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beautifulpaxielreads'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? No
3.5
Firstly, what a story! I have to give props to Kalyn Josephson for the plot and pacing because it was really well done. It certainly kept me turning the pages!
The world-building was very good too, although it could be confusing at times. I loved the intertwining of religious belief, magic, lore, and politics (particularly with Kinnism/Judaism), it all came together pretty seamlessly, although, again, it could be confusing occasionally.
The maps and family trees (created by Virginia Allyn) were useful in giving a sense of location and social hierarchies of the world.
The main problems I experienced had to do with character development and writing style, each of which I'll address separately.
I'll start with character development. Although I could see that Josephson did her best, there was a remoteness in the writing that stopped me from fully empathising and caring about the characters - particularly the POV characters of Mikira and Arielle, although I found qualities to admire in both of them. I also couldn't particularly vibe with either of theromantic developments, I just couldn't fully grasp what the love interests saw in each other, particularly with Damien and Arielle. I also couldn't buy into Damien's ruthlessness and tactics of manipulation, even though he was ultimately doing it to create a less corrupt and more equal society. I think there also may have been too many minor characters who only popped up now and again and made the story feel somewhat cluttered.
The writing style was also quite strange, although it did propel the plot forward But some of the phrasing was quite odd, leading me to be unsure as to who or what the text was referring to, and distinguishing between each individual character from scene to scene. There were also a number of spelling, phrasing, and grammatical errors which really should have been picked up by an editor because they were very distracting.
I probably will read the next book in the series because a number of plot elements intrigued me, but on the whole I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
The world-building was very good too, although it could be confusing at times. I loved the intertwining of religious belief, magic, lore, and politics (particularly with Kinnism/Judaism), it all came together pretty seamlessly, although, again, it could be confusing occasionally.
The maps and family trees (created by Virginia Allyn) were useful in giving a sense of location and social hierarchies of the world.
The main problems I experienced had to do with character development and writing style, each of which I'll address separately.
I'll start with character development. Although I could see that Josephson did her best, there was a remoteness in the writing that stopped me from fully empathising and caring about the characters - particularly the POV characters of Mikira and Arielle, although I found qualities to admire in both of them. I also couldn't particularly vibe with either of the
The writing style was also quite strange, although it did propel the plot forward But some of the phrasing was quite odd, leading me to be unsure as to who or what the text was referring to, and distinguishing between each individual character from scene to scene. There were also a number of spelling, phrasing, and grammatical errors which really should have been picked up by an editor because they were very distracting.
I probably will read the next book in the series because a number of plot elements intrigued me, but on the whole I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Grief, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Antisemitism, Drug use, and Xenophobia
Minor: Genocide and Sexual violence
One of the main plot points is a deadly and dangerous horseracing tournament, and horses are injured and/or killed.
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