Reviews with content warning for Racism - A Marvellous Light

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

39 reviews

motherofdogs's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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pvp_niki's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

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cutie314's review

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adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

If you're looking for a book full of magical secrets, no buried gays, and attempted shrub murder, this one's for you.

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lollymac's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

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Mixed feelings here. I love the premise of historical, fantasy, mystery, drama, and romance mingling together and having a nice party, but I feel like none of them are balanced in a satisfying way. (Fantasy without expansive world building so lore payoffs don’t feel earned, mystery without enough defined clues so the big reveals don’t hit how they should, etc etc.)

It was also difficult for me to finish due to the beginning having a fairly slow pace. There’s a lot of exposition to dig through before things pick up about a third of the way through. I mostly continued because I enjoyed the prose— I personally enjoyed the descriptions of interior design and opulence in Edwin’s family home.

Also there are a few graphic sex scenes in this book and that threw me off, though it’s mostly on me for not checking the content warnings (which will come in clutch in the future).

For better or for worse, there are only around 4 likeable characters, and that’s by design. While I enjoyed the two lead characters, I’m not sure I’m invested enough to continue this series.

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tiffany_sostar's review against another edition

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2.75

I really wanted to enjoy this book so much more than I did. The characters are great! The mystery is engaging! The spice is hot!

But I’m constantly irritated by authors who write magical alternative histories and include the worst parts of our own history. In this case, so much homophobia. Just trust that your characters can still have conflict and struggle even without oppression! Also patriarchy. Why. It’s a magical alternative world, why is this necessary?! And also so much whiteness and some racism that I can’t tell if the author recognizes or not. The homophobia and patriarchy she’s obviously aware of and having her characters frustrated with it, but the racism just seems to be there unquestioned. It’s not necessary.

The parts outside of the oppressive systemic issues were great and without the inclusion of totally unnecessary homophobia, patriarchy and racism, I would have given this a 4.5. But it did have those parts and they really wrecked it for me.

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