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pointeshoebookworm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
Graphic: Antisemitism, Gore, Religious bigotry, Violence, Abandonment, Bullying, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, Child death, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Alcohol and Emotional abuse
modernmatilda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Rapunzel and Flynn Rider romance vibes
Cottagecore vibes for days
Soft fantasy
Audiobook Weston Winters has a Newies-boy accent and my entire heart
An absolutely LOVELY read that I wish I could spent eternity in.
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Animal death, Hate crime, Violence, Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Racial slurs, and Alcohol
chichisode's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Classism, Body horror, and Alcohol
aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition
3.5
I'm also not a fan of white, raised Christian people writing about marginalized people when they haven't had those experiences. I know the author is LGBT+ and probably has faced prejudice because of it, but the discrimination and oppression one experiences based on religion and race/ethnicity is quite different. I don't like white authors saying that racial and religious minorities need to take the high road to be better than their oppressors like what has been illustrated in this book.
Graphic: Blood, Grief, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Classism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry
valiiidus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Racism, Death, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Grief
sallenreads's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Saft wove together so many different elements in this book, and they all worked so well together. Like her other book, this one has a romance between two outcasts at the heart of it, with a setting that could be its own character, and high stakes driving the plot forward. But it also grapples with topics like religion, xenophobia, and abuse. None of the aforementioned elements detracted from the others, or felt unnecessary; it all blended together very effectively to tell a complete story.
And speaking of our main characters, they each had their own traumas to work through, and helped each other while maintaining their independence. I also appreciated Wes for his excellent neurodivergent representation -- he read as having ADHD, and maybe dyslexia. As someone with ADHD, I felt it was handled very authentically, and my heart ached for him because I've gone through many of the emotions (failure, inadequacy, etc.) that he did.
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Antisemitism
Minor: Alcohol, Hate crime, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Child death, and Cursing
katievallin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Violence, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
Minor: Child death, Colonisation, and Death of parent
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Abandonment, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Child death
Minor: War
Anti-Irish sentiments expressed.booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
The narration is split between Wes and Maggie, and the balance is good. I like them both as narrators. This is definitely a place where the audiobook shines, as the audiobook narrator gives them distinct voices which fit the way their tone is described by the text.
Maggie's relationship with her (currently absent) mother looms large. The reasons for her mother's absence and obsession with alchemy is gradually unfurled as Maggie gets to know Wes and begins to fall for him. Wes's relationships with his sisters and mother are also very important to the story, but as a mostly positive influence. I like Wes's family, they're pretty great and I enjoyed his rapport with them. Maggie's mother is an excellent character and a pretty frustrating person. It takes Maggie a very long time to be able to recognize her mother's treatment of her as neglect and emotional abuse, with Wes calling it out long before Maggie is ready to deal with it on those terms.
The romance is a very slow burn. I've read slower, but only in books longer than this one. Maggie and Wes are great together, but first they have to get out of their own way about a lot of things. Maggie's anxiety felt realistic, and the romance isn't treated as a cure for it.
The worldbuilding is gradual in terms of character backgrounds, but pretty immediate for the town of Wickdon and the manor where Maggie lives. Maggie's background is definitely meant to be that she's this universe's version of half-Jewish, something that's more shown through the particularities of the bigotry against her more than its shown through any cultural or religious practices that I picked up on. She mentions a few things about her father, and most of the cultural touchstones I could recognize happened when she's thinking about him or talking about something he taught her. Wes is some version of Catholic, as best as I can tell, and the bigotry against him echoes the bits of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry that I'm aware of as someone who isn't Irish, Catholic, nor Jewish. A major part of Wes's storyline is about figuring out how to navigate the sea of local bigotry which Maggie has grown up in, informed by how he's used to handling it back home. It's very much about him and Maggie figuring out to exist together and what to do about their feelings for each other, but having to deal with bigots is a huge part of the narrative. I'm not in a position to say whether it was done well on a larger level, but I like how it worked in the story and I'm very pleased with how things turn out.
The narration is chock-full of metaphors, usually but not always similes. I didn't mind it, but by the end I was wondering if the characters were going to run out of ways that the color of each other's eyes could be like an entirely different substance, usually a pleasing food or drink. It's done well, I think, but I was starting to notice it each time as I got closer to finishing the story.
I was pleasantly surprised by the pacing. It's several weeks before the hunt begins, and the hunt itself plays out over several weeks because of various ceremonial and preparatory stages. I like the plot and I love the ending.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Alcohol, Death, and Xenophobia
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
pvbobrien's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Body horror, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Antisemitism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Child death and Death of parent