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antonique_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Medical trauma, Racism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Gore, Racial slurs, War, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thank you to B2 Weird Bookclub and Harper Voyager for an arc in exchange for an honest review and promotion. All opinions are my own.
4.5/5 Y’all this book took me on a ride.
This was so bloody, but I loved it all! The Blood Trials is an immersive, bloody military fantasy that follows Ikenna Amari. She has just graduated her training and is planning to take time off to grieve the loss of her beloved Grandfather. When she learns he was murdered, she decides to pledge to the Praetorians to find out who killed him. But she’ll only find out if she survives the fatal trial process.
There is so much action in this story, and a shit ton of graphic and violent content. I loved going on this journey with Ikenna. She was a character I enjoyed getting to know. She doesn’t have everything figured out, but she has a goal in mind and nothing will stop her from getting there.
The magic and world building was really well done. There are so many cool parts to the societies to explore and I cannot wait to learn more about them all in the sequel! I really hope we get to see more of the other countries besides Mareen, because I am so curious about them all. Especially Ikenna's friendship with the Crown Prince. I need more details Ikenna!
Overall, I highly recommend this book.
Rep: Biracial Black cishet female MC, white cishet female side character, biracial cishet male side character, various Black male side characters.
CWs: Racism, racial slurs, xenophobia, violence, gore, blood, injury/injury detail, cursing, death, cannibalism, misogyny, sexual content (on page and discussions), classism, sexism, grief, war, bullying/hazing, torture, murder, death of grandparent/parent, gun violence, medical content. Moderate: vomit, alcohol, alcoholism, confinement, gaslighting, colonisation, genocide, abandonment.
4.5/5 Y’all this book took me on a ride.
This was so bloody, but I loved it all! The Blood Trials is an immersive, bloody military fantasy that follows Ikenna Amari. She has just graduated her training and is planning to take time off to grieve the loss of her beloved Grandfather. When she learns he was murdered, she decides to pledge to the Praetorians to find out who killed him. But she’ll only find out if she survives the fatal trial process.
There is so much action in this story, and a shit ton of graphic and violent content. I loved going on this journey with Ikenna. She was a character I enjoyed getting to know. She doesn’t have everything figured out, but she has a goal in mind and nothing will stop her from getting there.
The magic and world building was really well done. There are so many cool parts to the societies to explore and I cannot wait to learn more about them all in the sequel! I really hope we get to see more of the other countries besides Mareen, because I am so curious about them all. Especially Ikenna's friendship with the Crown Prince. I need more details Ikenna!
Overall, I highly recommend this book.
Rep: Biracial Black cishet female MC, white cishet female side character, biracial cishet male side character, various Black male side characters.
CWs: Racism, racial slurs, xenophobia, violence, gore, blood, injury/injury detail, cursing, death, cannibalism, misogyny, sexual content (on page and discussions), classism, sexism, grief, war, bullying/hazing, torture, murder, death of grandparent/parent, gun violence, medical content. Moderate: vomit, alcohol, alcoholism, confinement, gaslighting, colonisation, genocide, abandonment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gun violence, Grief, Racism, Bullying, Torture, Racial slurs, Blood, Cursing, Cannibalism, Classism, Sexism, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, Sexual content, War, and Murder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Confinement, Genocide, Abandonment, Vomit, and Alcohol
hownovelofher's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
4.0
The Blood Trials
Alternate Title: Hello, my name is Ikenna Amari, you killed my grandfather, prepare to die.
Wow. N.E. Davenport really chose violence. This book snuck up on me! I happened to see it on NetGalley and was drawn in by the cover and description and it lived up to my assumptions!
If you’re a fan of science fiction, magic, camaraderie, revenge plots with tons of twists and secrets, and underlying themes of social justice, this mixed bag will be something you look forward to.
Ikenna Amari is the granddaughter of the recently deceased Verne Amari, Legatus Commander of Mareen. His death was sudden and reeks of foul-play, though when we find Ikenna, she is far from coherent enough to even consider this a possibility. Drowning in grief, she spends her free time succumbing to the oblivion that drinking offers.
