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clemencepct's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Violence and Child death
iamsammie27'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
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, and Gore
Moderate: Trafficking, Kidnapping, Violence, Gaslighting, and Body horror
Minor: Racism, Emotional abuse, Death, and Child death
lavendera_'s review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Gore, Torture, Murder, and Death of parent
Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, and Kidnapping
ticktock's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence
gretchening's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, and Medical trauma
redthistle's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Trafficking
Minor: Confinement
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
- There are a pretty big number of POV characters, and each time a chapter ended I was like "no wait, what's next!" but then got immediately engrossed by whoever else we were returning to.
- This is also a queernorm world, with a F/F relationship between two of the main characters.
- I did see the big reveal coming, but that didn't make the story any less gripping - if anything, I was reading faster to see how it all turned out. Give me book two now!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence
zsenzsen's review
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Animal death, Death, and Body horror
bookishbutch's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, and Grief
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Child death
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Medical trauma, and Torture
sarahsthoughtsonbooks's review
4.75
Read the print and audio in tandem. The narrators did a great job. Andrea Stewart did a fabulous job with the world building.
The book has multiple POV, I want to say 5 different POVs, some of them are in first person, and some are in third person.
Quick summary -
The emperor requires a piece of bone shard to be extracted from all citizens of the country when they are eight years old at the tithing festival.
He then acts like Dr. Frankenstein and creates different constructs that act like his spies and generals out of various animal pieces (his main spy construct is scary sounding, so much scarier than Frankenstein's monster)
LGBTQ relationships are accepted.
Cannot wait until the next book
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Minor: Child death and Violence