Reviews with content warning for Blood - Mroczna wiedza

I found this book surprisingly good. I started it at a good time when I needed a fun, lighthearted escape from the world and it was exactly just that. I don't really like the characters yet though...

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rinku's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.0

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norwegianforestreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

4.0

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slimepuppy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

A very fun read, I breezed through this one in less than 24 hours. One of the best YAs I've read in the last couple of years, a considerable feat coming from a genre that has turned into a collection of repeated tropes stacked on top of each other.

The characters were detailed, multidimensional and flawed, while still having plenty of charisma to go around the wiiide variety of personalities available. Galadriel and Orion were especially endearing, and I found myself rooting for them, despite not being a huge fan of romance. Thankfully, that's not really the focus of the book, because the slowburn worked wonders for me.

The world and the setting are intersting and surprisingly detailed for such a contained tale; the reader never gets to leave the school and see what the life is like for wizards outside, but you still get the broadest idea.

Despite liking it a lot, there are still some... considerable flaws to talk about. You can read all about them online, I'll just point something that irked me, personally:

the moment where the main character is attacked by a maleficaria and for no apparent reason, the attack is described as if a sexual assault is taking place, with explicit comparative language.

It's not a short passage, either, and felt completely out of place, even in such a grim tale of teenagers being left to die in this school. If the writer wished to discuss it further, say anything at all about it, I'd hold back on my criticism. But nothing is done with it, it just... happens. Galadriel is shocked for a moment, and then she moves on, and we move on with her without diving deep in what just happened.

I hope Naomi has read the plenty of justified criticism this book garnered and taken them into account, I'm very excited to read whatever comes next in the series.

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