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cepbreed's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I will be honest I had low expectations and this book met them. It’s standard YA fantasy so how can I complain when I picked this up fully knowing what it was! A redeeming moment though happened when we learn Po was blinded in his failed assassination plot on King Leck. It was a great twist to go along with his grace that continued to develop throughout the story. Speaking of graces the power system in its entirety could be more clear. There are hardly any ground rules and powers vary so drastically it’s confusing. Maybe it’s meant to be convoluted? The book is too long yet some core scenes were lacking in detail while minor unimportant ones were fleshed out in pages. I have a neurosis about series though so I will be finishing it to satisfy my self.
Song:
Song:
- Don’t Blame Me - Taylor Swift
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty
Minor: Sexual content and War
claudiamacpherson's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
Moderate: Medical content, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Grief, Misogyny, Vomit, Outing, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Torture
battybookworm's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
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
This book! Rereading this was a delight, I think Katsa was a big deal for me when I read this as a teen. Now reading her character feels nostalgic and familiar. I can’t wait to continue with this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Death of parent
sonambuorion's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Torture, and Physical abuse
zngzag's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gaslighting
Moderate: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Child abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
4.0
This is a YA novel with an aspec protagonist (my best guess is she'd say demi if that language were available) who ends up in a relationship with someone who meets her on her terms rather than demanding she meet his. It's nice to see an aspec character whose aro/ace nature isn't overwritten or ignored in order to give her a relationship, how she is is part of how they are together.
It's about loneliness, abuse, and healing, including abuse to children and animals, so please be aware that those are major themes in the book.
The world building is solid, with enough detail to make later revelations feel important. The explanations feel natural, occurring as something happens or Katsa thinks of some detail. This makes it feel like the world is slowly being revealed even though early on it's not new to the protagonist. I like Po, he had a difficult set of things to balance and overall I like how he is with Katsa. His situation towards the end skirts some potentially problematic ableist tropes but manages to not make it seem like his late-acquired disability is what gives him greater control of his powers. YMMV on whether this works, I think it does because of the precise order of events.
Overall I like this a lot and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
It's about loneliness, abuse, and healing, including abuse to children and animals, so please be aware that those are major themes in the book.
The world building is solid, with enough detail to make later revelations feel important. The explanations feel natural, occurring as something happens or Katsa thinks of some detail. This makes it feel like the world is slowly being revealed even though early on it's not new to the protagonist. I like Po, he had a difficult set of things to balance and overall I like how he is with Katsa. His situation towards the end skirts some potentially problematic ableist tropes but manages to not make it seem like his late-acquired disability is what gives him greater control of his powers. YMMV on whether this works, I think it does because of the precise order of events.
Overall I like this a lot and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Blood, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Animal death, Death of parent, and Child death
Minor: Sexual content and Sexual assault
therobinjoyce's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was absolutely fantastic. I loved the characters, the world, the Graces, the intrigue, the adventure, the heartache, the romance.
I adored the storytelling and pacing and the way the author described everything. The writing style is just perfect. The plot was very sound for a YA novel and I adored the relationships Katsa had with all of the supporting cast (Po, Raffin, Oll, Giddon, Bitterblue). It was wonderful to read a fantasy YA novel where the Main storyline is not romantic but the romantic element is powerful and swoon-worthy.
I really enjoyed Katsa’s character and the personal growth she goes through though I will not lie, I am mainly here for the Po supremacy.
This book has so many feels and I’m still reeling from it. I cannot wait to get started on the next book in the trilogy, Fire, and see this fantastic world grow even more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Child abuse
readingrat's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
One of my all-time favourit YA romantasy
+ creative and not overdone idea
+ fast paced page-turner
+ worldbuildig so basic, even my squirrel brain could keep up without going back to the map everytime a place was mentioned
+ no cliffhanger & no need to binge the whole series
+ finally a loveable and nice loveinterest in a YA book 🥳 No "He is a walking red flag but I don't care bacause he's hot"
+ romance was there but not too much
- infodumping in the beginning
- ShE iS nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs
- protagonist is a little too overpowered. She can do nearly everything. Yes, I know, it's because of her Grace, but it still leads to:
- ridiculously fast resolving of every problem
- Plottwists can be seen from space (but it's extremely satisfying, if your predictions turn out to be true)
- style of writing is a little inconsistent. Some sentences don't make sense, but it's not to bad for a debut novel
- kind of insta-love? Not love at first sight, you can see the feelings and relationship develop. But it's way too early to suddenly talk about love
=> Undeniable fan-fiction & Mary Sue elements, but I enjoyed every minute of it
+ creative and not overdone idea
+ fast paced page-turner
+ worldbuildig so basic, even my squirrel brain could keep up without going back to the map everytime a place was mentioned
+ no cliffhanger & no need to binge the whole series
+ finally a loveable and nice loveinterest in a YA book 🥳 No "He is a walking red flag but I don't care bacause he's hot"
+ romance was there but not too much
- infodumping in the beginning
- ShE iS nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs
- protagonist is a little too overpowered. She can do nearly everything. Yes, I know, it's because of her Grace, but it still leads to:
- ridiculously fast resolving of every problem
- Plottwists can be seen from space (but it's extremely satisfying, if your predictions turn out to be true)
- style of writing is a little inconsistent. Some sentences don't make sense, but it's not to bad for a debut novel
- kind of insta-love? Not love at first sight, you can see the feelings and relationship develop. But it's way too early to suddenly talk about love
=> Undeniable fan-fiction & Mary Sue elements, but I enjoyed every minute of it
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Torture, and Child death
melplays9000's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I went into this book with no expectations and yet it still managed to surprise me with how good it was. This is advertised as a fantasy romance and that worried me a little because romance is not my thing.But while there was a romantic sub plot it was definitely not the main focus of the story and felt a lot like a very close friendship which I loved.
I loved Katsa as a main character. She was very bold and had a distinct personality, not at all what I expected from the synopsis. I loved that she was pre-established in her world before the story started and her background and situation really fit in well with everything that was going on. The friendships were amazing, new and pre-existing, I loved the companions and the relationships that were built along the way. I also really liked that this book was a self contained story and which can be read as a stand-alone or with gaps between books in the series like i will be reading it.
I cannot however, give this book the full 5 stars because it just lacked some of the intensity that I need to be fully invested. There were some tense moments but they were mostly resolved quickly and I just wasn’t on the edge of my seat for any part of this book really, which was something I would have wanted. The fights all came easily to Katsa because of her grace and while I liked how this was part of her character it got a little boring after a while.
Overall I did not expect to like this book as much as I did and I’m excited to see where the sequel takes me. 4 Stars
I loved Katsa as a main character. She was very bold and had a distinct personality, not at all what I expected from the synopsis. I loved that she was pre-established in her world before the story started and her background and situation really fit in well with everything that was going on. The friendships were amazing, new and pre-existing, I loved the companions and the relationships that were built along the way. I also really liked that this book was a self contained story and which can be read as a stand-alone or with gaps between books in the series like i will be reading it.
I cannot however, give this book the full 5 stars because it just lacked some of the intensity that I need to be fully invested. There were some tense moments but they were mostly resolved quickly and I just wasn’t on the edge of my seat for any part of this book really, which was something I would have wanted. The fights all came easily to Katsa because of her grace and while I liked how this was part of her character it got a little boring after a while.
Overall I did not expect to like this book as much as I did and I’m excited to see where the sequel takes me. 4 Stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty and Physical abuse
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