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heatherilene'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Murder
tranvnguyen'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
I love this cast of characters as well! They are all so lovable and funny, and I would protect them with my life.
Graphic: Drug use, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
caelinsullivan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Self harm, Sexual violence, Excrement, and Classism
Minor: Vomit, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
slowry44'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
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
andreatypesbraille's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
brianneh's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Classism
katjacatbeans's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
crybabybea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
- Her sentence craft is beautiful. She knows when to make emotions punch. She knows how to paint scenes. She knows how to include literary devices that feel inentional and powerful. She has soo many quotable moments in all of her books. She's even good at writing quippy dialogue which I think is something many authors struggle with.
- Her characters are intensely loveable as much as they are hateable.
- When her plots get rolling, they get rolling. They feel like a rollercoaster that never stops, with reveal after jaw-dropping reveal. By the time you reach the conclusion, you want to snap the book shut and start all over so you can see all the things you missed.
This book... did not hold up to those standards for me. I felt like her writing seriously declined here. There were a lot of issues I had with this book that made it hard for me to rate it as high as I wanted to. I think I would have rated it lower (or maybe even DNF'd?) had it been written by a less competent author. The issues this book suffered from really reminded me of Babel. That is not a compliment.
I felt like I got the point of what Bardugo was going for here. And it fit really well within the dark academia theme. The secret societies, the allure and danger of power and fitting in with the crowd, the way the powerful see certain groups as disposable. I really did see what she was going for. But I didn't feel like she pushed it far enough. I felt like she relied on trying to make things arbitrarily "darker", leaning into horror tropes that didn't work out well for the story she was trying to tell. And every bit of it fell flat for me, especially knowing what she is capable of as a writer.
I would say this book doesn't pick up until around 30-40%, and even then, the plot unfolds slowly until the last four chapters where everything is revealed. I think this writing worked out in Six of Crows, because the tension was constantly being poked and prodded as you followed the POVs of the different characters. Here, we have mainly one POV that switches between timelines in the form of flashbacks. Which again, would have worked had it not been for the weird plotting. Those two things just did not mix well together. I was also really surprised to see how the POV switching was poorly executed, considering the masterful way she juggled six POVs in Six of Crows. Here, both of our POVs use the same narrative voice, and it would have been unclear who was narrating if they didn't point it out themselves.
The plot was also dragged down by Bardugo's tendency to info-dump world-building and exposition. There were pages of narration and explanations of things like architecture, the campus layout, what characters were wearing, that got to be incredibly boring. It also got in the way of connecting with the characters. The only dialogue we got between Alex and Darlington were dumps of exposition and explanations about the different secret societies at Yale. So by the end we are meant to care about this character who I simply could not care less about because we barely got to see him. His few POVs were not enough to make me invested in his character in any way.
Alex herself was okay as a character but I felt like Bardugo's messaging got lost with her. Her motives weren't clear, and I didn't feel like she experienced any growth or actual hardship through her journey here. I liked her manipulative tendencies, but I felt like they didn't have any actual impact on the plot. I thought Alex should have a lot more agency, but she spends most of the book reacting to the things that happen around her and she gets saved many times by other characters. I also wanted to see her struggle a bit more. She doesn't struggle with her addiction at all, or with intimacy after her traumatic experiences, and her status as a biracial Latina from a poor background doesn't seem to affect her ability to fit in at Yale or cause her any issues within Lethe. I just felt she lacked nuance as a character which really disappointed me, because again, this is Leigh Bardugo's massive advantage.
For what it's worth, the reveals at the end were decently satisfying for me. The villain monologues were eye-roll worthy but the final scene was so well-written that I looked past it. Such is the strength of Leigh Bardugo. So I won't give up on this series because I love the author, and I feel like I was given just enough to be interested in the potential.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
There are multiple extremely graphic rape scenes, as well as extremely graphic depiction of drug use, both real-world drugs and the magical kind. Needles are mentioned briefly. Alex has experience, shown through flashbacks, with an abusive relationship involving an adult while she was a minor. This includes every kind of abuse and is depicted in graphic detail. She is able to see ghosts, which may be similar to the experience of those with schizophrenia.brjedi26's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Blood
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Antisemitism
franknforter's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment