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emulicious's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
So so good, but very heavy. When you aren't reading about physical stress, it's emotional stress or mental stress.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
backitupmoony's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Colonisation, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Torture, Sexual assault, and Ableism
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
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? Yes
4.0
Representations: https://trello.com/c/bM9pBrla/82-magic-of-the-lost-1-the-unbroken-by-cl-clark
If you're looking for fast-paced action, this isn't it. If you're looking for deep world building and complex characters, this is very much it. It's a lot more "political" than the regular political fantasy, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.
The plot is mainly just about the characters, and their places in the war. It's complex, messy and has so many small details throughout for both the overarching plot and the characters' own progressions and developments. I honestly absolutely loved the way character progression was done. At first, they're all pretty walled-up and seem flat, but the more the book progresses, the more they all start to open up as they start to find their places and find their motivations. The small changes to the characters, the way new info changes them, it's so great. I normally dislike really long books, but I feel like for the most part this did use the pages well as so many of the "smaller" parts still provide a lot for the characters as a whole.
I did find the POV switching to be a tad confusing at times. At first I thought it'd be every chapter swapped POVs, so like chapter 1 would be touraine, chapter 2 luca, chapter 3 touraine, etc but instead it just seems to kinda swap at random. It's jarring at first, but it does make sense the further in you get and you just kinda get used to it.
It's certainly a slow-burner. There's a lot of talking, a lot of politics, a lot of silent strategies rather than constant action to solve everything. It's a proper political fantasy that really dives deep into the contrasting politics between the colonisers and the indigenous. The difference in beliefs, tactics and more shine so brightly and are written so well.
The influence of the French colonisation of Northern African countries is quite obvious, but it still manages to create it's own world, lore and history around it and builds off fantasy roots from the history. I think that's a pretty hard thing to do, using actual history quite heavily while still allowing for a fantasy world to thrive, but I just love how it's been done here!
It's not a romance though. It has romantic elements, but I wouldn't call it a romance at all. They got a hell of a lot more important things to do than slink off to a dark corner to be romance-y lmao. There is a set up for a couple romances, there's ofc some good gay representations, but yeah nothing over the top. It's nice to have a fantasy that isn't fully/only around romance so that's a big positive for me, but understandable if that's something you want from your fantasies!
If you're looking for fast-paced action, this isn't it. If you're looking for deep world building and complex characters, this is very much it. It's a lot more "political" than the regular political fantasy, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.
The plot is mainly just about the characters, and their places in the war. It's complex, messy and has so many small details throughout for both the overarching plot and the characters' own progressions and developments. I honestly absolutely loved the way character progression was done. At first, they're all pretty walled-up and seem flat, but the more the book progresses, the more they all start to open up as they start to find their places and find their motivations. The small changes to the characters, the way new info changes them, it's so great. I normally dislike really long books, but I feel like for the most part this did use the pages well as so many of the "smaller" parts still provide a lot for the characters as a whole.
I did find the POV switching to be a tad confusing at times. At first I thought it'd be every chapter swapped POVs, so like chapter 1 would be touraine, chapter 2 luca, chapter 3 touraine, etc but instead it just seems to kinda swap at random. It's jarring at first, but it does make sense the further in you get and you just kinda get used to it.
It's certainly a slow-burner. There's a lot of talking, a lot of politics, a lot of silent strategies rather than constant action to solve everything. It's a proper political fantasy that really dives deep into the contrasting politics between the colonisers and the indigenous. The difference in beliefs, tactics and more shine so brightly and are written so well.
The influence of the French colonisation of Northern African countries is quite obvious, but it still manages to create it's own world, lore and history around it and builds off fantasy roots from the history. I think that's a pretty hard thing to do, using actual history quite heavily while still allowing for a fantasy world to thrive, but I just love how it's been done here!
It's not a romance though. It has romantic elements, but I wouldn't call it a romance at all. They got a hell of a lot more important things to do than slink off to a dark corner to be romance-y lmao. There is a set up for a couple romances, there's ofc some good gay representations, but yeah nothing over the top. It's nice to have a fantasy that isn't fully/only around romance so that's a big positive for me, but understandable if that's something you want from your fantasies!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, War, and Death
Moderate: Gore, Torture, and Sexual assault
Minor: Rape
brukneem's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.5
Amazing characters, an intricate plot, deception, betrayal, and so much more. This book was utterly amazing and I can't wait to read book 2!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, Murder, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
Minor: Vomit
catriona99674'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
5.0
This was one of the best fantasy novels I have read in a long time! This needs more hype. I was absolutely gripped from square one the characters are so well written and realised.
