Reviews

La congregazione reale di sua maestà by Juno Dawson

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b00kh0arder's review against another edition

3.0

Round up to 3.5 stars.
This book is very well written, with a well constructed narrative - as I was able to race through it - but despite this, I'm not sure it's the book for me right now. Although I'm still thinking about it even afterwards - there's a lot of thought provoking material - and if you're interested I'd still recommend giving it a go.
Also very much loved and appreciated all the 90s references.

aisamazing's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.0

annaacenc's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

3.75

pitbulls_and_prose's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

It's been 10 years since a civil war broke out among witches and a fascist was defeated. Now, four women, who grew up together and fought side by side, are all in different places in their lives, not sure how witchcraft or the coven fits in with their lives. When a new prophecy threatens the relative peace the world has lived in, these women have to reckon with their past and their friendships.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book. I'll admit I picked it up on vibes alone based on the cover. It was definitely a very slow start. There were a lot of characters and I was getting lost quickly. This book also does the thing that irks me about some fantasy novels, which is spending A LOT of time talking about an event in the past that sounds more interesting than what I'm currently reading.

All that being said, once I got about 50-60% in, I loved it. It was definitely more of a set up book for the rest of the trilogy - but definitely had its action scenes by the end of the book. This book (written by a trans woman) also felt like a direct F you to JKR which I am here for every single day! There is a lot of social commentary on what it means to be a woman and how white feminism is so dangerous. I thought the commentary on friendship was also so relatable. Sometimes we can get stuck staying in friendships with those we grew up with just because we've known them forever. But it's very human to grow apart and change, and we don't owe it to people to stay in harmful relationships just because we put a lot of time into them.

AND THAT CLIFFHANGER! I can't wait to read the rest of the series.