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squids_can_read's review against another edition
Kenna's grandfather is dead. Died of a heart attack or so the corner says. Suddenly information comes to light that her grandfather's death might not have been an accident like everyone says it is. Now Kenna has to fight for her place among the ruthless Praetorians along with finding out what actually happened to her grandfather.
Doesn't that sound great? It would have been if the author had developed the world at all. This is a mix of science fiction and fantasy but neither of these aspects are explained at all. There is random technology that simply exists with no information of how long it's existed or if people are still trying to create new technology. Similar to the fantasy element. Gods are referenced but are not described whatsoever in their effect on the world except for giving some people powers. And these powers aren't explained either. It seems like people with powers are much stronger than everyone else but they get beat up by people without powers. It also doesn't explain all of what they can do. Do they have one power depending on the god or do they have all of them? I was just really confused.
I also didn't like how focused the world was on racism and bigotry. This was a big part of the point of the book and I didn't have a problem with using those ideas to make a commentary on our world. I had an issue with how much was shoved in the reader's face that absolutely everyone where Kenna lives is a terrible person except for her friends, one of whom is from there. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me, especially in terms of the timeline of when these ideas started and where they came from.
As for the characters, I thought that they were okay. All of the characters seemed kind of two-dimensional to me. It didn't feel like they were very complicated, including the main character. But the characters were not why I DNFed this book.
PSA- Despite the fact that this book cover looks YA, this is definitely a book for adults. There is heavy graphic violence that took me a little by surprise. I did get used to it but it was a lot in the beginning, just so you know.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Gore, Alcohol, Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Blood, Classism, Racial slurs, Racism, Addiction, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, War, and Violence
ek_reads'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? Yes
5.0
This book has a lot of elements of the war college trope, but it kept me on my toes the whole time. I think one of my guesses was correct the whole book. I cannot wait to read book two!
Content warnings: this book has a lot of graphic violence and racism. There is one open-door sex scene, but it’s consensual and not very long.
Graphic: Violence and Racism
shannahtan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
is a badass, and it makes me so mad that she has to deal with such trash. I think it’s realistic that even the people you sort of end up rooting for
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Misogyny, and Death
manicpixiedreaming's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Misogyny
marinaaurelia'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: Grief, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Racism, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, War, Confinement, Murder, and Cannibalism
centrifugepolitics's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, Murder, Grief, Blood, Misogyny, Death, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Colonisation and War
emerentina's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Bullying, Murder, Torture, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Body horror, Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Violence, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content
blizzardthecoolwizard's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Graphic: Violence, War, and Racism
Moderate: Death of parent and Torture
Minor: Sexual content
alexga's review against another edition
Imagine me telling you a story about how I get to work every day and it's this:
I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning because that's when I need to start getting ready to go out. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth since I want to get rid of unpleasant smell and feeling I get in my mouth every time I wake up from nightly sleep. I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I wash my hair because it has been 2 days since the last time I did it and my hair usually gets dirty by this point. I check my social media on the phone which was a gift from my older brother who I grew up with and who terrorized me my whole childhood. Unexplainable sadness strikes my heart when I think about my brother. The feeling starts as a flicked of pain and slowly spreads to my throat, my head and down my limbs. We have not talked in a long time.
I try to distract myself from thoughts about my family by making myself busy. I put on a kettle and turn on my toaster so that I can make myself a toast. While the water is getting hot and my bread being toasted, I scroll through twitter and Instagram. No notifications and I'm not surprised because I don't talk to a lot of people. Once the toast is toasted and coffee ready, I put my device aside and enjoy my breakfast. When I was a child I couldn't have a toast because we didn't have a toaster. Once I moved out from my family home toaster was the first thing I bought from my new place which I rent... You get the gist. This is not art. This is a Writing part of foreign language test where you are trying to show off your knowledge, so you include as much unnecessary information as possible.