It is very magic light so if what you want from your fantasy is big sprawling magic systems this won't give you that. Though I think there will be a lot more explorations of the magic in book 2.
However, if you find yourself annoyed when complicated issues are resolved too easily, if you're tired of the same stories being told over and over, if you like messy characters and complicated relationships and you want to read one if not the best revolution story of all time then please please read this book.
It is very magic light so if what you want from your fantasy is big sprawling magic systems this won't give you that. Though I think there will be a lot more explorations of the magic in book 2.
However, if you find yourself annoyed when complicated issues are resolved too easily, if you're tired of the same stories being told over and over, if you like messy characters and complicated relationships and you want to read one if not the best revolution story of all time then please please read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault and Misogyny
distraughtplant's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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
4.25
The Unbroken gripped my heart in my chest and dug in its nails and left it in shreds and only just barely mended it together again. Which is strikingly similar to the quote on the front page, but thats exactly what it feels like. That piece of praise sold me on this book, and by Shāl did C.L. Clark deliver.
The main issue I found in this book is that we could've had more insight and "behind the scenes" looks at why the Luca and Tourraine especially make the decisions they do. Sometimes decisions are made that don't feel like they ever have space to be processed because we glaze over the internal processes and struggles of the characters.
However! I loved this book. The Unbroken is loyalty and betrayal and heartbreak and revolution and political pressures and magic and a little bit of lust. It is gorgeous and heart wrenching and real. There are no moments any characters actions felt rushed or out of place. I love this book for it's perfect pacing, it's immaculate queer representation (and non binary representation! I NEED to see more of Niwai and their lioness). I love it most for it's many showcases of the complexities around human emotions and thought processes and why people may do the things they do. I also love it for it's calculated witholdings of full explanation. Humans don't always even know why they've done something, just that it feels it's the right way, or the only option. I love The Unbroken for it's raw depictions of humanity, which will stick with me long after the images of blood, shit, and gore fade away.
The main issue I found in this book is that we could've had more insight and "behind the scenes" looks at why the Luca and Tourraine especially make the decisions they do. Sometimes decisions are made that don't feel like they ever have space to be processed because we glaze over the internal processes and struggles of the characters.
However! I loved this book. The Unbroken is loyalty and betrayal and heartbreak and revolution and political pressures and magic and a little bit of lust. It is gorgeous and heart wrenching and real. There are no moments any characters actions felt rushed or out of place. I love this book for it's perfect pacing, it's immaculate queer representation (and non binary representation! I NEED to see more of Niwai and their lioness). I love it most for it's many showcases of the complexities around human emotions and thought processes and why people may do the things they do. I also love it for it's calculated witholdings of full explanation. Humans don't always even know why they've done something, just that it feels it's the right way, or the only option. I love The Unbroken for it's raw depictions of humanity, which will stick with me long after the images of blood, shit, and gore fade away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Gore, Racism, Death, Colonisation, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Grief, Slavery, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Chronic illness, Cannibalism, and Animal death
taratearex's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 rounded up, this kind of fell apart for me in the last quarter, but I did really enjoy reading it I just kind of lost my ability to suspend my disbelief at the end as it went off the rails a bit.
This is a fantasy loosely based on French colonization of a North African country, I was on board from the start with that premise as I studied Arabic and lived in Egypt for a summer, so I really enjoyed seeing the fantasy elements that referenced this and I thought this worked really well and was really well done, the world felt real and the worldbuilding interesting and detailed. I enjoyed the absolutely messy characters in this, even if I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING a lot of the time, I think the messiness also did make sense when you think about Luca's desire for power fighting with her desire to be a good leader, this gets very white savior too so it's hard to sympathize with her character at all sometimes, but her as the opposing character to Touraine did make for interesting dynamics. And then Touraine, oof, her being deeply brainwashed by the military and then being thrown back into a world she should have known and dealing with a lot of trauma trying to free herself and find herself, she's a mess and it makes sense why- but the in world motivations for why characters sympathized with her did get a bit hard to believe. BUT everyone in this book is deeply flawed and so messy I went with it, and they are all handled with care, even side characters have stories to make them fuller people. Also the disability rep was great and I loved that it was a queer normative world.