When she learns of the suspicious circumstances under which her grandfather’s death took place, her renewed sense of purpose propels her down the path to become a Praetorian, a highly-skilled military combatant for The Republic. Even though she deeply resents The Republic for its racism and bigotry, her mission to find her grandfather’s killer outranks her weariness to join the ranks.
After a series of grueling tests known as The Blood Trials, she will become a Praetorian and finally have the power to avenge her grandfather.
-
Things I thoroughly enjoyed while reading The Blood Trials:
1.) The worldbuilding is fantastic. It’s clean and confident, full of complex politics, peoples, and customs. The amount of information to take in about this world is abundant, as the author spares few details.
2.) I appreciated the amount of sincerity that is put into the struggle of this character due to racism. It really cuts and grinds on you throughout the book, as its easily relatable to real-world issues. Ikenna faces countless taunts concerning her heritage and the color of her skin. Because she is part Khanaian, she has many enemies amongst the Mareenians who are full of racist hatred. Still, she has an amazing amount of restraint in the face of all this adversity as her main goal drives her forward.
3.) Action with a side of romance instead of the other way around. I was a bit nervous whenever a “love interest” was introduced, but it was little more than a brief tryst at first, with a layered and complicated after-math that made it more intriguing. Sometimes attraction just leads to sex, not a fully-developed relationship. And I love that the author chose the path less traveled in YA and NA these days.
4.) Non-apologetic violence. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the violence can be overdone, but in this story it served a purpose. Everything about this book seeps violence and anger from its pores. From Ikenna’s rage over her grandfather’s murder, to the silent fuming over racist comments, to the brutality of the trials. There’s a ton of dying in this book and much of it is cloaked in strong emotion.
5.) The scenes in Onei’s Expanse. It was horrific and at one point very much disturbing, but it was so full of fast-paced action and plot development that I couldn’t put the book down during that stretch.
Things I struggled to get past:
1.) Ikenna is strong and unapologetic, that I admire. However, at times she borders on completely irrational and flies off the handle at minor confrontations, yet keeps her cool under other more serious forms of duress. She was difficult to root for and even more difficult to like. Her allegiance flip-flops FAR too easily. If I could describe her in one sentence I would be, “Jumps to conclusions like she’s auditioning for Frogger.”.
2.) Her frequent, long-winded introspective monologues were redundant at times, enough so that I found myself skimming bits.
3.) Special Girl Syndrome. Too much power given under not enough detailed development, with little to no checks.
4.) Pacing. Whew, it was all over the place. Slow to start, action packed, then slow again, rinse and repeat. In the last 1/3 of the book suddenly, and without much preamble, we get a change of setting as Ikenna and her crew head to another location. The transition is so jarring that I had to go back several times just to be sure I didn’t accidentally skip a chapter. For some reason it felt like the book should have ended with Ikenna making it out of the trials alive. It seemed the natural conclusion and I was very confused when the story progressed even further from there. Because of this, we get another round of heavy info-dumping that would have been better served (in my opinion) at the start of the next book.
Still, I got a lot of enjoyment from this story and it didn’t feel like a repeat of anything else I’ve read in the past. I believe Nia Davenport is a wonderfully skilled writer and I will be reading book two. Look out for this author, I don’t think you’ll wanna miss her!
Extra Notes:
Take care of yourself if you are a POC, especially black, while reading this.There is so much racism in this book that it’s almost constant. Many of the slurs are world-specific, but obviously you can derive what they are meant to insinuate.
Read this if you’re a fan of: The Hunger Games, Divergent, Dystopia and Sci-Fi + Magic
Trigger and Content Warnings: A LOT of racism, misogyny, blood, gore, violence, use of guns and various other weapons, torture, death, grief, explicit sexual content (one scene, about halfway in)
Alternate Title: Hello, my name is Ikenna Amari, you killed my grandfather, prepare to die.
Wow. N.E. Davenport really chose violence. This book snuck up on me! I happened to see it on NetGalley and was drawn in by the cover and description and it lived up to my assumptions!
