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Graphic: Death, Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault
Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit
To start with what I think it does well. It's got a strong base and world to tackle misogyny. While perhaps a little basic and falls for in line with how ACOTAR handles it (with the love interesting being "the only good guy who sees women as people and worthy of respect) I think it tries to tackle this in a compelling way. While it falls short, I see what it was trying to do. Especially with the focus on women's sexuality and coming into their own with it. I also thought (most) of the world building was really interesting. Especially with how being the child of a god works. It was a strong setup for the story and with the early on mystery of why Freya is so special as a child of the gods, I thought it was really solid. I also (generally) liked the character descriptions. At leas the first time around. While repetitive at times, they were all well done and give me a quick, clear picture of what the characters looked like.
Outside of that, however, I just couldn't bring myself to care about the characters or plot. Especially where the plot concerned the romance. Despite what the book tried to tell me, I found Freya to be bland and kind of stupid. Everyone else didn't really stand out and felt cliche or one-dimensional. The plot itself felt like it was at a crawl and I kept checking how many more pages were in a chapter because I was so bored. Then there was the romance. I suppose if you like "almost incest but not really" then I guess it's going to interest you. But I felt so grossed out reading about Freya and Bjorn thirsting after one another when the book kept driving home how wrong it was because she was married to his dad.
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
It’s a very predictable book. Minus one event, every twist is easily foreseen, but the story doesn’t suffer because of it.
One last complaint is the main character. She can often be annoying and allows her anger to make poor decisions for her, but I have a feeling that has something to do with the plot and will be explained in the next book.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War
Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Sexual assault
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War
Moderate: Confinement, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Pregnancy
Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Overall this was just okay for me. This story was good but it was too long and a little repetitive. And I found myself annoyed by the main character’s utter lack of awareness half the time. The big twist was both expected and unexpected simply because the focus was solely on misdirection and not planting little nuggets of truth to go back and be like “it was there all along!!”
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail