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kassidyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Violence
lit_with_lauren's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Murder
tiffsbookjourney's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
This was a lot darker than I anticipated!! I enjoyed reading this book for the majority of the book. I felt like the world was set up really well and had pretty distinct features. The Characters were actually really great! It's one of the first YA FMC that actually has a brain and can communicate through problems and make things work with a partner. There was also an awesome component of consent with the Fade to Black scenes!
However, the ending and the epilogue felt a bit rushed and felt like it lacked depth.
Also the narrator for the audiobook wasn't it for me.
However, the ending and the epilogue felt a bit rushed and felt like it lacked depth.
Also the narrator for the audiobook wasn't it for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Blood, War, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Minor: Sexual content
ka_ke's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
All the Stars & Teeth is a lovely read. The characters are easy to love, and the world building is beautiful. If I had to explain it to someone, I would suggest they imagine a story with a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean, the Princess Bride and a touch of Peter Pan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Torture, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Self harm
sauvageloup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
a slow start but a fun read overall and surprisingly dark
(spoilers throughout this review)
Pros:
- it was the plot that most kept me going with this one, since I just wanted to know what'd happen next and how it'd finish! I thought for a minute near the end that we weren't gonna see Kaven dead in this book, but we did, so I'm interested to see if there'll be a new villain in the sequel or if it'll just be Amora struggling against the curse.
- though fairly simple, the different islands with their different magics was a lot of fun, as was the magical history and lore that went with it.
- I liked how surprisingly dark it was, with Amora being all stabby and having her gory magic. despite the younger YA way it was written, there was still plenty of guts and glory! especially when Amora randomly severs Ferrick's limbs at will.
- the side characters were fun, and I especially liked the mermaid, Vataea, and her and Amora's friendship. Amora is lacking in female friends but she and Vataea worked well in their little scenes
- there's also a fairly strong feminist message throughout this. Amora and Vataea are the strongest members of the crew, Amora's ability to run the country as a woman is never questioned, she's passionate, driven and powerful and Ferrick never tries to limit or control her. she might have faults, but Amora is definitely confident and that's good to see
- Amora also randomly gets her period in the middle and isn't embarrassed much at all about this, brushing off the boys being flustered and just sorts it out. it's not treated as a big deal at all, which was cool
- the plot twist with Sira's generational curse was cool, I hadn't anticipated that at all and I'm interested to see how Amora will break it. We also got to see a very different side to Amora without her magic
cons:
- it did feel like a young YA book overall, by which I mean it read too simplistically, without much flair to the writing or much depth of ideas or message to the book. it was exactly as it said on the surface. so while it was fun, it didn't really get my emotions involved at all or make me think much
- the love triangle, though not handled very badly, was a bit trite. Grace mentions Twilight in the acknowledgements and well... that says a lot
- Amora does have issues as a character that didn't feel like they were addressed, like how Ferrick gives up limbs for her and she doesn't even thank him, or be honest with him about how she doesn't love him. I guess she definitely seems like an entitled royal, but it would've been nice to see her change or realise this.
- she has a bit of a crisis over her use of her soul magic on prisoners, but I'm not sure it was fully explored
- I got a bit confused a couple of times. at the start, I thought Amora had never practiced soul magic before her performance, but that wasn't it at all, so that wasn't clear. I'm not entirely sure how Vataea got them onto Zuzoh in the end, and surely the sea monster should've sunk the minute it was frozen? I liked the creativity of Grace's use of her worldbuilding and magic, but it did get a bit far fetched or confusing at times
so overall, I don't think the writing was anything special, but it was a fun read and did keep me reading
(spoilers throughout this review)
Pros:
- it was the plot that most kept me going with this one, since I just wanted to know what'd happen next and how it'd finish! I thought for a minute near the end that we weren't gonna see Kaven dead in this book, but we did, so I'm interested to see if there'll be a new villain in the sequel or if it'll just be Amora struggling against the curse.
- though fairly simple, the different islands with their different magics was a lot of fun, as was the magical history and lore that went with it.
- I liked how surprisingly dark it was, with Amora being all stabby and having her gory magic. despite the younger YA way it was written, there was still plenty of guts and glory! especially when Amora randomly severs Ferrick's limbs at will.
