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freckled_frog_boi's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I had really high hopes for this one because it was set in old London, with a magical world hidden from the eyes of humans, and an ancient war the main characters are thrust into. Plus, we have some queer and poc rep!
However, it felt lacking on quite a few levels. Maybe because it's a YA novel, and I just didn’t check the genre beforehand? Idk. But I believe YA could be good if it were written well; this book was… not.
First of all, do you know the miscommunication trope? It felt like the author was miscommunicating to the readers the whole time. Yes, there was foreshadowing, but it was to lead us all in a different direction, only for the author to “plot twist” us all in the last 50 pages. While some foreshadowing worked for both storylines, the original wrong one and the plot-twist right one, there was no way we could have seen the twist coming, which is the opposite of the whole point of foreshadowing, I feel.
The author also had the mc spout monologues to explain what was going on, as if the mc just ~Knew~ what was going on the whole time. And even though we were in his POV most of the time, there were no hints as to what he actually knew.
AND THERE WAS NO HUMOR??? Literally, the only two funny parts were unintentional. It was not meant to be funny, but it was too absurdist not to chuckle. PSA! WE NEED MORE HUMOR IN FANTASY! PLEASE!
Also, it tried to follow the trope of having all MC parents be dead/abusive so they wouldn’t hold the heroes back from their adventure. It felt overdone and didn’t help me get into the novel. I felt like rolling my eyes.
For example, the author made a POC character, only to have her adopted parents be racist and abusive in order to force her into a hero’s journey. And then it was never discussed again. Being Indian isn’t a plot device; it's part of her character, and I wished there was more fleshed out for her. She was also described as boyish/manly, which I didn’t appreciate. Not simply because she was the only POC character as far as I could tell, but because she trains to become a strong fighter, and her “manliness” is given as one of the reasons she’s interested in swords and learning to fight. You can be feminine and like swords, goddammit. She doesn’t need to be masculine to like sword fighting!
Second of all, the queer rep was disappointing. We don’t really get a hint that Will, our MC, is bi until he kisses a girl who I’m pretty sure is his cousin. Gross. And it’s not explained away. Later, when we realize he somehow knew the truth the whole time, none of the characters even blink once about it. It’s just not addressed. Prior to him kissing his cousin, we are lead to think he’s gay; given what we are told, he appreciates other people’s “boyish” looks. To me, it felt like his attraction to women was just a plot point to build a single point of unidentifiable foreshadowing. It was not written to be a part of his character. Which sucks.
Another weird thing for me was reading the POVs of the women in the book. They all had an underlying tone that they had crushes on Will. There was no reason that needed to be in there. Like the author could have just written it, so that wasn’t the case. Idk why they chose to do that; there was no point in us reading about a bunch of women crushing on, who we thought, was a gay man. It’s just uncomfortable.
And finally! The gay romance. Firstly, the only queer romance in here was between MLM, white, pretty boys. Which is OK to have in a book, those types of characters can be wonderful. But this story wrote all of them as being extremely powerful but extremely submissive, which is just another form of harmful representation. And all of the gay romances are highly sexualized, down to stabbing scenes containing crazy sexual subtext. It made me extremely uncomfortable to read, and that’s REALLY saying something bc I like a good horny romance. This is just not a good horny. Rip.
I don’t know. With how this book was explained, I was hoping to see more of a variety of queer rep, at least healthy queer rep!
It just didn’t feel well done. Sorry guys!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and Torture
Moderate: Death of parent and Abandonment
Minor: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Colonisation
laesterlurch's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, War, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Genocide
Moderate: Torture, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and War
Minor: Vomit
bennoyb's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
What a twist!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Blood, Genocide, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Incest
nicamooch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
4.75
The way this book builds in its entirety is amazing. I admit the first quarter is lot to get through especially, because of all the world building and establishment of characters, even I as a Pacat fan was starting to have my faith waver, BUT faith is restored 110%. Consider the rug pulled from beneath me several times, consider me in pain from this book. I’m so excited for Book 2!
