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ladyaleira's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Violence
strange's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
There are so many things I could say to describe this series and I don't have the ability to discern them enough to even start.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Toxic friendship
thebetterstory's review against another edition
adventurous
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
4.25
This was just pure fun. If "fantasy warrior nun boarding school" sounds like something you'd enjoy, I don't think you even need to read reviews. Just drop everything and go pick the book up instead.
The writing is a lively mixture of classic tropes and new twists on the formula. The worldbuilding is doled out my preferred way, in tiny bursts and only when it's directly relevant to the characters lives' in some way. The prose is also pleasantly unpretentious, focusing on imparting clear information rather than dazzling with elaborate descriptions or turns of phrase. It makes this eminently readable, which is great for the tightly-paced plot and action sequences.
Nona, the protagonist, leans into being a power fantasy, which I suppose might annoy people who for some reason do not enjoy watching little girls behead grown men in vengeance, but as she's also being constantly beset by horrible circumstances I'd say she's still quite easy to root for, as is the motley cast of friends she gathers around herself as the novel progresses.
There was one particular bit I found annoying, which had to do with the girls (who do at least have the excuse of being very young) refusing to disclose important information to the adults in their lives because they're scared of the consequences, even when it becomes obvious those consequences could be dire. Luckily, nobody's holding onto the idiot ball for longer than a plot-essential arc or so before it's dropped.
By the time I was a quarter of the way through the book, I was already reserving the rest of the series from the library and settling in to marathon as much as I could. This was my first book by this author, and I'm certain I'll be digging back through his previous trilogies to see if they're as delightful as this one is so far.
The writing is a lively mixture of classic tropes and new twists on the formula. The worldbuilding is doled out my preferred way, in tiny bursts and only when it's directly relevant to the characters lives' in some way. The prose is also pleasantly unpretentious, focusing on imparting clear information rather than dazzling with elaborate descriptions or turns of phrase. It makes this eminently readable, which is great for the tightly-paced plot and action sequences.
Nona, the protagonist, leans into being a power fantasy, which I suppose might annoy people who for some reason do not enjoy watching little girls behead grown men in vengeance, but as she's also being constantly beset by horrible circumstances I'd say she's still quite easy to root for, as is the motley cast of friends she gathers around herself as the novel progresses.
There was one particular bit I found annoying, which had to do with the girls (who do at least have the excuse of being very young) refusing to disclose important information to the adults in their lives because they're scared of the consequences, even when it becomes obvious those consequences could be dire. Luckily, nobody's holding onto the idiot ball for longer than a plot-essential arc or so before it's dropped.
By the time I was a quarter of the way through the book, I was already reserving the rest of the series from the library and settling in to marathon as much as I could. This was my first book by this author, and I'm certain I'll be digging back through his previous trilogies to see if they're as delightful as this one is so far.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Violence
Minor: Ableism and Bullying
miolla's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
It was an enjoyable enough listen (Helen Duff as narrator). I do struggle with the age of the main characters and found it a lot more believable to imagine them as teens instead. Can't decide on its target audience either, young adult probably most fitting. This came up in my search for a book without the prevailing misogynist tropes and settings and as such it was a nice change. To me this was too much of an YA/ coming of age story in a world full of violence and injustice, with somewhat predictable plot turns in a Harry Potter/ Hunger Games/ Divergent-esque manner.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
the_rainydayreader's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
littlestbiscuit's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Pedophilia
Pedophilia is fairly heavily implied but doesn't happen explicitly in the text. Fairly graphic descriptions of gore, I've got a strong threshold and theaseaoftomes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I have complicated feelings about this book. At first, I wasn't sure if I was liking it or that it was living up to the hype, then I got towards the end and started to see why people were liking it so much, but that still didn't make it a new favorite for me.
This follows our main protagonist Nona, who is an orphan and living and fending for herself on the streets when she gets taken in by a convent, but not a typical kind of convent, a convent full of assassin nuns. There's a prophesy and a lot of politics dealing with the four blood types and lots of fighting and things go from there.
The writing of this was pretty decent. I found that the story moved quickly, but I also found that sometimes things didn't flow very well, especially in the beginning. It took a little bit of time for me to properly settle in to the story. But the writing itself was lovely. The story did feel repetitive after awhile though.
The plot was interesting, but also predictable and sometimes I found my mind drifting when it shouldn't have. The basic plot is what I mentioned above, but it's slightly more intricate than that. It's a school setting, but it's assassin school. There's lots of intrigue and conspiracy and prophesy involved as well, but the fighting scenes got to be very repetitive and while I love a good battle and fight scene, it just got to be too much after awhile. But the ending was really great.
The world building was also interesting. I've never seen a book with assassin nuns before, so that was refreshing. I loved the politics of it all and learning about the different blood types and the abilities each type has and how it all ties together. I just really found myself engaged in the world building aspects of this book and at some point I can't wait to learn more.
The characters and their relationships were also very interesting. I loved Nona a lot and I really liked her dynamic with both her superiors and her peers and how much those relationships formed or changed throughout the book. Nona's storyline is one that's very interesting and the way the book ended was really interesting and I'm excited to see what lies ahead.
Overall, I didn't like this book as much as expected, but I still had fun with it and will probably continue on with book 2.
This follows our main protagonist Nona, who is an orphan and living and fending for herself on the streets when she gets taken in by a convent, but not a typical kind of convent, a convent full of assassin nuns. There's a prophesy and a lot of politics dealing with the four blood types and lots of fighting and things go from there.
The writing of this was pretty decent. I found that the story moved quickly, but I also found that sometimes things didn't flow very well, especially in the beginning. It took a little bit of time for me to properly settle in to the story. But the writing itself was lovely. The story did feel repetitive after awhile though.
The plot was interesting, but also predictable and sometimes I found my mind drifting when it shouldn't have. The basic plot is what I mentioned above, but it's slightly more intricate than that. It's a school setting, but it's assassin school. There's lots of intrigue and conspiracy and prophesy involved as well, but the fighting scenes got to be very repetitive and while I love a good battle and fight scene, it just got to be too much after awhile. But the ending was really great.
The world building was also interesting. I've never seen a book with assassin nuns before, so that was refreshing. I loved the politics of it all and learning about the different blood types and the abilities each type has and how it all ties together. I just really found myself engaged in the world building aspects of this book and at some point I can't wait to learn more.
The characters and their relationships were also very interesting. I loved Nona a lot and I really liked her dynamic with both her superiors and her peers and how much those relationships formed or changed throughout the book. Nona's storyline is one that's very interesting and the way the book ended was really interesting and I'm excited to see what lies ahead.
Overall, I didn't like this book as much as expected, but I still had fun with it and will probably continue on with book 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty
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