If you’re a fan of science fiction, magic, camaraderie, revenge plots with tons of twists and secrets, and underlying themes of social justice, this mixed bag will be something you look forward to.
Ikenna Amari is the granddaughter of the recently deceased Verne Amari, Legatus Commander of Mareen. His death was sudden and reeks of foul-play, though when we find Ikenna, she is far from coherent enough to even consider this a possibility. Drowning in grief, she spends her free time succumbing to the oblivion that drinking offers.
When she learns of the suspicious circumstances under which her grandfather’s death took place, her renewed sense of purpose propels her down the path to become a Praetorian, a highly-skilled military combatant for The Republic. Even though she deeply resents The Republic for its racism and bigotry, her mission to find her grandfather’s killer outranks her weariness to join the ranks.
After a series of grueling tests known as The Blood Trials, she will become a Praetorian and finally have the power to avenge her grandfather.
-
Things I thoroughly enjoyed while reading The Blood Trials:
1.) The worldbuilding is fantastic. It’s clean and confident, full of complex politics, peoples, and customs. The amount of information to take in about this world is abundant, as the author spares few details.
2.) I appreciated the amount of sincerity that is put into the struggle of this character due to racism. It really cuts and grinds on you throughout the book, as its easily relatable to real-world issues. Ikenna faces countless taunts concerning her heritage and the color of her skin. Because she is part Khanaian, she has many enemies amongst the Mareenians who are full of racist hatred. Still, she has an amazing amount of restraint in the face of all this adversity as her main goal drives her forward.
3.) Action with a side of romance instead of the other way around. I was a bit nervous whenever a “love interest” was introduced, but it was little more than a brief tryst at first, with a layered and complicated after-math that made it more intriguing. Sometimes attraction just leads to sex, not a fully-developed relationship. And I love that the author chose the path less traveled in YA and NA these days.
4.) Non-apologetic violence. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the violence can be overdone, but in this story it served a purpose. Everything about this book seeps violence and anger from its pores. From Ikenna’s rage over her grandfather’s murder, to the silent fuming over racist comments, to the brutality of the trials. There’s a ton of dying in this book and much of it is cloaked in strong emotion.
5.) The scenes in Onei’s Expanse. It was horrific and at one point very much disturbing, but it was so full of fast-paced action and plot development that I couldn’t put the book down during that stretch.
Things I struggled to get past:
1.) Ikenna is strong and unapologetic, that I admire. However, at times she borders on completely irrational and flies off the handle at minor confrontations, yet keeps her cool under other more serious forms of duress. She was difficult to root for and even more difficult to like. Her allegiance flip-flops FAR too easily. If I could describe her in one sentence I would be, “Jumps to conclusions like she’s auditioning for Frogger.”.
2.) Her frequent, long-winded introspective monologues were redundant at times, enough so that I found myself skimming bits.
3.) Special Girl Syndrome. Too much power given under not enough detailed development, with little to no checks.
4.) Pacing. Whew, it was all over the place. Slow to start, action packed, then slow again, rinse and repeat. In the last 1/3 of the book suddenly, and without much preamble, we get a change of setting as Ikenna and her crew head to another location. The transition is so jarring that I had to go back several times just to be sure I didn’t accidentally skip a chapter. For some reason it felt like the book should have ended with Ikenna making it out of the trials alive. It seemed the natural conclusion and I was very confused when the story progressed even further from there. Because of this, we get another round of heavy info-dumping that would have been better served (in my opinion) at the start of the next book.
Still, I got a lot of enjoyment from this story and it didn’t feel like a repeat of anything else I’ve read in the past. I believe Nia Davenport is a wonderfully skilled writer and I will be reading book two. Look out for this author, I don’t think you’ll wanna miss her!
Extra Notes:
Take care of yourself if you are a POC, especially black, while reading this.There is so much racism in this book that it’s almost constant. Many of the slurs are world-specific, but obviously you can derive what they are meant to insinuate.
