Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - The Unbroken

I really liked this. All of the characters have really interesting and complex motivations which leads to such complicated relationships to each other and the world around them. Very excited to see where we go from here.

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ajthequeen's review against another edition

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Dnfing at 170. I usually give a book 100 pages to wow me, but i so desperately wanted to enjoy this book i gave it to 200. I didn’t even make it that far. This author is talented, but “they use too many word when few word do trick”. The author does a lot of telling instead of showing. Touraine and luca’s backgrounds are told to us immediately with little to no build. I think this author wanted a priory of the orange tree type romance to happen, but instead got an imbalance of power and really toxic female leads. I had to stop at 170 because i genuinely dont care about what happens next. So so much exposition with little pay off. I think if you took out the entire first 100 pages and used the second half of the book to have luca and touraine bond over their pasts and grow to trust each other, the book would be 200x better.

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strabckr's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I’m not really sure how to feel about this book. Technically, it was very high quality, i just didn’t enjoy it as much on a personal level.

The writing was descriptive & visually engaging, the world-building was clean, the characters were solid & grounded, the plot itself was not only entertaining but held a level of believability, objectively speaking, this was a very good book, I’m just not sure that I connected with it on an emotional level.

I, myself, am a high Fantasy junkie, so I thought this book would be perfect for me. I went into it slightly blind so I was really taken along for a ride, and yet, it didn’t grip me. I wasn’t emotionally invested, and even though I liked the cast of characters, I had no connection to them (even though they had a lot of relatability). I am also someone who favors fantasy because of its magical element, and since that wasn’t a prominent factor of the book (in terms of its “fantastical-ness? I don’t know) I guess that didn’t really excite me either. It was also kind of depressing but then again, is more of a personal preference than a criticism.

I think the bottom line here is that this story just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay! not every novel is going to be made for me because there are a bajillion people on the planet, and I’m still able to recognize this story’s objective merit while also validating my subjective thoughts & feelings.
with that being said, I’m probably still going to pick up the second book, as I’m still curious to see what the story will hold as the world itself is highly intriguing & the potential is there.

P.S if you’re going into this thinking it’s going to be a sapphic romance at its core, be warned! the romance is a sub-sub-sub plot, like seriously.

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paigemandia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

Idk this one just didn’t really do it for me. I loved most of the characters, except the protagonist touraine just annoyed the hell out of me. None of her decisions were thought out and she just made mistake after mistake. We love a flawed character but she was just not doing it for me. I did love how this novel approached colonialism and institutionalism—that was definitely the strong point of this novel. A lot of it just felt rushed and the characters weren’t built up enough for a lot of the deaths to effect me. It was entertaining enough and the magic system is interesting, so I am looking forward to seeing if the next books in the trilogy are better. But happy to have read 1/3 of the sapphic golden trio. gotta get the jasmine throne next 🙏🏻🙏🏻

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becksreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.25

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oreo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

4.0

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liminal's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love this book. The characters beyond the two POV characters were so interesting and vibrant. Love the Jackal, for example. This book is about two characters from the opposite ends of the power spectrum in a colonised city. A princess of the empire, and a conscripted soldier from that particular colony. Just one warning - don't read for the romance, while it has a romance threaded through it that is not the main focus. While this novel absolutely deals with themes of colonialism and racism, there doesn't seem to be any homophobia or biphobia. one MC is a bi disabled woman, with a lot of privilege,the other is a lesbian. There are a wide range of ages represented, including some amazing women in their 50s. The setting is broadly based on France and colonialists North Africa.

My only beef with this novel is that some key elements felt rushed, and I had to go back and re-read a few chapters. Sometimes it wasn't clear who was speaking. Also I didn't feel like Touraine got a real chance to establish her badassery before she was thrown into fish out of water. Her loyalty to the sands felt a bit stop/start but then as an ADHD person I absolutely forget groups of people that deeply matter to me so.

However I absolutely felt for her and got so angry on her behalf throughout the whole novel. There were amazing scenes that had me cheering and passages I want to go back and annotate. As a debut novel this is stellar and I would recommend to fans of the Baru Cormorant series, Sabaa Tahir, and anyone looking for queer fantasy that doesn't focus on romance. Steer clear if you're looking for books without exploration of colonialist/racism.

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fruitea's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i don't really know how to describe this book. it was so different to the other kinds of books i read (in a good way!!) and really made me reflect on a lot of things. particularly touraine - she's such a complex character and you really get to see her inner conflict with herself. to be honest, i feel like i'd spoil it too much if i explained further. this book will make you think a lot about things society has kind of swept under the rug.

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