Where I think it goes off the rail a bit is just that there are a lot of loose ends that get left dangling as you go through the book and so when I got to the last quarter I expected to see some of those tied up and instead it went kind of more off the rails. Motivations of characters became even more murky, the magic that gets introduced doesn't really get much explanation or time so I'm still not really sure what happened in a couple of the last scenes, and there's an alliance that seemed crucial sort of disappears?
Knowing that this is a trilogy it's always hard to know if some things are just being saved for the next book, so maybe some of these will be explained more in the next book, and I do think I will continue with the series as it was really engaging - it was very dense though so I totally see where some people lost interest in the complicated military and political dynamics, but I thought it was all very interesting, sometimes I'd look up and I'd just read for an hour without looking up, which is kind of rare for me.
This is a fantasy loosely based on French colonization of a North African country, I was on board from the start with that premise as I studied Arabic and lived in Egypt for a summer, so I really enjoyed seeing the fantasy elements that referenced this and I thought this worked really well and was really well done, the world felt real and the worldbuilding interesting and detailed. I enjoyed the absolutely messy characters in this, even if I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING a lot of the time, I think the messiness also did make sense when you think about Luca's desire for power fighting with her desire to be a good leader, this gets very white savior too so it's hard to sympathize with her character at all sometimes, but her as the opposing character to Touraine did make for interesting dynamics. And then Touraine, oof, her being deeply brainwashed by the military and then being thrown back into a world she should have known and dealing with a lot of trauma trying to free herself and find herself, she's a mess and it makes sense why- but the in world motivations for why characters sympathized with her did get a bit hard to believe. BUT everyone in this book is deeply flawed and so messy I went with it, and they are all handled with care, even side characters have stories to make them fuller people. Also the disability rep was great and I loved that it was a queer normative world.
Where I think it goes off the rail a bit is just that there are a lot of loose ends that get left dangling as you go through the book and so when I got to the last quarter I expected to see some of those tied up and instead it went kind of more off the rails. Motivations of characters became even more murky, the magic that gets introduced doesn't really get much explanation or time so I'm still not really sure what happened in a couple of the last scenes, and there's an alliance that seemed crucial sort of disappears?
Knowing that this is a trilogy it's always hard to know if some things are just being saved for the next book, so maybe some of these will be explained more in the next book, and I do think I will continue with the series as it was really engaging - it was very dense though so I totally see where some people lost interest in the complicated military and political dynamics, but I thought it was all very interesting, sometimes I'd look up and I'd just read for an hour without looking up, which is kind of rare for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Death, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Vomit
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, and War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Torture, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Trafficking, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Vomit, Death of parent, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol
Execution by hanging. Power imbalance in relationship (representative of colonizing government/colonized subject).cardanrry's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Murder, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Slavery, Classism, Death, and Racism
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
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
4.5
“The Unbroken’ by C.L. Clark is a tense fantasy steeped in the political machinations of the heir to the throne and a soldier questioning her loyalty.
Touraine is a soldier sent to quell a rebellion in the homeland that she was stolen from. After arriving, she realizes that there is more going on in the country than she suspected and that there are still some personal connections that exist for her. She also meets Luca, the princess who is secretly trying to steal the throne from her uncle. As the two women connect, they begin to learn more about how they can create peace in this country but it may require them to come close to committing treason.
Clark creates a fascinating story rooted in complex characters that it is easy to care for. This world is filled with political intrigue and a cast of fascinating and sometimes despicable characters. Touraine and Luca are both easy to care for and easy to curse at in the same breath. They feel like living people with all of their flaws painfully obvious. The story took a number of twists and turns and Clark keeps the reader guessing about what will happen next. I'm fascinated to see where the story goes in the second installment.
Touraine is a soldier sent to quell a rebellion in the homeland that she was stolen from. After arriving, she realizes that there is more going on in the country than she suspected and that there are still some personal connections that exist for her. She also meets Luca, the princess who is secretly trying to steal the throne from her uncle. As the two women connect, they begin to learn more about how they can create peace in this country but it may require them to come close to committing treason.
Clark creates a fascinating story rooted in complex characters that it is easy to care for. This world is filled with political intrigue and a cast of fascinating and sometimes despicable characters. Touraine and Luca are both easy to care for and easy to curse at in the same breath. They feel like living people with all of their flaws painfully obvious. The story took a number of twists and turns and Clark keeps the reader guessing about what will happen next. I'm fascinated to see where the story goes in the second installment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Violence, War, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Racism, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
Minor: Sexual content