Read this if you’re a fan of: The Hunger Games, Divergent, Dystopia and Sci-Fi + Magic
Trigger and Content Warnings: A LOT of racism, misogyny, blood, gore, violence, use of guns and various other weapons, torture, death, grief, explicit sexual content (one scene, about halfway in)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Racial slurs, Body horror, Classism, Gun violence, Misogyny, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, and War
Minor: Cannibalism and Confinement
micaela_ru's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Lots of potential and lots of disappointment with this debut. Sub-par writing drags down an otherwise compelling story.
Story: 3 stars. Engaging and entertaining most of the time, though chapter one is a struggle to get through after the initial scene in the bar. It is long, but it does do a good job in setting up the rest of the story. Unfortunately, this story felt like a slog up until the 40% mark where I feel like the story really started to get its footing. The trials themselves were disappointing, which the exception of one, I felt like they weren’t creative or interesting to read, and no amount of action scenes or gore made it better. It overall, this book felt both overstuffed but also underdeveloped. It is a bit predictable at times too, but there is one scene near the end that I didn’t expect and I would give a whole star just for that reveal alone.
Worldbuilding: 4 stars for the ideas. 2 stars for the execution. The blood magic was very cool. Fantastic ideas but the execution of those ideas felt flat and rushed. The blood magic was definitely cool and I liked how the moons played a part in that, but so much of the worldbuilding is filtered through walls of text including large swaths of awkward dialogue that was obviously meant to provide exposition and not much else. Everything about the Pantheon gods was interesting but the way it was delivered wasn’t interesting and made me want to skim. We really don’t get to experience the world they live in because they’re always indoors most of the time. The most refreshing scenes were when they were outdoors in the wilds, especially during that one crazy trial (seriously, best section of the book, I wish the entire book had been like that section). There are moments where the worldbuilding shines, but they’re so far and few in between because of the way the author chose to deliver the information. Speaking of worldbuilding, Ikenna dealing with racism is a huge point for this book but I felt it was too simplistic and detracted from the worldbuilding because -isms (any kind of oppression) has to have context, and there is no context for why people with dark brown skin are discriminated against and what info the book does provide isn’t enough. And while it is obvious that this story is using these fantasy races as stand-ins for real-world races (particularly white and Black), I feel like the story needed its own basis for why racism existed without relying on the real world. I felt like that was a missed opportunity with the worldbuilding that took away some texture and made the race stuff fill forced and over-the-top. Not to mention, the various names for the different ethnic groups/races/countries(?) was a bit confusing and hard to follow and remember the distinctions. Also, the reasoning behind why the trials exist didn’t make much sense. Even a character in the story points this out and it is brushed away.
Writing: 1.5 stars. My biggest issue with this book was the writing style, the pacing, the walls of text, the way that the writing bogged down everything, even managing to turn sex and fights into something tedious. The writing is the primary reason this book has 3 stars instead of the 4-5 I would’ve given it otherwise. It feels like unpolished YA. First-person present tense aside, which I’m not a fan of in SFF for practical reasons, this book’s writing created a very uneven reading experience to the point of distraction. Characters’ dialogue felt out of character sometimes and overly formal. Nobody had a distinct voice. They would switch from speaking in a normal, casual, realistic way to sounding robotic and using words that felt unnatural. Word choice, sentence structure in the prose was sometimes hard to get through because it felt so uneven and choppy. Since this story is first person, it should’ve felt like Ikenna was doing the talking in her own narration, but there was always a distance there and I think that it was because of the choppy writing. This book needed better editing. There was also cringey phrases that became repetitive or seemed out of place. Bottom line: the writing voice in this book is why I couldn’t give it more stars. The writing is also so heavy-handed and bloated at times that reading felt like a slog. There was so much repetition and too much time spent in Ikenna’s head when she was doing her sleuth thing. Also description was lacking for most of the book (though the description of the outside settings like mountains, moons, etc. was pretty solid). Impossible to know what the characters looked like, which created even more distance between the reader and the characters. The writing overall had a choppy, unpolished, and muddled quality to it. As stated earlier, the commentary on race and sex felt very surface-level. Using fantasy settings to explore bigotry isn’t new, and this story didn’t dig deep enough to make that exploration feel fresh or meaningful. We also didn’t need to be constantly told that something was racist or sexist. Let readers figure it out on their own.
