Scan barcode
moon's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
3.5
i had trouble getting through the first half of the book because the pov changes with every chapter and it broke my flow and concentration every time but after the pacing picked up in the second half, i breezed through it with ease.
the premise is very intriguing and unique, but i have to admit that it took till more than halfway through the book for me to get a decent grasp on the world-building and lore. the logistics of magic and how it worked in their world was so vague and poorly explained that if you ask me right now how gates and patterns are utilised, i would struggle to tell you.
that said, it was very easy for me to grow attached to the main characters. well, most of them. arjun and haidee were my favourite and while i know they're the least angsty/complicated pair of them, i loved how their characters grew and developed as the plot progressed. i also appreciated tian lan's complexity, but odessa on the other hand...it was cool seeing how her inner thoughts and morals gradually devolved as the ritual transformed her, but i feel that her character arc was very hastily concluded with no attention brought to the consequences or implications of her earlier actions. hopefully this will be addressed in the sequel.
the never tilting world is by no means perfect but i enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the sequel.
the premise is very intriguing and unique, but i have to admit that it took till more than halfway through the book for me to get a decent grasp on the world-building and lore. the logistics of magic and how it worked in their world was so vague and poorly explained that if you ask me right now how gates and patterns are utilised, i would struggle to tell you.
that said, it was very easy for me to grow attached to the main characters. well, most of them. arjun and haidee were my favourite and while i know they're the least angsty/complicated pair of them, i loved how their characters grew and developed as the plot progressed. i also appreciated tian lan's complexity, but odessa on the other hand...
the never tilting world is by no means perfect but i enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Cannibalism and Vomit
lesbian main character, chinese lesbian main character, disabled south asian main characterpoppywarphan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.5
And with a harsh, grating sound, for the first time in seventeen years, the world began to turn.
The concept was very unique. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. The pace was a bit too fast for me to properly grasp the worldbuilding. I would've loved if things were explained a bit more. In the beginning I was totally lost. There are a lot of things that are still unclear to me.
I loved one half of the povs, the other was just meh. Right at the beginning I preferred the pov in Aranth however I quickly became in love with Haidee and Arjun. Odessa's corruption arc was dissatisfying and she was redeemed way too easily.
The execution could have been better but overall I think I liked it. Though I probably wouldn't have continued with the next book if it weren't for Arjun and Haidee. I love their dynamic so much. It's just amazing.
The concept was very unique. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. The pace was a bit too fast for me to properly grasp the worldbuilding. I would've loved if things were explained a bit more. In the beginning I was totally lost. There are a lot of things that are still unclear to me.
I loved one half of the povs, the other was just meh. Right at the beginning I preferred the pov in Aranth however I quickly became in love with Haidee and Arjun. Odessa's corruption arc was dissatisfying and she was redeemed way too easily.
The execution could have been better but overall I think I liked it. Though I probably wouldn't have continued with the next book if it weren't for Arjun and Haidee. I love their dynamic so much. It's just amazing.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Death
bluejayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.0
I am having a really hard time figuring out what to say about this book. I think it's a case of my experieincing self and remembering self differing - I very much enjoyed this book while reading, but looking back I'm having a hard time saying exactly why. I think I mainly enjoyed the world and the plot and the creative mythology involved, because trying to write about the characters, I'm realizing that in retrospect they're all pretty bland.
There are four alternating perspectives in this book - Haidee and Odessa, the young goddesses, and Arjun and Lan, the goddesses' love interests and traveling companions.
Odessa, the goddess of the eternal night side of the planet, is the most memorable because of the great first-person narration of a character going mad. She's not unlikeable at the beginning - when the book opens, she's sheltered, bookish, trying to rebel a little against her mother's control, and not at all sure what to do about her crush on Lan. But Rin Chupeco does an absolutely stunning job with first-person narration of a person losing her self and not even realizing as she becomes darker and more unhinged. She became not at all likeable as a person but absolutely compelling as a character.
Lan, Odessa's love interest and one of her traveling companions, is traumatized. I really can't remember much else about her. Well, that and she's there to provide perspective to how unhinged Odessa gets as the story progresses. Lan led an exploring expedition, everyone except her died, and she has a lot of trauma around that. The trauma is handled really well, but it also seems to be her main personality trait.
Haidee, the goddess on the eternal day side of the planet, is Odessa's complete opposite. She enjoys engineering and mechanical tinkering, is full of compassion for everything and everyone, and embodies the bright sunniness of her side of the planet without going over the line into scorching desert. She wasn't a stand-out character, but she was definitely likeable - not a fascinating person or a charismatic personality, but honestly the only character in the book that I would want to be friends with.
