taras's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I absolutely loved this book. The beginning was very slow paced and towards the end turned into more fast paced which I loved. I also enjoyed the world building and even the info dumping was interesting to me, after a while of reading.
About the characters:

Arlo - my second favourite character, I loved her personality from the start, her insecurities, her fear, she was relatable and I just got her. I loved that she had so many POV chapters.

Nausicaä/Alecto - my absolute favourite! I adored everything about her from the start. Her pain, her revenge, her anger, depression, sarcasm and humour, just everything about her made me love her more and more. I do like the name Alecto more than Nausicaä, and it's easier to pronounce too. I just wish she got more chapters from her POV, hopefully that will happen in the next book!

Vehan - I liked him, felt like there wasn't that much about his character but at times he was interesting and charming.

Aurelian - probably my least favourite character. He had his moments where I liked him but the majority of the time I was just kind of bored with him. I felt like his 4 chapters of POV were pointless and should've been given to Nausicaä instead.

Lethe & the wild hunt- I loved Lethe so much my third favourite, he was so interesting and mysterious! Everything about him made me love him so much. I don't even care if he's a villain (or maybe he's not) but I just loved him along with the rest of the wild hunt, all of them were so interesting too. I hope I get to know more about the others in the next book.

Celadon - my precious spoiled prince, I want more of him in the next book, hopefully he also gets a POV, because he's perfect!

Riadne - THAT ENDING MADE ME LOVE HER?! I LOVE TWISTED AND EVIL WOMEN! 

Urielle, Megaera, Luck - I NEED MORE OF THEM I LOVED THEM!

Hero - he was okay, I liked him at first, he got very annoying towards the end but I guess that's what greed does to you, along with jealousy.

The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the lack of racial diversity, since it's set in Toronto and someone in the story even said, the city is very diverse yet the majority of the characters were white?? Just makes no sense. I hope in the next book it'll be more diverse!

Because of that I give this a 4.5 star rating, instead of 5.

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mitacaparos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

8.25 cawpile 

2022: 4✨
2023: 3✨

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traeumenvonbuechern's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0


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hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a really good book! Written by a queer author, the book showcased a beautiful diversity of gender, sexuality and race. It was slow-paced in the beginning, which I didn’t love - hence the 4 stars. By the middle and end, I was truly engaged and genuinely related to each of the main characters. Worth the hype, but be careful of the content warnings!

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biancas_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-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? No

3.5

Let's start with what I loved about this book: I loved loved LOVED how inclusive this book was! The inclusivity was shown in a very subtle way (pointing out that braille was an option, a character having different pronouns than he/she, just to name two examples). This really shows how easy it can be for authors to be more inclusive in their works. 
Next to that, I also really loved how realistic the book was! Not only was the faerie world directly interwoven with the human world (whereas most of the time it is either a world completely different than ours or the faerie world is accessible through a portal), the characters also used stuff like human technology and referenced human culture (Dungeons & Dragons, Mario Party etc) quite a bit. My favorite and most realistic line though was Arlo having to pee in the middle of the showdown! That would so be me!

Now apart from that I have to say the book fell a little bit flat for me. A lot of it was really dragged out and could have been much shorter. A huge part of that were the chunks of world building that were dropped on the reader every once in a while. The world just kept getting bigger and bigger. Personally, I also didn't really feel like the characters were given much individuality, especially with Aurelian and Vehan (this could also be because we got way less chapters from their point of view; I actually wished there had been more equal distribution since most of the book was told from Arlo's perspective). Because of that I didn't quite make a connection with the characters. 
Lastly, I wasn't the biggest fan of the whole storyline with the die Arlo was given; it felt a bit like a computer game? 
However, the epilogue made me excited to see how the story continues. I really hope, the author gives the characters more depths in the sequel! 

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jenny_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

I was in a slump when I started reading this. The sheer amount of infodumps and worldbuilding nearly put me off altogether. But I pushed through and I kept reading, and it never really got any better.

Part of it is probably due to this book being a debut. Big chunks could have easily been edited out and some sentences would have had much more punch if they’d been shortened to erase some of the purple prose. It’s not bad, but it’s distracting and a bit clunky.

I was slowly familiarizing myself with the character (although I still can barely tell Vehan from Aurelian), and then the whole D&D and seven sins things were dropped in and it was just too much. The whole faerie world was already big enough without including the sins in it. And the whole role play thing with the dice was too much. If you want to make a  game type book, then make a game type book. Don’t just drop a role play element in the middle of a novel that had nothing to do with it until then.

I really wanted to enjoy this book (gay fairies in Canada, I mean come on!) but it fell flat for me. I don’t care enough about the characters to continue with the sequel, and the dice thing is just too weird for me anyways.

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fthepatriarchy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

this book 😭😭 its 100% one of my new favourites. i had really high expectations for it and it definitely met them. arlo’s so fucking pure gn
when she asked for a bathroom in the laboratory bc of the slushies she drank 😭 my heart. me too arlo. me too.
also shes the most relatable mc i’ve seen, like yes not all heroes are gladly noble and endlessly brave. she’s strong as hell tho i wanna hug her.

nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover …
HER AND ARLO’S KISS this is so unfair i needed to know what happened after they kissed. i feel robbed of a scene where arlo’s lying on her w nos stroking her hair. i want. so badly.


VEHAN my baby </3
THAT ONE SCENE w the psychic or wtv where he was spewing his true feelings 😭 like oh my god come here let me hug you.
his mum’s such an asshole oh my god can i please adopt him. please.🥺

the mutual pining between vehan and
aurelian
near enough killed me. like pLEASE i need them to be able to be together in the next book. feeling so mfing bad for aurelian.

ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.

im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3

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dominika13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? N/A

3.75


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madamepincers's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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


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mirandavictoria's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

This book was incredible! The plot was gripping, the characters were loveable, and the magic system was immensely  intriguing. I loved reading a book set in Toronto, as it provided a unique reading experience for me, as someone who lives near there. The pop culture references were witty and very well done - something that can be hard to do, as they can get cheesy. The LGBTQ+ and mental health rep was also very well done and refreshing to see. Overall, a magically enjoyable read!

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