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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
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:
Complicated
It's a nice little read. The characters are done well. The story is interesting and keeps you going. The world is sort of a take on Victorian times but with magic. Easy and enjoyable. I was left wanting to get the sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief
Minor: Death, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Classism
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
4.5
For a novella, the author does pack quite a lot in this story. This magic-based 1850 setting is fascinating, mixing just enough historical details with fantasy. Charlotte is a very likeable heroine, spirited, kind, loyal, courageous and adventurous. I loved that her family, parents and brother, are all decent people who really care for each other. After just the first few sentences, I was hooked in her narration, totally engrossed. Brother Ruin gives us enough to satisfy the reader in this short form while also whetting our appetite for much more.
Emma Newman is proving to be one of my favourite authors! Can't wait to get my hands on everything she has written.
For a novella, the author does pack quite a lot in this story. This magic-based 1850 setting is fascinating, mixing just enough historical details with fantasy. Charlotte is a very likeable heroine, spirited, kind, loyal, courageous and adventurous. I loved that her family, parents and brother, are all decent people who really care for each other. After just the first few sentences, I was hooked in her narration, totally engrossed. Brother Ruin gives us enough to satisfy the reader in this short form while also whetting our appetite for much more.
Emma Newman is proving to be one of my favourite authors! Can't wait to get my hands on everything she has written.
Brother's Ruin by Emma Newman feels like it was written for me.
I was instantly drawn to the tone and voice of the main character, and couldn't put it down till I ran out of pages.
A young woman trying to find her way in a time when everything is run by men.
Add to that having magical abilities and a brother with health issues and you have quite some friction to build a story on. It doesn't start off on a bang, instead it slowly drags you into this world.
It is under 200 pages, yet to me it felt like a full novel, as it just managed to pack character development and magic so efficiently into the story. Being set in a familiar time and city obviously makes it a bit easier to cut down on worldbuilding, so instead we can focus on other parts, like the magical society.
I must say I am currently really enjoying this setting, and am blowing through books like Stormsong, Blood over Bright Haven and simialr. This is another amazing addition.
I was instantly drawn to the tone and voice of the main character, and couldn't put it down till I ran out of pages.
A young woman trying to find her way in a time when everything is run by men.
Add to that having magical abilities and a brother with health issues and you have quite some friction to build a story on. It doesn't start off on a bang, instead it slowly drags you into this world.
It is under 200 pages, yet to me it felt like a full novel, as it just managed to pack character development and magic so efficiently into the story. Being set in a familiar time and city obviously makes it a bit easier to cut down on worldbuilding, so instead we can focus on other parts, like the magical society.
I must say I am currently really enjoying this setting, and am blowing through books like Stormsong, Blood over Bright Haven and simialr. This is another amazing addition.
Brother's Ruin is very much a set up novel, but I never thought it was merely set up. I thought the tension and the stakes were really well crafted. This is a story about a young woman with a lot on her plate, she's trying to get married, trying to hide her successful career as an illustrator under a masculine pseudonym, and trying to nurse her brother back to health. Oh yes, and on top of all that she needs to save her father from sinister debt collectors and hide her own magical abilities, because if anyone ever discovers her talent she'll lose all her freedom and dreams for the future.
The story has a really satisfying conclusion, which can be hard for a novella, which can often feel rushed or underdeveloped. Overall, this book seemed to be just as long as it needed to be, the Goldilocks of Tor.com novellas. In the end, the characters are left with their lives changed, and this is the new normal which will be a jumping off point for future books. I'm very excited to continue this series, though I'm bummed that there is only one other book published. This is pretty disappointing, because Emma Newman has crafted my favorite kind of magical/historical fiction world and I just want to live there.
This was just a lovely little reminder about how much I love Emma Newman's writing, and now I'm wondering why the heck I haven't continued her Split World or Planet Fall series.
The story has a really satisfying conclusion, which can be hard for a novella, which can often feel rushed or underdeveloped. Overall, this book seemed to be just as long as it needed to be, the Goldilocks of Tor.com novellas. In the end, the characters are left with their lives changed, and this is the new normal which will be a jumping off point for future books. I'm very excited to continue this series, though I'm bummed that there is only one other book published. This is pretty disappointing, because Emma Newman has crafted my favorite kind of magical/historical fiction world and I just want to live there.