Yes, exposition is necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot, but it should be done properly. The Blood Trials is a perfect example of how you should not do it. Except for battle scenes you will not find a single page where there is no exposition. It's in dialogue, it's in inner monologue; it's in games and trials.
The book tried to set specific tone. I guess it was going for "An Ember in the Ashes" kind of vibe but it failed miserably. Every time out FMC does anything badass it was cringe. The way she talks to her instructors is cringe. They don't owe you shit. They are your higher ups. Why are you talking to them as if you raised them?
Ikenna is a terrible protagonist. Again, author tried to make her strong, opinionated, smart and angry but she is not smart. Smart people try to get a lot of information before they draw any conclusions. She does not:
"The reasons Brock gave me for his suspicions are good enough as proof of guilt, ..." this is part of her inner monologue about Reed and wanting to kill him. She suspects Reed of murdering her grandfather. Now, what were the reasons Brock gave her that convinced her that Reed indeed murdered her grandfather? I'm glad you asked:
"He's the prime suspect. As leader of Gamma, he worked closely with Verne on a lot of initiatives, and Verne had a meeting with Reed on his calendar the day he dies. They met in the apartment two hours prior to his death. ...
This is all the information she had before she decided to kill Reed. And she deemed it good enough. This is the same person who later on judges others on how they don't value human life.
The amount of death during trials to become Praetorians makes no sense the same way it didn't make in Fourth Wing. Why are Praetorian instructors murdering people? We know that Mareen has a regular army so why in god's name would Chance murder trainees instead of just sending them away? Because the writer uses unnecessary gore and violence to set the tone of the book. Oh, right, just remembered, major trigger warning. There is very descriptive account of cooking and eating a human in chapter 8. That was so so so unnecessary. Also why did no one warn these poor aspirants that they would be taken out if they don't manage to plank for a long enough time after doing 400 burpees? Remember, most of these people are legacies. You want to tell me that these military families don't value their offsprings' lives highly enough to at least warn them that they would most likely die in training? At least in Fourth Wing this was a known fact. In The Blood Trials this is the warning our FMC Ikenna got from her grandfather's best friend:
..."After Commencement, senior Praetorians will put you through challenging trials. They will test your mettle more than your academy instructors and classes ever did."
... "The trials are designed to exert every effort to break you."
On the positive, the idea of the book sounds interesting.
Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, and Racism
Moderate: Misogyny
msrae89's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Pros: -The book is pretty well written; it is a little repetitive at times but it makes sense within the narrative.
-The themes the book is exploring are really interesting and done in an unobtrusive way. What I mean by that is I never felt as if the book was preaching to me.
-The themes themselves were really interesting and interconnected with one another seamlessly. Racism, colonialism, military and military propaganda, sexism, classism, trauma, all work together to tell a very interesting story.
-The ending was engaging and set up the second book nicely.
However, that’s about where my enjoyment of the book ended.
Cons: The MC, Ikenna, is 19 and very traumatized, and while it makes sense for the narrative, I found it very repetitive and annoying. This might be, in part, bc I’m in my 30’s and I have an harder time relating to younger MCs. Though, really, I didn’t find any of the characters interesting or engaging. I couldn’t even “love to hate” any of them.
-The book is oddly and aggressively compulsory heterosexual and cisgender. As far as I can tell queer people just don’t exist in the book’s universe, and as a queer person I prefer to read books with queer representation. Even just a passing statement that queer people exist would be more than this book has. Maybe they are in book 2 but after starting it I doubt it based on the little I’ve read so far.
-The “romance” is just bad. First off, it’s unethical. Reed is Ikenna’s superior officer, which he acknowledges. Reed was also the mentee of Ikenna’s deceased grandfather which creates a weird situation for them. It feels a little freudian. Also, Reed is boring! And all of this awkward tension leads to a sudden sex scene. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this just wasn’t for me and I skipped it.
Overall it was a good idea with flat characters and dense story.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Classism, Violence, War, Blood, and Colonisation