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adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-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:
Complicated
The first 70% of this was amazing. I loved Ganymedes (Dee), but the ending was really infuriating. Rafi should have stayed dead. His character was frustrating, and I think ruined Wyatt’s supposed character development. Wyatt was the more interesting character to begin with. Rafi, on the other hand, sucked. I don’t have a lot of patience for “whoopsie! I’m complicit in a genocidal murder plan.” Also, let’s solve all the world’s problems with a dictatorship sucks. Dee is an extremely likable character, but I don’t see how him having ALL the power is actually beneficial to Concordia. It also ruined the fable and Eudora’s assessment “that the fish is the hero.” The fish was the hero because he helped when he didn’t need to, not because he became an all powerful deity. But it had a bisexual male lead, so that’s amazing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Genocide, Infidelity
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
funny
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:
Yes
Funny murder mystery on a boat. Technicolor version of Gideon the Ninth with animals and colors and a chubby bi guy as the protagonist. I really liked how the 6yr old wasn't annoying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Murder, Classism
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Dementia, Colonisation
Minor: Excrement, Vomit, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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
Absolutely loved this book. It's a great murder mystery fantasy book with a very self depreciative lead however, his sense of humor is fantastic.
'My father always says: ' you can't run from your responsibilities,' but he lacks imagination. Besides, I'm not running. I'm side stepping. Crossing the road so me and my responsibilities don't make eye contact and aren't forced into awkward small talk both of us know isn't going anywhere.''
'We can get murdered tomorrow. Tonight, we party!'
Plus many other gems.
'My father always says: ' you can't run from your responsibilities,' but he lacks imagination. Besides, I'm not running. I'm side stepping. Crossing the road so me and my responsibilities don't make eye contact and aren't forced into awkward small talk both of us know isn't going anywhere.''
'We can get murdered tomorrow. Tonight, we party!'
Plus many other gems.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Self harm, Murder
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I find it difficult sometimes to differentiate between "bad" or "flawed" writing choices and writing choices I simply don't like, but seeing as I rate my reads on enjoyment rather than objective quality, I'll be quite honest.
For a debut novel, this was not bad. It kept me engaged, consistently twisting my assumptions of what was really going on down to the final chapters. (Excitingly, SPOILERS:I was partially right in two of my guesses. One of which being that either Eudora, Ravi, or both were alive and in on the murders. The other guess being an alternative to the first; that Cordelia was the murderer, because a "seemingly innocent" frail girl gone mad with grief is an easy call from 300 pages away.)
However, I have some complaints. One of which being that Ganymedes left me disappointed as a protagonist. I have a strong penchant for "misfit asshole" characters, but as protagonists you also have to either have them grow or at least have their flaws pointed out in the story. Dee's insistence that he was the only one who understood Ravi and being convinced that his attitude toward him was a lie after having not seen him for five years especially irked me, and even worsethat the story proved him right . He was entertaining at first, but the story became so distracted with the mystery that it forgot to give Dee time to reflect on himself. The most we got were a few moments of him thinking "I guess I don't know this person who I've only spoken to a handful of times in my life as well as I thought I did.", which, yeah, no shit. I empathize with Dee, as anybody who has been made to feel like a lowly outsider would, but ultimately he was mostly just self-centred and was mostly humanized through the six-year-old that was glued to his side for most of the story who he nearly got killed anyway to literally go commit suicide .
I promise I'm not normally a cynical reader, but I think it's fair to be put off by every other character spilling their guts to him or telling him that he was a good person when the story spent its first fifth establishing how much they were supposed to hate and distrust him.
Lastly, and this is really more of a personal issue than a writing one (maybe), but the reveal ofWyatt having been Ravi all along was not the triumph I think it was supposed to land as. I spent hundreds of pages falling in love with Wyatt as a character, being happy that Dee stopped clinging to the childhood love he thought he knew, only for him to have been dead all along, with Ravi having lied to Dee, and to the audience the whole time. It devastated me. I was given zero time to mourn the boy who never existed as I was essentially told "oh well, it was Ravi the whole time so the emotions were still real!" as if that was supposed to fix the dissonance between the characters of Ravi and Wyatt in my head. And the fact that I was supposed to forgive Ravi in the last stretch of the book for having been in on the devastation that the plot was centered around felt like an extra slap in the face. Barely any thought was even given to the real Wyatt, only how he died.
Anyways, I know that I've complained a lot in this review, but overall it was a compelling read! The dialogue was well written and the conflict well-paced, if not slow to start. I am a locked tomb fan, and this story has quite a few similarities to it (so many so that I started keeping tally of all the comparisons I could make in my head), so overall I found it entertaining enough to finish in just a few sittings. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the details are where this story falters most, outside of its core murder mystery plot.
(P.S. I want a prequel novella about Leofric and Lysander.)
For a debut novel, this was not bad. It kept me engaged, consistently twisting my assumptions of what was really going on down to the final chapters. (Excitingly, SPOILERS:
However, I have some complaints. One of which being that Ganymedes left me disappointed as a protagonist. I have a strong penchant for "misfit asshole" characters, but as protagonists you also have to either have them grow or at least have their flaws pointed out in the story. Dee's insistence that he was the only one who understood Ravi and being convinced that his attitude toward him was a lie after having not seen him for five years especially irked me, and even worse
I promise I'm not normally a cynical reader, but I think it's fair to be put off by every other character spilling their guts to him or telling him that he was a good person when the story spent its first fifth establishing how much they were supposed to hate and distrust him.
Lastly, and this is really more of a personal issue than a writing one (maybe), but the reveal of
Anyways, I know that I've complained a lot in this review, but overall it was a compelling read! The dialogue was well written and the conflict well-paced, if not slow to start. I am a locked tomb fan, and this story has quite a few similarities to it (so many so that I started keeping tally of all the comparisons I could make in my head), so overall I found it entertaining enough to finish in just a few sittings. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the details are where this story falters most, outside of its core murder mystery plot.
(P.S. I want a prequel novella about Leofric and Lysander.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Genocide, Infidelity, Sexual content, War
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
The leaders of the country's 12 provinces find themselves on a murder cruise. I mean, what isn't to love about that idea? Characters with their own strong beliefs and concerns, and heavy on the distrust.
100% check your trigger warnings for this one. However, there is so much to love about this story. It is well-paced and the perfect length for the story to be told. Nothing felt wasted or out of place in terms of the pacing,however, I didn't super love the fade to black at the end of the last chapter. That felt really out of place for me.</spoiler
100% check your trigger warnings for this one. However, there is so much to love about this story. It is well-paced and the perfect length for the story to be told. Nothing felt wasted or out of place in terms of the pacing,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Mental illness
Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Sexual content
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
Overall a great story. Took some time to get used to the 'modern' language in this type of setting. Some of the plots got a bit convoluted but it came together well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Blood, Grief, Murder
Minor: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Injury/Injury detail