Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Silver Elite

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Silver Elite by Dani Francis

14 reviews

schmanderpants's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 21%

Welp, I was wrong about being sucked into another trilogy!
DNF @ 21%

There is nothing wrong with this book’s writing style; just a serious problem in the way of depicting “unlikeable” characters. Everyone is over sexualized to the point of being completely indifferent to the idea of CONSENT; including characters the reader is supposed to like. The FMC, Wren, is absolutely insufferable and (tbh like me) causes most of the problems she gets into and (unlike me) gets upset when other people won’t help her out of them.
I got to a conversation that made me instantly uncomfortable if it happened in real life and that’s why I’m taking the out.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

estapinto's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Silver Elite is what happens when Divergent, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Minority Report get into an anonymous telepathic group chat moderated by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks from You’ve Got Mail, except with the spice levels turnt, and it's probably going to be one of the biggest books of the year. Hello debut author Dani Francis where have you been all our lives.

To set the scene, I had just finished Sunrise on the Reaping and was deep in that post-book mourning period, where I expected to DNF five books and fall into a spiral and had accepted that my next read would be The Great Disappointment.

Instead, Silver Elite said, “Get up, loser, we’re going reading.” And I did.

By 15%, I’d already been emotionally compromised, handed an entire sociopolitical structure, and exposed to themes of surveillance, systemic discrimination, a bit of genocide and the ethics of psychic powers.

That brings me to Wren, our FMC. Wren has got a gun 🎵, (sing it to the tune of Janie’s got a gun), a conscience, and one of the most entertaining internal monologues I’ve read in a while.

She’s a witty, sniper-trained telepath who has Professor X meets Katniss energy. Wren would for sure shoot an apple out of a pig’s mouth just to prove a point. She grapples with power, surveillance, and consent in ways that add depth beneath all the action and romantic slow-burn tension. She’s overpowered but she knows it. And she’s wrestling with what that means.

And then there’s Cross. He’s definitely going to take over BookTok by force. Tall, dark, hot and haunted. He was probably mixed in a lab where they blended Four, Xaden, and Rhysand.

Not gonna lie. Silver Elite does have some of your favourite well-used romantasy tropes. But they don’t feel tired. They feel reinvigorated and handled with narrative purpose. There is a whisper of a love triangle, but don’t worry, everything gets resolved fairly cleanly, handled like an adult (thank you) and I actually kinda liked it?

There's also an Orwellian undercurrent, but it never feels derivative.

In the spirit of full transparency, I saw the Big Reveal coming from very early on. In fact, I had it circled in red with arrows. But sometimes, seeing it coming doesn’t dull the impact. Sometimes it makes it better, because the anticipation is half the fun. And in this case, it hit exactly the way it needed to.

Nevertheless, I won’t pretend this book is flawless. It leans hard into its romantasy flair, so if you're after layered dystopian commentary or intricate worldbuilding, this probably won't scratch that itch. The dystopian elements stay pretty surface-level. So if you approach this more as romantasy with dystopian seasoning, rather than a deep dive into systemic collapse and profound dystopian themes, you might just fall for it too. For me, the romantasy lover in me was too busy blushing and kicking my feet like I was reading ACOMAF for the first time to care, hence my rating is definitely a vibes rating, rather than a critical one.

It's chaotic. It’s spicy. It’s emotionally intelligent and self-aware. There’s a quiet subtlety in the way it exposes the cracks in our world through the lens of another. This book gave me the same high I got from reading the romamtasy greats, while still feeling like something new. I devoured this as fast as I could whilst life and adulting got in the way. I will be camping outside Dani Francis's inbox until book two drops.

Thank you so much to Random House Worlds | Del Rey for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

moonwolfhowl's review against another edition

0.25

dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

EDIT:

CWs for the book: Dubious Consent, Sexual Assault, Rape (off page), Unbalanced Power Dynamics, Violent Deaths, Forced Conscription

First, thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for the E-Arc in exchange for my honest review.

Second, I am so disappointed.

I was having an amazing time until about ch 15-17, and then it all went downhill from there especially chapter 46 in what was the worst reveal of a century. This review was a lot longer but I've cut it because I don't want the CWs to fall on deaf ears because I am livid due to not having any CWs mentioned before.

I found the MMC, Cross, to be irredeemable. I never recovered from what he said to Wren after she was so desperate to escape. It would have been one thing if he had showed any kind of remorse or at the very least growth, but that did not happen. Every single time he and Wren had a scene I shuddered. And no, I do not care about the reveal. If anything that made it worse. Not to yuck anyone's yum but this was not it for me. If I had known how hard this leaned into Dubious Consent I would have stayed away. Had I known what was going to happen to Tana and her father I would not have touched this with a ten foot pole.

PLEASE ADD CONTENT WARNINGS! These elements were a very unwelcome surprise and it ruined the entire book for me. This was going to be a 4 star book for me and the undisclosed CWs made this almost impossible to get through.

0.25 Stars.

Content Warnings

allyrosereadsbooks's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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: Yes

Content Warnings

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