Character: 2.5 stars. While I liked Ikenna’s bad-assery, she felt one-note after a while and there was something lacking about her character development. Also, her bad-assery and lack of emotional response to things made her feel like she wasn’t a fully fleshed out character at times. Even though this story was first person present, I always felt distanced from this character despite being in her head all the time. Also, because the MC is basically immune to damage, I never felt afraid for her, so it affected my ability to care about what happened to her or the people around her. She also seems to never be afraid either, so if the MC doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, why should I? The rest of the cast were forgettable, and I didn’t care about what happened to them. They were interchangeable names with bland personalities.
Romance and relationships: The supposed “enemies-to-lovers” trope also felt bland because Ikenna and the love interest barely have scenes together, and there’s one thing that comes out of nowhere (avoiding spoilers) that, while nice and spicy to read, felt random given the fact that their prior interactions lacked sexual tension or much of anything at all. Ikenna’s relationships with most of the other characters also felt one-note and when people were killed off, I didn’t care because there was no connection to them even when the author tried to force a connection right before a character would die.
One last thing: I was hoping this book would buck the trend of Black characters being tokens in their own space. I understand some of the necessity of that given the worldbuilding but there were ways to do that and not have her being a token. Between that and the way other Black characters are dealt with and how white characters are redeemed when they don’t deserve it, it definitely put a sour taste in my mouth a little bit.
Overall, despite my issues with this debut, I am going to read book 2 because book 1 ended with the promise of something more though I am disappointed in some of the choices made (especially with certain racist characters being conveniently redeemed). I found this reading experience to be uneven, sometimes a chore, and a bit disappointing after having such high hopes for this title. I feel like the weakest part of this series (other than the writing) is the actual trials that they participated in, which is sad to say, especially when they take up so much of the story. Everything going on outside of the trials (like the murder mystery and impending war) felt more compelling and interesting than anything going on within the trial scenario. Since it is a debut, I know that the sky is the limit for this author to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Story: 3 stars. Engaging and entertaining most of the time, though chapter one is a struggle to get through after the initial scene in the bar. It is long, but it does do a good job in setting up the rest of the story. Unfortunately, this story felt like a slog up until the 40% mark where I feel like the story really started to get its footing. The trials themselves were disappointing, which the exception of one, I felt like they weren’t creative or interesting to read, and no amount of action scenes or gore made it better. It overall, this book felt both overstuffed but also underdeveloped. It is a bit predictable at times too, but there is one scene near the end that I didn’t expect and I would give a whole star just for that reveal alone.
Worldbuilding: 4 stars for the ideas. 2 stars for the execution. The blood magic was very cool. Fantastic ideas but the execution of those ideas felt flat and rushed. The blood magic was definitely cool and I liked how the moons played a part in that, but so much of the worldbuilding is filtered through walls of text including large swaths of awkward dialogue that was obviously meant to provide exposition and not much else. Everything about the Pantheon gods was interesting but the way it was delivered wasn’t interesting and made me want to skim. We really don’t get to experience the world they live in because they’re always indoors most of the time. The most refreshing scenes were when they were outdoors in the wilds, especially during that one crazy trial (seriously, best section of the book, I wish the entire book had been like that section). There are moments where the worldbuilding shines, but they’re so far and few in between because of the way the author chose to deliver the information. Speaking of worldbuilding, Ikenna dealing with racism is a huge point for this book but I felt it was too simplistic and detracted from the worldbuilding because -isms (any kind of oppression) has to have context, and there is no context for why people with dark brown skin are discriminated against and what info the book does provide isn’t enough. And while it is obvious that this story is using these fantasy races as stand-ins for real-world races (particularly white and Black), I feel like the story needed its own basis for why racism existed without relying on the real world. I felt like that was a missed opportunity with the worldbuilding that took away some texture and made the race stuff fill forced and over-the-top. Not to mention, the various names for the different ethnic groups/races/countries(?) was a bit confusing and hard to follow and remember the distinctions. Also, the reasoning behind why the trials exist didn’t make much sense. Even a character in the story points this out and it is brushed away.