- the side characters were fun, and I especially liked the mermaid, Vataea, and her and Amora's friendship. Amora is lacking in female friends but she and Vataea worked well in their little scenes
- there's also a fairly strong feminist message throughout this. Amora and Vataea are the strongest members of the crew, Amora's ability to run the country as a woman is never questioned, she's passionate, driven and powerful and Ferrick never tries to limit or control her. she might have faults, but Amora is definitely confident and that's good to see
- Amora also randomly gets her period in the middle and isn't embarrassed much at all about this, brushing off the boys being flustered and just sorts it out. it's not treated as a big deal at all, which was cool
- the plot twist with Sira's generational curse was cool, I hadn't anticipated that at all and I'm interested to see how Amora will break it. We also got to see a very different side to Amora without her magic
cons:
- it did feel like a young YA book overall, by which I mean it read too simplistically, without much flair to the writing or much depth of ideas or message to the book. it was exactly as it said on the surface. so while it was fun, it didn't really get my emotions involved at all or make me think much
- the love triangle, though not handled very badly, was a bit trite. Grace mentions Twilight in the acknowledgements and well... that says a lot
- Amora does have issues as a character that didn't feel like they were addressed, like how Ferrick gives up limbs for her and she doesn't even thank him, or be honest with him about how she doesn't love him. I guess she definitely seems like an entitled royal, but it would've been nice to see her change or realise this.
- she has a bit of a crisis over her use of her soul magic on prisoners, but I'm not sure it was fully explored
- I got a bit confused a couple of times. at the start, I thought Amora had never practiced soul magic before her performance, but that wasn't it at all, so that wasn't clear. I'm not entirely sure how Vataea got them onto Zuzoh in the end, and surely the sea monster should've sunk the minute it was frozen? I liked the creativity of Grace's use of her worldbuilding and magic, but it did get a bit far fetched or confusing at times
so overall, I don't think the writing was anything special, but it was a fun read and did keep me reading
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Murder, Torture, and Animal death
pretty gory descriptions of repeated amputationsjojo_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Grief, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Confinement
xoxlululuxox's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
Interesting enough concept, not at all what I was expecting but also reasonably predictable from the second to third act.
I found Amoras character to be very harsh at time, like her only character trait was her magic or her strength. But if you take in to account her up bringing - as a princess and how long she has been practising soul magic (as well as how) - it does make sense. This doesn't make her incredibly likeable, but the fact that she is written this way is great.
It was also nice to see one of the male characters being portrayed as "weaker", emotionally and - sort of - physically.
There were elements of the plot that I didn't really think were developed enough. Such as the romance, it seemed very forced in that it kind of happened with little to no but up.
Additonally the magic system and history was incredible. I truly enjoyed the way that was built and explained throughout the story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Death, and Death of parent
xtsukix's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War
Minor: Rape and Slavery
offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This was a decent fantasy romance book. I didn’t absolutely love it, but I will probably read the sequel.
The world building was decent, though the explanation of soul magic was a bit confusing and hard to follow. There was some info-dumping at the beginning which always turns me off a bit, but it wasn’t unforgivable.
I thought the plot was somewhat rushed, and I especially thought the romance was built up too quickly and didn’t feel real to me. I like when the author makes me work for it haha
I was disappointed that mermaids weren’t more involved in the plot.
In one sentence, I would say the book has a similar vibe to a Court of Thorns and Roses, but not as good.
Spice level: 🌶🌶/5
Specific to the audiobook:
I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely love audiobooks, so a negative review is rare from me. Unfortunately, I strongly disliked the narration of this book and would recommend skipping the audiobook. The narrator seemed too focused on creating different voices for each character, and ended up making most of them sounds incredibly annoying…I also noticed some weird editing where it was obvious that different takes had been spliced together. Finally, the narrator’s constant pronunciation of silent G’s grated my nerves the entire book. (“ding-Guh-y”, “sing-Guh-ing”, etc).
The world building was decent, though the explanation of soul magic was a bit confusing and hard to follow. There was some info-dumping at the beginning which always turns me off a bit, but it wasn’t unforgivable.
I thought the plot was somewhat rushed, and I especially thought the romance was built up too quickly and didn’t feel real to me. I like when the author makes me work for it haha
I was disappointed that mermaids weren’t more involved in the plot.
In one sentence, I would say the book has a similar vibe to a Court of Thorns and Roses, but not as good.
Spice level: 🌶🌶/5
Specific to the audiobook:
I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely love audiobooks, so a negative review is rare from me. Unfortunately, I strongly disliked the narration of this book and would recommend skipping the audiobook. The narrator seemed too focused on creating different voices for each character, and ended up making most of them sounds incredibly annoying…I also noticed some weird editing where it was obvious that different takes had been spliced together. Finally, the narrator’s constant pronunciation of silent G’s grated my nerves the entire book. (“ding-Guh-y”, “sing-Guh-ing”, etc).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Torture
Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Slavery, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, War, Death of parent, Death, Trafficking, Medical content, and Alcohol
chattycali's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I expected a lot from this book but it fell a bit flat for me. Took me 150 pages to get into it and yes, the epic battle scene at the end was awesome, but the lack of explanation from the last page to the epilogue bothers me. Will not be getting the second book but a decent enough read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Animal death, and War
Moderate: Torture