I had to constantly pause the audiobook during chapter 34 lmao. I kept yelling “It’s not his name!” 😂
Also, that ending??? I’ve seen people constantly crying about the ending for this book and now I get it 😭 This is reading Prince’s Gambit for the first time kind of pain, I didn’t expect it to go this direction at all. Only Pacat can write a scene between characters like this and have it feel so tragic in a way unique to itself 😭
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War
Minor: Colonisation, Gun violence, Grief, and Racism
forthesanityof1's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Oh my goooooood, just finished this and holy shit. Holy shit. This is some good, fucked up shit. The next book is going to be a disaster and I am so ready. The plot was good, the writing was good, the pacing was decent (only felt slow in a couple places), the characters were amazing and the plot twists in the last 70 pages had me grinning. Phenomenal set up, perfect use of an unreliable narrator, and enough implied story telling to keep my brain going for days. Cannot recommend this enough. Definitely not YA though, feels more NA at times despite the age of the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Genocide, and Violence
kaseybereading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, and Vomit
bleedinxheartx's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, and Death
Minor: Genocide
samchase112's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I think what people were is less important than what they are. And what people are is less important than what they could be.
Even under the guise of an overcomplicated fantasy world and endless description of said world and each of its ultimately useless facets, CS Pacat is still a master of tension and romance. And that is the reason I come back to her books again and again.
A good chunk of the book (read: ~80%) is a lot of explaining and confusing details, and I really was not enjoying my time with it. The whole old world/new world and the Stewards as a community were a lot to take in, and honestly it didn't even matter much by the end; I just didn't really care about them or their purpose. And do I really need to? (Honestly, the smaller-scale political battles of CaPri felt more intense and important than the big world struggles of this one.) Violet is badass, and I already love Will. James has such potential, and unfortunately he was barely in this first installment. But once we get to the real twists, the real meat of the story, in the last 20% or so, this book becomes a CS Pacat book. Just as in Captive Prince, this first book is mainly a set up for the epicness that will (hopefully) be the rest of the trilogy. I cannot wait for the sequel to be released!
Reread October 2023
Second reading: unquestionably better than the first! Knowing all the world-building to come, I was able to fully immerse myself in the story and world, and it was glorious. The characters were captivating, the story relentless, and the intrigue top-notch. I was absolutely enthralled.
Even under the guise of an overcomplicated fantasy world and endless description of said world and each of its ultimately useless facets, CS Pacat is still a master of tension and romance. And that is the reason I come back to her books again and again.
A good chunk of the book (read: ~80%) is a lot of explaining and confusing details, and I really was not enjoying my time with it. The whole old world/new world and the Stewards as a community were a lot to take in, and honestly it didn't even matter much by the end; I just didn't really care about them or their purpose. And do I really need to? (Honestly, the smaller-scale political battles of CaPri felt more intense and important than the big world struggles of this one.) Violet is badass, and I already love Will. James has such potential, and unfortunately he was barely in this first installment. But once we get to the real twists, the real meat of the story, in the last 20% or so, this book becomes a CS Pacat book. Just as in Captive Prince, this first book is mainly a set up for the epicness that will (hopefully) be the rest of the trilogy. I cannot wait for the sequel to be released!
Reread October 2023
Second reading: unquestionably better than the first! Knowing all the world-building to come, I was able to fully immerse myself in the story and world, and it was glorious. The characters were captivating, the story relentless, and the intrigue top-notch. I was absolutely enthralled.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Torture, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Slavery, and War
Minor: Vomit
leedolee's review
adventurous
challenging
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? No
5.0
This book!!!!!
I didn't think I would fall in love with this book the way I did, but I did. I absolutely loved every single page of this book.
I've always enjoyed books where fantasy worlds existed in our own worlds, albeit a different era. And I absolutely loved the idea of Light battling the Dark.
The plot twists in this book were plenty and every single one surprised me. Although, the Big Reveal was something I had not seen coming! It was definitely unexpected and I didn't connect the dots until the Big Reveal.
The main characters were also fun to read about as well as the battle sequences, the magic, the lore, and the history.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
I didn't think I would fall in love with this book the way I did, but I did. I absolutely loved every single page of this book.
I've always enjoyed books where fantasy worlds existed in our own worlds, albeit a different era. And I absolutely loved the idea of Light battling the Dark.
The plot twists in this book were plenty and every single one surprised me. Although, the Big Reveal was something I had not seen coming! It was definitely unexpected and I didn't connect the dots until the Big Reveal.
The main characters were also fun to read about as well as the battle sequences, the magic, the lore, and the history.
I cannot wait for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Violence, and Torture
Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Vomit
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