Arjun, Haidee's traveling companion, was definitely the weakest of the four perspectives. That doesn't mean that he was bad, I just found him less compelling. He was a lot of the "orphan grows up with a bunch of other orphans raised by one adult and gets good at fighting and living a hardscrabble life" stereotype, with a few interesting additions that just barely keep him from being cardboard. He didn't have much motivation, though, which I think is why he was the least compelling. I also think his perspective got the least page time, but I didn't count pages to see if that was accurate.
I didn't hate any of these characters, but it was really the concepts that made me enjoy the reading experience. The magic system is really interesting (even if I didn't fully understand it), I loved the idea that the world is ruled by women who are supremely powerful goddesses and yet are mortal and every so often must be replaced by their daughters, and there are a lot more layers around the Breaking - when the world stopped spinning and divided into two kingdoms of eternal day and eternal night - and how it happened than appear on the surface. Even the settings are interesting, from a frozen fortress to seas full of krakens, golden cities protected by glass domes to creatures swimming through oceans of sand instead of water, there are a lot of really fascinating and creative fantasy things in this world. For me, the characters were more of a vehicle to explore this world and uncover its secrets, and that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Reading book two isn't high on my priority list, but I do intend to get to it eventually. The characters weren't stellar, but they were perfectly okay, and I wouldn't object to spending another book with them, especially since I have so many unanswered questions about what happened to break the world and what secrets Odessa and Haidee's mothers are hiding. And the broken world was such a cool setting, I'm excited to explore it more in book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
Minor: Chronic illness and Sexual assault
melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.75
I loved this book so much! The plot is so interesting and I absolutely love the world building. Rin does SUCH a good job making these totally immersive worlds with their own lore and details without the feeling of info-dumping! In fact, most of what we know about the world we learn through the eyes of the four pov characters, who are all completely distinct! I love that. It can be really hard to do a good job distinguishing between pov's when there are a lot of them, and I didn't think this book had that problem at all!
I was definitely surprised by a lot of what happened but in a completely good way! I loved the characters and their relationships. This book was great and I can't wait for the sequel!
I was definitely surprised by a lot of what happened but in a completely good way! I loved the characters and their relationships. This book was great and I can't wait for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Gore, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Mental illness
Minor: Sexual assault
alicelalicon's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Chronic illness and Cursing
Minor: Death of parent, Sexual content, and Grief
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.75
OMG ASDFGHJK. My love for Rin Chupeco's world building and writing has only grown after reading this!
Rep: Chronically ill sapphic MC, Asian coded sapphic (lesbian coded) MC suffering from PTSD, disabled POC MC that is missing one of his hands. Possible sapphic side character--seemed to have a romantic relationship with another woman, but am not certain. I believe most the characters are POC but I'm not 100% certain.
CWs: Violence, blood, physical abuse, bullying, animal death, cannibalism, death, gaslighting, grief, sexual content, mental illness (PTSD), murder.
Rep: Chronically ill sapphic MC, Asian coded sapphic (lesbian coded) MC suffering from PTSD, disabled POC MC that is missing one of his hands. Possible sapphic side character--seemed to have a romantic relationship with another woman, but am not certain. I believe most the characters are POC but I'm not 100% certain.
CWs: Violence, blood, physical abuse, bullying, animal death, cannibalism, death, gaslighting, grief, sexual content, mental illness (PTSD), murder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Death, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Animal death, and Mental illness
Minor: Cannibalism and Blood
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
THE NEVER TILTING WORLD is a journey fantasy told by four sides as two separated sisters and their companions travel to the rift at the heart of their world to try and fix their parents' mistakes.
I like the world building, so much is shaped by the central conceit that something went wrong a decade and a half ago and the planet stopped spinning. I would like to know how gravity is still functioning, but other than that it has an internal logic that was pretty easy to follow. I like the magic system, there's enough information for it to make sense but it's not overexplained. I love this premise, and I love how it's carried out. The price of the gifts was a nice touch, the effects begin subtly and then cause a dramatic turn in the plot, making it clear both why anyone ever would have thought accepting them was fine, and how (from my perspective, at least) it's not worth it.
