Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Final Strife

I think 3 stars is pretty generous. I wish more of this book focused on Hassa. I don't think Sylah needed to be likeable, and...she very much wasn't...

The world building was good but frankly not enough for me to want to read the other books in this series. At some point I wrote down a note of "I'm supposed to dislike Sylah and Anoor right???" Anoor was a more believable(?) character than Sylah but still extremely naive and cliche! Verbatim from Anoor: "the prison she would build would be bigger" after being horrified by the size of a cell??!

Sylah was frankly really immature and selfish?? For a lot of the book she kept being like "she (name redacted for spoiler) stole my life from me/that should've been mine etc" even though the Sandstorm carried out the BABY SWAP! They were babies!!! Or if this was trying to show that her "upbringing" didn't give her "the heart of a Duster" I dunno, it didn't land. Maybe the author is playing 3D chess and I was reading checkers...

One of my main gripes is it was really unclear how Sylah and Hassa are "friends" (Sylah is not a friend to Hassa!!!!!)

ALSO NONE OF THE ROMANCE WAS BELIEVABLE. I did think it was funny that we got a fairly thorough sex scene between Sylah and (redacted) but basically faded to black for Sylah and (redacted)!!!!!

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katerinovaaa's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It took me 9 months to finish this book and if I could, I would've given up within the first 50 pages. The characters annoyed me sooo much I just couldn't read more than 10 pages a week. The changes of POVs were super chaotic and hard to follow (like 3 changes within 2 pages, help). The beginning was painful.
2.5 stars because I see the world-building must've been time-consuming, the plot made sense, and there was loads of representation.

Trigger warnings / Tropes
🗡mild sexual content
🗡murder, blood, war, poverty, discrimination,...
🗡drugs (a lot, MC; also drugging other people)
🗡alcohol
🗡cruel punishment of children (physical and psychological)
🗡mention of SA at the end (not MC directly)
🗡death of loved ones

🔮3rd POV
🔮w/w relationship
🔮betrayal
🔮love triangle, jealousy
🔮strong bisexual MC
🔮elements of feminism and marxism
🔮competition (multiple challenges)
🔮appreciation of curly hair and curvy body (fat-shaming mentioned)
🔮zero tension between the characters😔
🔮detailed glossary, map

I'm really proud of myself for finishing it. I read the last 300 pages in a week because I had a deadline and FINALLY there was some plot.

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ford_defect's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense 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

3.0

The beginning of this book is pretty rough. There were multiple times I thought about dnf'ing it (especially since it is so long). The pacing really needs some work. The beginning is super slow, and the main characters were pretty unlikeable (except Hassa) up until about 200-300 pages in. I also thought the treatment the Ghostings got was unnecessary up until 80% of the way through. When it all clicked together, though, my mind was blown. But what really annoyed me was all the fatphobic descriptions of Anoor. They lessened over time, but it rubbed me the wrong way. That, and the author put a lot of emphasis on how much Anoor enjoys food, which is another fatphobic stereotype. Another thing was how Sylah's addiction was portrayed. Major spoilers ahead.

I was so proud of her when she quit her joba seed use (albeit, she only quit cuz Anoor forced her to) and kept it under control throughout almost the entire book. But then, the author has her take a joba seed, so she can defeat Jond in Anoor's place during the trial of combat. And what's even worse: once she sees a healer after having relapsed, the healer tells her to essentially microdose for the rest of her life! I would rather have Sylah find a way to work around her seizures and tremors. The Ghostings have no tongues and no hands and they have found ways to talk and take care of themselves, so why can't Sylah find a workaround for her drug-induced disability? Like you wouldn't tell an alcoholic to keep drinking to prevent the DTs. You have to cut it out completely or it can ruin your life again.

And I had really gotten into the book by that point, too.

But anyway, now I'll talk about what I really liked about the book. The blood magic system was super cool. At first, I wasn't sure how much I liked needing to draw runes to fire a gun (since that would be pretty inefficient if you were slow at writing). Though, the longer I thought about it, the more it grew on me. Bloodwerk requires skill and dexterity, so not everyone would be good at it, which is a good challenge for the MCs that didn't know how to bloodwerk before. Secondly, the atmosphere was quite unique and immersive. Especially since the author wrote about the history of the world, too. The character development was also well done (with the exception of what I said about a part of Sylah's progress). I initially hated Anoor and Sylah, but they evolved so much. I was a little disappointed we didn't see more romance between them.

I came into this book thinking it was gonna be a sapphic romance... but it was more focused on Jond and Sylah's romance. The romantic scenes are still well-written, though. For both pairings.

So 3/5
~~I would have rated it 4/5 since it got really good halfway through, but I just can't forgive the author for how she portrays Sylah's addiction.~~

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babewiththepower's review against another edition

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porcupine_girl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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musebeliever's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.0

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I could not get on board with too many things. The book is clearly not for me, and some aspects were too flawed for me to get into the story.

I really liked the idea of the two protagonists being swapped at birth and was curious about how it would play out in their lives. However, I was not at all on board with the magic system relying on a biological element. This has big chosen one and essentialism vibes, which I just could not deal with.

I also struggled with the writing style and the characterisation. The fact that we are privy to every single thought created, in my opinion, very unidimensional characters. Despite this shower of information, some of Sylah's actions just do not make sense to me, and too much of the plot relies on Sylah's poor choice or negligence. I can understand this happening once or twice, but how am I to believe that we are in the presence of the person who will overthrow an empire. This did not work for me.

I found everything very bleak, which makes sense for a dystopia, but also extremely heavy-handed. This read like YA to me, which is not my favourite writing style. The clues as to where the plot is going are underlined and surrounded by blinking lights.

I was also taken aback by the inconsistence in tone. There is a moment in the book when Sylah reminisces her tragic past while she watches the new tyrants of the Empire being chosen. She looks at one of them and thinks, "68 never looked so good." This sounded taken out of a gossip instagram reel commenting the Met gala. It felt really out of place. There were many moments like this when I was thrown off by sudden tone changes that did not match the atmosphere of a chapter. It feels like the book has not been edited.

Finally, fatphobia and foodshaming are frankly painful to read and so unnecessary. Sylah calls Anoor the lump, foodshames her, finds her dresses ridiculous because they are big. She seems to justify her fatphobia because she thinks that Anoor is fat because she is rich and privileged. This does not seem to be coherent as Anoor is mocked by her peers. The author also depicts her as a bit silly. Someone who chooses her seat in a room to have a better view on the dishes that are being served. We are clearly supposed to find that funny. Let's be serious one minute.

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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