Writing: 1.5 stars. My biggest issue with this book was the writing style, the pacing, the walls of text, the way that the writing bogged down everything, even managing to turn sex and fights into something tedious. The writing is the primary reason this book has 3 stars instead of the 4-5 I would’ve given it otherwise. It feels like unpolished YA. First-person present tense aside, which I’m not a fan of in SFF for practical reasons, this book’s writing created a very uneven reading experience to the point of distraction. Characters’ dialogue felt out of character sometimes and overly formal. Nobody had a distinct voice. They would switch from speaking in a normal, casual, realistic way to sounding robotic and using words that felt unnatural. Word choice, sentence structure in the prose was sometimes hard to get through because it felt so uneven and choppy. Since this story is first person, it should’ve felt like Ikenna was doing the talking in her own narration, but there was always a distance there and I think that it was because of the choppy writing. This book needed better editing. There was also cringey phrases that became repetitive or seemed out of place. Bottom line: the writing voice in this book is why I couldn’t give it more stars. The writing is also so heavy-handed and bloated at times that reading felt like a slog. There was so much repetition and too much time spent in Ikenna’s head when she was doing her sleuth thing. Also description was lacking for most of the book (though the description of the outside settings like mountains, moons, etc. was pretty solid). Impossible to know what the characters looked like, which created even more distance between the reader and the characters. The writing overall had a choppy, unpolished, and muddled quality to it. As stated earlier, the commentary on race and sex felt very surface-level. Using fantasy settings to explore bigotry isn’t new, and this story didn’t dig deep enough to make that exploration feel fresh or meaningful. We also didn’t need to be constantly told that something was racist or sexist. Let readers figure it out on their own.
Character: 2.5 stars. While I liked Ikenna’s bad-assery, she felt one-note after a while and there was something lacking about her character development. Also, her bad-assery and lack of emotional response to things made her feel like she wasn’t a fully fleshed out character at times. Even though this story was first person present, I always felt distanced from this character despite being in her head all the time. Also, because the MC is basically immune to damage, I never felt afraid for her, so it affected my ability to care about what happened to her or the people around her. She also seems to never be afraid either, so if the MC doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, why should I? The rest of the cast were forgettable, and I didn’t care about what happened to them. They were interchangeable names with bland personalities.
Romance and relationships: The supposed “enemies-to-lovers” trope also felt bland because Ikenna and the love interest barely have scenes together, and there’s one thing that comes out of nowhere (avoiding spoilers) that, while nice and spicy to read, felt random given the fact that their prior interactions lacked sexual tension or much of anything at all. Ikenna’s relationships with most of the other characters also felt one-note and when people were killed off, I didn’t care because there was no connection to them even when the author tried to force a connection right before a character would die.
One last thing: I was hoping this book would buck the trend of Black characters being tokens in their own space. I understand some of the necessity of that given the worldbuilding but there were ways to do that and not have her being a token. Between that and the way other Black characters are dealt with and how white characters are redeemed when they don’t deserve it, it definitely put a sour taste in my mouth a little bit.
Overall, despite my issues with this debut, I am going to read book 2 because book 1 ended with the promise of something more though I am disappointed in some of the choices made (especially with certain racist characters being conveniently redeemed). I found this reading experience to be uneven, sometimes a chore, and a bit disappointing after having such high hopes for this title. I feel like the weakest part of this series (other than the writing) is the actual trials that they participated in, which is sad to say, especially when they take up so much of the story. Everything going on outside of the trials (like the murder mystery and impending war) felt more compelling and interesting than anything going on within the trial scenario. Since it is a debut, I know that the sky is the limit for this author to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Gun violence, Sexism, Cursing, Religious bigotry, and Violence
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Abandonment, Classism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, Grief, Bullying, Sexism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Torture, War, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Misogyny
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