You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

La congregazione reale di sua maestà by Juno Dawson

115 reviews

raccoonteeth's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

katharina90's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed the themes, like the politics and dynamics at play among the covens and witchy parts of society, but the plot really didn't wow me. It was a little boring. 

The book has LGBTQ and BIPOC rep but I would have liked for Theo to play a bigger, more active part in the story.

I listened to the audiobook and Aiofe McMahon is a favorite narrator so that helped get me through the book when the story dragged.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

merricatfromblackwood's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

This is a hard one. The TERF having a POV was hard to read. I also wish there was more world building/more time with the magic system. But I enjoyed it. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emilywrayburn's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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

I started this book in audio format, but I am finding lately I haven’t had a lot of time to invest in listening to books, so I decided to switch to the paperback. I’m so glad I did, because after taking at least a couple of weeks to listen to the first 40%, I read the other 60% in a matter of days, and I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it all the more for being able to properly absorb myself.

HMRC draws on a lot of English witchy folklore, with references to Pendle Hill and such, but also examines the ways in which witchcraft narratives have developed over the years to favour certain types of stories. The four main characters are bound by childhood oaths but they are now very different people, hardened by a war that made them grow up too quickly, with different values and different attitudes to the world around them.

I was impressed with Dawson’s ability to handle the different POVs in this book, particularly those who are in opposition to her own values. Niamh was definitely my favourite character, though I enjoyed Leonie and Elle’s perspectives too. Helena is a compelling character to read even though she is an absolute piece of work. Seeing her transformation from “Well, she’s wrong but maybe we could sit her down and explain why she’s being unreasonable” to “wow, she went completely off the rails” made for some compelling reading.

I know that some people are going to say that Dawson was “heavy-handed” because I found myself thinking that, too, before reminding myself that discussions of issues affecting marginalised people are allowed to be there on the page. An author doesn’t have to seamlessly weave their exploration of issues into the story and never explicitly mention it for it to be acceptable.

The cliffhanger ending does feel a little cheap or unearned, but I am keen to see where the next volume takes us! I already had it on hold at the library before I had finished this one and I’ll be diving into it soon! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kyzumi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It is honestly sort of difficult to put into words my exact feelings on this book. Parts of it I liked quite a bit, while others had me physically rolling my eyes. The magic is very fun, and the lore of witches and how they connect to the earth and to each other I found compelling and interesting. But, once the conflict of the story started to come to a head, I found myself enjoying the book less and less. The villains almost become… cartoonish, in a way? It felt like the author was really trying to push home how terrible the antagonist is by just repeatedly having her state her transphobic viewpoints to the point where it was very irritating and tiresome even for me, a cisgender woman. 

While there is very positive transgender, and LGBT in general, representation here, there is also rampant transphobia that I could see being very triggering to some. Also, the overuse of swearing and pop culture references took away from my immersion as well. For a book that has different characters that it switches perspectives between, I sometimes found myself having a hard time remembering who was who, with no very large differences in tone from one character to the next. Other than the antagonist, of course. The fact that she was evil was about the most obvious thing in the whole book. 

I guess what disappointed me is that there wasn’t quite enough Fantasy to balance out the in-your-face politics that were constantly surfacing. I was more interested in the lore of the world, but the story seemed to stumble over itself to try and include as much political-correctness as possible that some of the characters didn’t even feel like genuine characters and more like just stereotypes being included for the sake of it, which was sad to read. Some of the language used, particularly internet-type wording and references, will likely not age well either. 

I forced myself to finish this one. I was invested enough to want to do it, but I don’t know that I’ll be reaching for the sequel right away, if it all. In the end, I felt underwhelmed.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sfdogmom's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

fantastic book. Very well written. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book in the way that I enjoy a good action movie: there were lots of exciting and tense moments, good dialogue and good visuals. This helped to make this into a quick read that made me feel a lot of emotions, if only fleetingly. If it were made into a movie, it might be one I'd love to watch: a mix of almost silly James Bond action with the old magic world many people of my generation grew up in but had to leave behind due to its issues - with a good dose of queerness and some racial awareness added in.
The metaphors, painfully relevant to our current society and the rising transphobia in the UK, were delightfully unsubtle. However, sadly, the book seemed to come with its own set of issues. I was puzzled by how a book that's rooted so firmly in the theme of inclusion apparently still views being non-binary as something weird and "difficult to get right", without that ever coming back to bite any of the characters. And then there was the ending...
Major spoiler here, in case you're someone who clicks open spoiler tags automatically: I hope it will be addressed in book 2, but I really didn't like how the "solution" was to give Helena the death penalty, for no other reason than that that was "how things were done". I'm pretty sure (or at least hope) it will have consequences for what follows in book 2, but now it seemed to be treated very lightly. The final chapters felt very rushed and more like bait to draw you into the second book than like a proper ending to the first book. The very final event, however, intrigued me enough that I will have to admit that this baiting technique probably worked on me.

Please mind the content warnings.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emmajh91's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

batbaby's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The beginning of the book felt like an introduction of too many characters too quickly that I didn’t know who was who. But then characters started to grow on me. I’m not sure what the intended age demographic is it is written like a ya but the main characters are very much millennial + three 15/16 year olds. I know it is intended to be an allegory for transphobic policies and terms in the uk but the misgendering of a character both intentional and through adjustment to their transition just made me cringe a little. I did like the different magic types though and would’ve enjoyed hearing more about what each witch type was capable of
 Minor spoiler

——————————

3/4 way through I was sure I wouldn’t read the sequel but then when the action finally begins and the last chapter!! Maybe I will 🤔
Expand filter menu Content Warnings