 bc I was distracted by some of the word choice and think we could have saved a 100 or so pages with some stronger editing. Also, per my own scale, I can’t call this a 5 bc I will not be re-reading—entirely too massive to undertake again.

Content Warnings

ms_morri's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I both love and hate this book to the point to where I'm not sure if I'm going to keep reading the series or not. For me, the writing was the main challenge. There were some word choices that I felt didn't really fit, like using male and female to describe the gender of all races except humans. And Fisher using the phrase "you spayed my mate!" It was really difficult to take the book seriously when I read things like that. Why not just say sterilize or use the phrase "cleansed" that was used by Searis. I'm all for different terminology, but there was no real good explanation for it. Also, this world feels like your typical fantasy world, but then it turns out that they have showers and toothpaste. Again, not against there being modern tech, but it needs to be set up properly. Long story short, I think this book needed another edit or two.
What kept me going where the brief moments where the writing came together and the story had some really touching moments. Like Searis looking after Fisher, or when Lorreth getting his silver sword. It's those moments that make me want to wish the author the best of luck in her writing career, in the hopes she'll improve.

Content Warnings

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