The four main characters all felt very distinct from each other, with different things they wanted, and many differences in what they were willing to give up and what they sought to protect. They had four very different backgrounds and it's shown well. I felt like I had room to like the book without liking all four main characters. I loved one, liked two, and have complex thoughts about the last one. That character undergoes a gradual change in mental state, it’s very well written. It’s marked by certain milestones, specific plot events that cause it to progress. It wasn’t until several of them it happened that I realized the shift they have been building, but when I looked back I could see its early stages. I love stories where a character undergoes a drastic change in how they perceive the world and interact with it, and this did a great job of portraying that shift. I liked how they were written, and my complex feelings come from initially loving them, feeling strange as their personality shifted to be wholly unlikeable, then realizing that it was shifting due to events in the story. At that point I didn't resume liking them as a person, but I love how they're written. I like the pair journeying in the desert the best, their duo was more relatable to me but one of the strengths of this book is that, as I said the main characters are so different that you'll probably like at least one of them, and the narrative doesn't hinge on whether you like all four of them as people.
The ending was good, it does make me want to read part two, and given that this is a duology the second half of the story is waiting in the sequel. It felt a little abrupt, but the characters both literally and emotionally arrived at a place that made sense as the ending before the next book. Sometimes duologies can feel like two intertwined stand-alone books, and sometimes they feel like a larger work split in two. This is very much that second type, I don't know if my impression will change once I read the sequel.
I like the world building, so much is shaped by the central conceit that something went wrong a decade and a half ago and the planet stopped spinning. I would like to know how gravity is still functioning, but other than that it has an internal logic that was pretty easy to follow. I like the magic system, there's enough information for it to make sense but it's not overexplained. I love this premise, and I love how it's carried out. The price of the gifts was a nice touch, the effects begin subtly and then cause a dramatic turn in the plot, making it clear both why anyone ever would have thought accepting them was fine, and how (from my perspective, at least) it's not worth it.
The four main characters all felt very distinct from each other, with different things they wanted, and many differences in what they were willing to give up and what they sought to protect. They had four very different backgrounds and it's shown well. I felt like I had room to like the book without liking all four main characters. I loved one, liked two, and have complex thoughts about the last one. That character undergoes a gradual change in mental state, it’s very well written. It’s marked by certain milestones, specific plot events that cause it to progress. It wasn’t until several of them it happened that I realized the shift they have been building, but when I looked back I could see its early stages. I love stories where a character undergoes a drastic change in how they perceive the world and interact with it, and this did a great job of portraying that shift. I liked how they were written, and my complex feelings come from initially loving them, feeling strange as their personality shifted to be wholly unlikeable, then realizing that it was shifting due to events in the story. At that point I didn't resume liking them as a person, but I love how they're written. I like the pair journeying in the desert the best, their duo was more relatable to me but one of the strengths of this book is that, as I said the main characters are so different that you'll probably like at least one of them, and the narrative doesn't hinge on whether you like all four of them as people.
The ending was good, it does make me want to read part two, and given that this is a duology the second half of the story is waiting in the sequel. It felt a little abrupt, but the characters both literally and emotionally arrived at a place that made sense as the ending before the next book. Sometimes duologies can feel like two intertwined stand-alone books, and sometimes they feel like a larger work split in two. This is very much that second type, I don't know if my impression will change once I read the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Vomit
Minor: Cannibalism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
gladiolus17's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cannibalism and Sexual assault
achingallover's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence
luckykosmos's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
The front half of this book felt a little messy. The magic system, while not the focus, seems more intricate than the time it was given, and more explanation of these gates and their wielders and how that makes this world work would have been appreciated (for example, an air-wielder with a water gate makes ice?). And while I love Chupeco's prose most of the time, other times it could use one more edit, to be slightly less clunky.
But now that the stage is set, I'm in firmly. I loved the final act of this book, the shifting dynamics between Lan, Odessa, Haidee, and Arjun. I'm fascinated to see where this goes next. Where I think Chupeco struggles with heavy exposition, they shine when it comes to complex plotting and intricate character interactions. You can tell they've thought heavily about these characters as chess pieces, and I'm delighted to see what comes next.
(That being said - Salleemae's name felt incredibly distracting and out of place. This is one particular pet peeve, and maybe I'm too quick to think of the student loans company, but of everything in the book, this is what I would change first.)
But now that the stage is set, I'm in firmly. I loved the final act of this book, the shifting dynamics between Lan, Odessa, Haidee, and Arjun. I'm fascinated to see where this goes next. Where I think Chupeco struggles with heavy exposition, they shine when it comes to complex plotting and intricate character interactions. You can tell they've thought heavily about these characters as chess pieces, and I'm delighted to see what comes next.
(That being said - Salleemae's name felt incredibly distracting and out of place. This is one particular pet peeve, and maybe I'm too quick to think of the student loans company, but of everything in the book, this is what I would change first.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, and Violence