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ellie_egg's review against another edition
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Classism
ember14's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Miscarriage
figsofpeach'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? No
3.75
Graphic: Animal death and Death
Moderate: Miscarriage and Xenophobia
Minor: Pregnancy
hebifry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
At first I was rooting for Lady Trent. She's tried to study dragons her whole life, it's clearly a passion that she can't ignore. But once she actually gets the opportunity, she is so insufferable that it's painful to read about. The majority of the book is not even about dragons, it's her issues with the villagers, an unfamiliar land, not being included as a woman, etc. And that would be all well and good if there was actually any growth there at all. But she doesn't grow even slightly! In fact, her arrogance continues to put people in danger until the very last page.
I went into this expecting something like Phyrne Fisher and got colonialist, priveleged, whiny British woman instead. The way she talks about the land she is a guest in and the villagers is guillotine worthy. She is constantly disrespecting them, insulting their culture, even ridiculing their religious leader in some instances. And this is where I felt that the realism was the most egregious. I understand the tone of the book, but it's for a modern audience. Do we as readers really want to root for someone as awful as Lady Isabella Camherst? If she had tried even slightly to show respect to them, it wouldn't have been such a dealbreaker, but from her first day, she just hates everything about it. She can't find a single thing or person that she likes in the entire village. Her older voice writing the story insists that she is simply naive but I can't imagine it improves much and even if it does, it should improve IN the first book. Long series are not an excuse for having zero character growth in your first book.
And if her aristocratic arrogance wasn't enough she also has so much internal misogyny, it was hard to read. A serious case of Not Like Other Girls syndrome. There is not a single female character (besides herself of course) that is shown to have a brain. Her mother is strict and catty, her maid is unfeeling and rude, her friend is frivolous and stupid, etc. She just hates every woman she meets for truly no reason.
If there's one positive, I would say that naturalist lens in viewing dragons was very inventive and well-written. Those were my favorite aspects of the book. I would not recommend this book but would love to see this idea explored elswhere.
Minor: Xenophobia and Colonisation
judassilver's review against another edition
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Miscarriage and Injury/Injury detail
annasusan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
But on a more serious note, just very dull, it is clearly inspired by Margaret Fountaine's adapted diaries, 'Love Among the Butterflies', and I would recommend you read that. Weirdly, Fountaine has a way more feminist start - she became independently wealthy when her father died so didn't need a husband to tag along - trying to avoid the class issue isn't a valid excuse because she was still upper class.
Structurally, this divides a memoir into a series format with an adventure per book, versus an adventure per chapter, and that just doesn't work.
There's about as much examination of natural history's colonialism as in Fountaine's work, that is to say none. I think the choice to set it in fantasy-Siberia was an attempt to avoid it at least in this first book (I cannot comment on the sequels), despite the fact the Indigenous peoples of Siberia have similar histories of colonial oppression. I think the author intended the locals to be poor white Russians, as there would certainly be some, undertones, if one were to read them as Indigenous people.
If you liked the setting and want a cool old timey lady who acknowledges colonialism, Ethel Lindgren's story is pretty cool; she was an anthropologist and refused to publish her PhD thesis on Indigenous Siberian religion due to the Soviet crackdowns on religion at the time.
Graphic: Animal death and Xenophobia
Moderate: Death and Murder
madzie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
However, Brennan creates a nicely written plot with a good twist at the end. Throughout, I got bored with the lack of details. Although seemingly purposeful due to attempting to draw in scientific writing, it leaves me again wanting more and never really feeling like part of the story. Perhaps more of a success is her incorporation of Victorian writing, which echoes history while still being accessible to modern audiences, as well as less pretentious. Occasionally, I felt the sentence variety was lacking, especially in action scenes. Lady Trent herself is an intriguing character, who did leave me feeling for her by the end of the novel. Overall, I felt like the book stayed in the middle ground, perhaps rising above for other readers, especially those more interested in scientific explanations and writings over story flow and details.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Classism
squinnittowinit'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? No
3.5
It's written as a memoir, so the fictional author as the narrator is writing about a time in the far past, and she does say that she finds some of the sexism to be ridiculous now, but she still makes weird "men vs women" statements that just reinforce harmful gender stereotypes.
She also read as very Victorian British, in that she was a noble from a colonizing nation
Still, I enjoyed the dragons and I enjoyed the mystery plot. I just wish it had more modern values.
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Colonisation
nassuada's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Miscarriage
meganpbell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Animal death and Death
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism