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eafiu's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This conclusion to the series touched me very deeply, both in the general emotional sense and in a very specific way. I have one very raw wound about reading fiction, a wound that opened when I read Stephen King's Wizard and Glass as a teenager: I can't bear watching characters I care very much about walking to their assured doom, knowing or unknowing. That novel was basically the epitome of it, mixed with my own childhood horror of witch burnings. Reading, I'd have to stop and pace every few pages just to control myself as I went from horror to disgust to despair and back. After finishing it (and it took a long time), I found myself super sensitive to even a hint of a situation like that, so reading has become harder for me. I've had troubles with many similar books later on.
This series, though? This was harder than all of them - and that is a compliment. The situation was not as hopeless as it was in Wizard and Glass, but Stephanie Dray's writing made me feel completely immersed in Cleopatra Selene's claustrophobic impasse with Octavian. That broke me enough while reading that at the 60% mark, at the third act of the book (it has 4), I gave up. I decided my heart is not going to take not knowing how it all ends. So I jumped to the Epilogue, continued reading the rest of the chapters in reverse order. It was something I had never done before.
I do not regret it, because it was still a fascinating reading experience and the last chapters (that I ended up reading at the height of my own despair) came as a balm. I cried a lot, both with happiness and sadness, all the emotion that I had built up.
This book was one hell of a finisher for one hell of a series. In a good way.
This series, though? This was harder than all of them - and that is a compliment. The situation was not as hopeless as it was in Wizard and Glass, but Stephanie Dray's writing made me feel completely immersed in Cleopatra Selene's claustrophobic impasse with Octavian. That broke me enough while reading that at the 60% mark, at the third act of the book (it has 4), I gave up. I decided my heart is not going to take not knowing how it all ends. So I jumped to the Epilogue, continued reading the rest of the chapters in reverse order. It was something I had never done before.
I do not regret it, because it was still a fascinating reading experience and the last chapters (that I ended up reading at the height of my own despair) came as a balm. I cried a lot, both with happiness and sadness, all the emotion that I had built up.
This book was one hell of a finisher for one hell of a series. In a good way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, and Slavery
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Ableism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Sexual violence
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