This was just a lovely little reminder about how much I love Emma Newman's writing, and now I'm wondering why the heck I haven't continued her Split World or Planet Fall series.
adventurous
fast-paced
I got pretty engrossed in this pretty quickly and look forward to the installment
This book is an easy read and a nice introduction to light sci fi. Newman does a nice job of building anticipation throughout the book, leaving readers hungry for book #2. Definitely worth a worthwhile, quick read.
Only two books out in this series so far - I enjoyed both of them, but they're novellas and so too short imo.
I told myself I'd try to write a review--however short it might be--for every book I read this year, so here goes...
I love novellas. I love that they're essentially having a revival. But it seems (in my limited experience of them so far anyway) that it's a format difficult to tackle and get right for some reason. Rarely do I think "This should be longer" when reading short stories. Sometimes I *wish* there was more because I find the world and/or characters fascinating, but usually the stories are constructed--it feels--with their eventual length in mind. Novellas, due to their longer length which more often than not rub elbows with short novel lengths seem to invite grander ideas that eventually feel unfinished or rushed. Not all novellas, mind, but definitely more often than other short(er) fiction I've read.
This is definitely the case here. I know it's the first in a series (duology so far and I haven't read the second one yet) so it's not required to have everything wrapped up neatly, but even taking that into consideration, this just felt like the opening of a much longer novel (and I've read other novellas that were first in series that did not feel that way). There were some interesting ideas here that I really enjoyed about magic, a conspiracy, sibling relationships, a protagonist wound tight from all the secrets about herself she's keeping for the sake of others on the verge of cracking... but. It stopped when it was getting interesting.
And it suffered from a few clichés which unfortunately I couldn't tell if they were being played straight (boring) or were being set up to be subverted (could be interesting)--such as the beautiful mage from the school who takes an interest in our protagonist. And we know he is utterly, amazingly, knee-melting beautiful because our heroine cannot stop mentioning it every time she's in his presence in almost cliché purple prose, and how alluring he is, and how annoyed she is by it, but also how she can't help leaning in... you get the gist. I was hoping that it would come out, somehow, that he has a glamour, or uses some kind of spell/charm, since it was so--in my opinion--over the top, bodice-ripper-like in not a good way. Unfortunately, no such information was provided and I ended the book thinking that no, it was probably just meant to be read as the beginning of an obvious romance. But again, I haven't read the sequel.
3 stars because it was a quick, sometimes enjoyable read, with decent writing, but ultimately I found it disappointing. I will read the sequel eventually, though, out of curiosity, and I hope some questions will be answered, and some character growth will happen.
I love novellas. I love that they're essentially having a revival. But it seems (in my limited experience of them so far anyway) that it's a format difficult to tackle and get right for some reason. Rarely do I think "This should be longer" when reading short stories. Sometimes I *wish* there was more because I find the world and/or characters fascinating, but usually the stories are constructed--it feels--with their eventual length in mind. Novellas, due to their longer length which more often than not rub elbows with short novel lengths seem to invite grander ideas that eventually feel unfinished or rushed. Not all novellas, mind, but definitely more often than other short(er) fiction I've read.
This is definitely the case here. I know it's the first in a series (duology so far and I haven't read the second one yet) so it's not required to have everything wrapped up neatly, but even taking that into consideration, this just felt like the opening of a much longer novel (and I've read other novellas that were first in series that did not feel that way). There were some interesting ideas here that I really enjoyed about magic, a conspiracy, sibling relationships, a protagonist wound tight from all the secrets about herself she's keeping for the sake of others on the verge of cracking... but. It stopped when it was getting interesting.
And it suffered from a few clichés which unfortunately I couldn't tell if they were being played straight (boring) or were being set up to be subverted (could be interesting)--such as the beautiful mage from the school who takes an interest in our protagonist. And we know he is utterly, amazingly, knee-melting beautiful because our heroine cannot stop mentioning it every time she's in his presence in almost cliché purple prose, and how alluring he is, and how annoyed she is by it, but also how she can't help leaning in... you get the gist. I was hoping that it would come out, somehow, that he has a glamour, or uses some kind of spell/charm, since it was so--in my opinion--over the top, bodice-ripper-like in not a good way. Unfortunately, no such information was provided and I ended the book thinking that no, it was probably just meant to be read as the beginning of an obvious romance. But again, I haven't read the sequel.
3 stars because it was a quick, sometimes enjoyable read, with decent writing, but ultimately I found it disappointing. I will read the sequel eventually, though, out of curiosity, and I hope some questions will be answered, and some character growth will happen.