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aileron'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
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Violence, War, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Cancer
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child death, Miscarriage, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Slavery, and Alcoholism
tristanc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Outing
lipstickitotheman's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Cancer, Colonisation, Confinement, Torture, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, War, Xenophobia, and Violence
Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Police brutality, Sexual content, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical content, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage
mazomazli's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The author is very detailed about their worldbuilding and you can tell they have taken their time and done the work. It’s because of this that a certain topic that wasn’t particularly addressed so far and was just there. That I was deeply bothered by it. I haven’t seen anyone else address it so I will do so now:
Men in this book often take on traits women in the real world (western countries specifically) like makeup for example. There were multiple scenes where side male characters were treated as wh*res much like women experience today all of the time. It made me deeply uncomfortable as I was going in with the love of powerful women to see them enact the same exact violence in my lived experiences. It wasn’t explained why it was like this or given much context. It wasn’t even needed for the plot. It doesn’t make sense either. In real world examples of matriarchy-adjacent (as most western historians state that there’s never been a true one) this type of violence does not happen. These societies are usually quite equal and the women take on the task of passing down knowledge.
The author’s attempt to address colonization and all of that desperately needed some non-western research. Especially when the majority of character are coded as BIPOC. I just really wanna know why was it necessary to do these scenes with men being mistreated in sex by women? Like what was the benefit?
Additionally, while most of sapphic people I’ve come across have greatly enjoyed this series I find myself alone in some of my thoughts. As an early 20s sapphic woman, I would think I would relate a lot more to Baru. Unfortunately I just… didn’t. What I felt from the series so far is the sexual side of sapphicness and very little of the romantic feelings. I admit I am very much WLW and NBLW romantic and more of a demisexual. I did not feel represented in the end unfortunately which is okay, not every story will do so.
Finally, the biggest book comparison that can be made with this series is the Locked Tomb. There are several key elements that align both series especially with the outcomes of the main sapphic relationship.
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, War, Blood, Homophobia, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Ableism, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Vomit, Alcohol, Classism, Child death, Death of parent, and Sexual assault